How do you backup???

Dmitri · Sep 23, 2011

I have FBackup 4 (freeware) and decided to backup my pics and raw files. Yeah there are a lot of them - maybe 200gigs. The problem is that I started it last night around midnight, it is now almost noon and it's only 40% done! Certainly 24 hours is a long time to take for one backup. I googled and nothing came up that the program is particularly slow compared to others.

How do YOU backup large quantities of files in a reasonable amount of time??

bennielou · Sep 23, 2011

200 gigs is a lot of info.

Patience my friend.

Derrel · Sep 23, 2011

External RAID TeraStation NAS drives from Buffalo Technolgies using that fast 1,000 whateverbit Ethernet connection to the router + FireWire 800 to the CPU...works well...the drives and connections are amply fast, and I can watch movies or access music over the interwebs, due to Buffalo's somewhat unique stance.

Dmitri--CLEARLY there is a severe bottleneck in tyour external storage system, somewhere: most likely the interface, such as USB or ethernet cable of conventional speed. 200 gigabytes? Ought to be able to do that between breakfast and lunch with a TeraStation connected with Firewire 800, no problem. Or even the 1k ethernet cable, provided the drive itself is "fast"...some of these cheap storage drives are dog-slow on write-to speeds.

Trever1t · Sep 23, 2011

I've been looking at NAS drives for a while now and haven't been fully convinced of a particular model yet but I'm still researching.

Currently I use redundant removable drives and manually replicate. It's a PITA but I sleep knowing I have at least 2 drives with redundant data.

Derrel · Sep 23, 2011

Trever1t said:
I've been looking at NAS drives for a while now and haven't been fully convinced of a particular model yet but I'm still researching.

Currently I use redundant removable drives and manually replicate. It's a PITA but I sleep knowing I have at least 2 drives with redundant data.

Buffalo minds its own business when serving your files over the web. They have not caved in. Western Digital and all the other makers are selling NAS drives that have limitations on what can be played over the web, due to the RIAA cowing the drive makers into acquiescing to their demands.

Dao · Sep 23, 2011

This is what I use.
Hardware wise
- RAID 5 local storage inside the PC.
- A USB 3 external drive (Quite fast, many times faster than USB2) for local backup
- A USB 3 dock for docking a 1.5TB drive another backup drive. But this drive will only be at home when I need to do backup. It is in my office most of the time (act as a off site backup)

Software, I just use syncback.
- First time backup -> take longer time.
- After the first time, since it scan both source and destination directory, it only copy the files which are not found in the destination.

Trever1t · Sep 23, 2011

Derrel said:
Trever1t said:

I've been looking at NAS drives for a while now and haven't been fully convinced of a particular model yet but I'm still researching.

Currently I use redundant removable drives and manually replicate. It's a PITA but I sleep knowing I have at least 2 drives with redundant data.

Click to expand...

Buffalo minds its own business when serving your files over the web. They have not caved in. Western Digital and all the other makers are selling NAS drives that have limitations on what can be played over the web, due to the RIAA cowing the drive makers into acquiescing to their demands.

And their pricing is very competative. Are the Buffalo units pretty easy for a moron to connect/access? Does the server (PC) have to remain on for networked computers to access the NAS?

How about Dobro ... they seem really nice too and one of the units is free standing.

I do have quite a bit of media streaming, currently I have a popcorn unit for that.

480sparky · Sep 23, 2011

bennielou said:
200 gigs is a lot of info.........

Not these days. And when you start taking LOTS of photos, 200 gigs is a drop in the bucket.

I have five 2tb external hard drives which I rotate every 2 weeks. A given drive will spend two weeks on my desk backing up both my 1tb internal drive and my 1tb external drive. Daily incremental backups once a full backup is completed. It will then be rotated into my safe (along with another drive), then eventually end up at a trusted neighbors' house. Four drives are always rotated this way. Two weeks on the desk, four weeks in the safe, then two weeks at the neighbors.

The fifth drive gets updated twice a year, and is stored 4 states away.

Trever1t · Sep 23, 2011

that really seems like a PITA but kudos to you for being so AR

I'm not too concerned with losing my data, I mean I try to backup, burn to disc as much as I can but if my house burns down, it's the last thing I will be concerned about.

A good NAS will do me fine when I get around to finding the right one.

480sparky · Sep 23, 2011

Trever1t said:
that really seems like a PITA but kudos to you for being so AR ..........

It's not really all that much work. 99.999% of the time spent is just having one back-up drive connected. The other 0.001% of the time is spent swapping them out. The safe is just over in the bedroom closet, the neighbor is right next door. In fact, I just got back from copying her backup files so she has at least one back-up stored off-site. Whenever back-up drive #1 is back on my desk, I do that for her so she has a copy that's no more than two months old.

I probably spend about 5 minutes max every two weeks swapping drives out. After that, the software is automatic.

KenC · Sep 23, 2011

480sparky said:
The fifth drive gets updated twice a year, and is stored 4 states away.

I've seen you post this before, Sparky, and I always wondered which state you found that you feel is safer than Iowa?

Dmitri · Sep 23, 2011

Derrel said:
External RAID TeraStation NAS drives from Buffalo Technolgies using that fast 1,000 whateverbit Ethernet connection to the router + FireWire 800 to the CPU...works well...the drives and connections are amply fast, and I can watch movies or access music over the interwebs, due to Buffalo's somewhat unique stance.

Dmitri--CLEARLY there is a severe bottleneck in tyour external storage system, somewhere: most likely the interface, such as USB or ethernet cable of conventional speed. 200 gigabytes? Ought to be able to do that between breakfast and lunch with a TeraStation connected with Firewire 800, no problem. Or even the 1k ethernet cable, provided the drive itself is "fast"...some of these cheap storage drives are dog-slow on write-to speeds.

That's probably it. Its just an external HD through a USB cable. But we get what we can afford lol. The thought of doing this every week, or even every month... too much for me. Its only at 50% right now, I think I will just cancel it.

Dmitri · Sep 23, 2011

Dao said:
Software, I just use syncback.
- First time backup -> take longer time.
- After the first time, since it scan both source and destination directory, it only copy the files which are not found in the destination.

I was looking at SyncBack. It would be awesome if it actually synced? I mean, if I delete one file on my HD, but it exists on my backup - will it delete the file on the backup drive when syncing? That would be great.

Just downloaded it, and will have to go through all the settings later but this seems exactly like what I wanted. Thanks Dao!