Backup/Archive Media

What type of media are people using to backup and archive their stuff? I'm talking about several TB of stuff.

I've been using 250GB IDE/USB swappable hard drives and make two copies before I remove the files. But now I now have over 20 drives and need more.

I still use (many of them) DVD's to backup important stuff (home pictures, music, files, etc). I just keep my media (movies) on two Raid NAS setups. Not as concerned about losing movies though.

Same here. I have a large RAID5 NAS, and important data (so DVD/Audio library gets excluded) gets backed up to an external drive every week, which then gets rotated with an identical drive located in a secure location, once a month. 2TB drives are getting cheaper now, so it's getting easier to back up data.

that's great e - didn't think of 2 identical drives, was just thinking 1

that solves the issue of external HD failure, which has been bugging me

Lately been testing what if scenarios relating to a NAS losing power - just shutting it off and turning it on. The 2003 embedded NAS box with HW Raid5 does well but I know its checking or rebuilding the array; I don't see it but its a bit slower. The FreeNas with two software Raid 1 arrays / 2 separate SATA drives appears to do OK but starts running Fsck right away slowing it down a bit. The NDAS Raid0 setup doesn't slow down or shows me anything is wrong.

I'm guessing the last one is "AOK" as it didn't have anything cached in memory (checksums, or the RAID5 calculations, etc).

Just a guess...as RAID0 is WAAAY simple by comparison to the other two you mentioned.

I'm in the process of getting everything properly backed up. I don't know my exact strategy yet, but I'd like to use for the MOST critical stuff, Crashplan over the internet to my parent's house. Everything else, I was going to put together a NAS Box of some sort and just make a copy of everything to that box. Kind of like what E mentioned.

My brother just bought a new NAS...he likes the Thecus boxes..a LOT. His last one was RAID5 and had 4TB. The last one he just bought was RAID5 and had 7 2TB drives in it. I can't do that (have kids...so you all know I have no cash!). So, I've got a bunch of 250GB drives around. I'm going to put them in an old box, use something on there...been thinking about Ubuntu, hacked to be like FreeNAS, using ZFS. The reason I am thinking Ubuntu, it has supported ZFS for a LONG time (compared to FreeNAS).

--Dan

Dan (electron) said:

2TB drives are getting cheaper now

Click to expand...

I'm not convinced of the long term reliability of 1TB+ drives yet. Based on reviews, there seems to be more problems than expected. Some sellers are bashed for shipping them like they're indestructible bricks, and that's how they arrive. There's a lot of hassle involved with RMAing a drive, not to mention all the time to reload the data onto the replacement drive.

Just a guess...as RAID0 is WAAAY simple by comparison to the other two you mentioned.

Click to expand...

Its just a combo USB/Firewire Network small 500Gb NDAS box. You can buy two and do a RAID1 leaving them both on the network.

The older US Robotics NAS box I had online couldn't handle a RAID5 4 1TB drive array. US Robotics tech support stated embedded OS would have to be rewritten for said support. It kind of worked except when it needed to rebuild the Raid5 array.

I haven't build the newer embedded NAS box setup (Intel-Fujitsu little NAS box)(which is small but doesn't really have a means for hot swapable drives).

A couple of days ago "timed" how long Freenas took to get everything back in sync (still had access to the shares) and it was less than 6 hours. I don't pay attention to the embedded W2003 NAS box but I like it because the drives are hot swaps from the front of the 1U case.

So far with FreeNas I've completely and individually wiped out each drive Raid1 drive separately (backing up config) and rebuilt the entire two arrays from scratch not losing any data. (easy to do) - build a new one with same/similiar drives - configure the LAN and recover the backup (setup).

Raid5 is the way to go though. Raid 1 on FreeNas works for me now though (I was trying to see how much space / many drives I could fit into the case).

It still gets too warm though with only 6 SATA drives in it and 4 fans and an 800Watt PS. (even using the new "green" drives).

As a mid-solution, I should state, I got a deal on these:
http://hackaday.com/2010/07/17/openwrt-on-...agent-dockstar/

Well, the picture was what I was after.

They appear to be REALLY hackable. In the mean time, I am going to hook up 2 of these, with 4 USB drives each (250GB). That will allow me to mirror my entire "important stuff" drive. It will also allow me to backup some of my movies and such. Mostly "just because" the space is there. It's nice to actually own all your movies. It'll be a REAL PITA if I have to reload them all, but at least I can. (i.e. it'll be FASTER to drive them from USB to Gigabit, then DVD to hard drive).

--Dan

sda said:

Dan (electron) said:

2TB drives are getting cheaper now

Click to expand...

I'm not convinced of the long term reliability of 1TB+ drives yet. Based on reviews, there seems to be more problems than expected. Some sellers are bashed for shipping them like they're indestructible bricks, and that's how they arrive. There's a lot of hassle involved with RMAing a drive, not to mention all the time to reload the data onto the replacement drive.

Click to expand...

I consider hard drives as reliable as floppies, hence my very complicated backup strategy (explained on my blog). That said, I think HD quality definitely took a nosedive since the 1.5TB drives, so I am skeptical as well. But that's why we have backups of backups of backups

I really do love my QNAP NAS tho, the gui/software is amazing.

Dan,

I took a look around the board...I'm guessing it's in a section I do not frequent enough, but where is your blog? I'd like to read about your backup strategy. I'm still in the middle of solidifying mine...any input is helpful (it's how I found out about Crashplan)!

--Dan (not Electron)