Serious question today.. Is there a more reliable way to back up projects than using external hardrives? I have had a few fail and ALWAYS hear about them failing for no reason. what a nightmare. what other options are there? even if you have multiple hard drives for back ups.. it's still possible to lose it all. we are talking about days, months even years worth of countless hours of hard work lost because theses drives seem to be garbage.. for around $100 each.....
http://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/B ... ewpoints=0
http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Expansion ... ewpoints=0
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Ba ... ewpoints=0
The cloud? the cloud is actually a bunch of hard drives in a building. Do the cloud services "Guarantee" no data loss? if yes.. how so? not sure I want all my projects "out there"
Reliable way to backup projects?
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- KVRAF
- 5175 posts since 29 Apr, 2006
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- KVRAF
- 2648 posts since 20 Jun, 2012
Unfortunately it's completely true to that external HDD's fail quite often. It applies especially to the larger ones than 500GB.
The best way to keep backups is to get a small NAS box that can host two or more HDD's in a RAID 1 or 10 (disks are mirrored) mode and then get an additional external HDD where you can make backups of your backups from NAS. Synology makes some very good NAS boxes. That would be pretty good and safe solution. And not that expensive either.
Cloud is pretty expensive in the long run and does not guarantee you anything. If you are keeping data in the cloud you are still responsible for backing up your data. Also cloud backups need a lot of network bandwidth.
The best way to keep backups is to get a small NAS box that can host two or more HDD's in a RAID 1 or 10 (disks are mirrored) mode and then get an additional external HDD where you can make backups of your backups from NAS. Synology makes some very good NAS boxes. That would be pretty good and safe solution. And not that expensive either.
Cloud is pretty expensive in the long run and does not guarantee you anything. If you are keeping data in the cloud you are still responsible for backing up your data. Also cloud backups need a lot of network bandwidth.
No signature here!
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- KVRAF
- 2295 posts since 18 Oct, 2010 from Japan
EDIT
Let me add a TL;DR to this -
Diversity and redundancy in data back up is the reliable method of backing up data.
Never take backing up lightly - you may bump into another vehicle
Seriously, though, backing your content and computer up is very important. There are long-life HDDs I recommend getting, they are designed SPECIFICALLY for long-term use with persistent usage. They tend to come at a steeper cost but are worth it. Secondly: MAKE SURE IT'S AN HDD and NOT - I repeat - NOT and SSD. While SSDs are very fast and are more reliable for the short term, they have a finite number of read/write cycles before they die. And it is an immediate effect. The bright side is that most manufacturers put this number of read/write cycles into the controller of the SSD and there are softwares that will tell you when it is close to running out, HOWEVER, HDDs have a much longer life span (if you spend the money) and are more reliable in the long term. While monitoring exactly when they are going to die is hard to say, since it's mechanical and not digital, there are obvious signs to when it is about to die; strange behaviors, slowed read/write speeds, obviously different noises coming from it, ect.
HDDs typically have higher capacities than SSD, and so long as you practice safe handling of a back-up external HDD, it's life span should be a good decade or so (I have had my 1tb Western Digital for 8 years now - I even dropped it once on a concrete floor when moving it - and it still runs flawless)
Use defragging software (I recommend Defraggler) and disk cleaning software (CClean by the same people who do Defraggler) as well as use the SpaceSniffer tool to watch memory usage.
Now, backing up should be done on as many medias as you can get a hold of.
Firstly: a home media server and storage unit, referred to as a NAS (Network-attached storage) in a raid configuration will give you redundancies for back up purposes. It's also possible to log into the NAS remotely via an internet connection, so if you are worried about a house fire, you could store it off-site.
Secondly: Physical media. It's a PAIN, I know. Physical media takes up room, it's slow to run back ups on, and is just generally an annoyance, but DO NOT AVOID THIS.
I have a BluRay burner in my system and a stack of blank BluRays. Every month I back up any new projects I have done since the last back up, and every OTHER month I back up my entire music folder (for redundancy). It's a bit costly, since BluRays aren't exactly cheap, and it's lengthy. It takes about 30 minutes to an hour or more just to back up my folder. But, I keep them save in special sleeves to prevent scratching, and lock them inside a filing cabinet. Should there be a fire and I am home, it would be really easy to either grab my stack of CDs or remove my external hard drive from it's power source and USB cable. If you are particularly paranoid, the great thing about physical media is that you can store it off site but in something as simple as your car - though I would be careful if you have a particularly hot summer day.
I understand that you might not have a bottomless budget for backing up your content, but, I feel like I should mention that a lot of commercial business that uses a lot of sensitive data typically have MASSIVE reel-to-reel tape back up. (They're really cool to see in person too, by the way) but fortunately for you, Sony just release a...I believe 100tb tape you can write your files too. While the read and write speeds are....I'm not really sure...roughly 2mb/s? It's a much smaller and more affordable option than a massive reel-to-reel.
Lastly, I would like to mention to be wary of using offsite, 3rd party hosting for cloud storage. These can be very unsecure, plus you have no way of managing or controlling how they handle your data. They could very easily be selling it to 3rd party advertisers or who knows what. I would say save the money you would spend on monthly payments for cloud storage, and put that money towards your own NAS.
Let me add a TL;DR to this -
Diversity and redundancy in data back up is the reliable method of backing up data.
Never take backing up lightly - you may bump into another vehicle
Seriously, though, backing your content and computer up is very important. There are long-life HDDs I recommend getting, they are designed SPECIFICALLY for long-term use with persistent usage. They tend to come at a steeper cost but are worth it. Secondly: MAKE SURE IT'S AN HDD and NOT - I repeat - NOT and SSD. While SSDs are very fast and are more reliable for the short term, they have a finite number of read/write cycles before they die. And it is an immediate effect. The bright side is that most manufacturers put this number of read/write cycles into the controller of the SSD and there are softwares that will tell you when it is close to running out, HOWEVER, HDDs have a much longer life span (if you spend the money) and are more reliable in the long term. While monitoring exactly when they are going to die is hard to say, since it's mechanical and not digital, there are obvious signs to when it is about to die; strange behaviors, slowed read/write speeds, obviously different noises coming from it, ect.
HDDs typically have higher capacities than SSD, and so long as you practice safe handling of a back-up external HDD, it's life span should be a good decade or so (I have had my 1tb Western Digital for 8 years now - I even dropped it once on a concrete floor when moving it - and it still runs flawless)
Use defragging software (I recommend Defraggler) and disk cleaning software (CClean by the same people who do Defraggler) as well as use the SpaceSniffer tool to watch memory usage.
Now, backing up should be done on as many medias as you can get a hold of.
Firstly: a home media server and storage unit, referred to as a NAS (Network-attached storage) in a raid configuration will give you redundancies for back up purposes. It's also possible to log into the NAS remotely via an internet connection, so if you are worried about a house fire, you could store it off-site.
Secondly: Physical media. It's a PAIN, I know. Physical media takes up room, it's slow to run back ups on, and is just generally an annoyance, but DO NOT AVOID THIS.
I have a BluRay burner in my system and a stack of blank BluRays. Every month I back up any new projects I have done since the last back up, and every OTHER month I back up my entire music folder (for redundancy). It's a bit costly, since BluRays aren't exactly cheap, and it's lengthy. It takes about 30 minutes to an hour or more just to back up my folder. But, I keep them save in special sleeves to prevent scratching, and lock them inside a filing cabinet. Should there be a fire and I am home, it would be really easy to either grab my stack of CDs or remove my external hard drive from it's power source and USB cable. If you are particularly paranoid, the great thing about physical media is that you can store it off site but in something as simple as your car - though I would be careful if you have a particularly hot summer day.
I understand that you might not have a bottomless budget for backing up your content, but, I feel like I should mention that a lot of commercial business that uses a lot of sensitive data typically have MASSIVE reel-to-reel tape back up. (They're really cool to see in person too, by the way) but fortunately for you, Sony just release a...I believe 100tb tape you can write your files too. While the read and write speeds are....I'm not really sure...roughly 2mb/s? It's a much smaller and more affordable option than a massive reel-to-reel.
Lastly, I would like to mention to be wary of using offsite, 3rd party hosting for cloud storage. These can be very unsecure, plus you have no way of managing or controlling how they handle your data. They could very easily be selling it to 3rd party advertisers or who knows what. I would say save the money you would spend on monthly payments for cloud storage, and put that money towards your own NAS.
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- KVRAF
- 1645 posts since 12 Dec, 2012 from Switzerland
Since years I use external drives and never had any fail. But I once had a fail (around 2001 or 2002) with an internal drive, when I lost everything. Since then, regular multiple backups.
I use 2 hard drives for daily full backups. The one that just got the current backup (from yesterday) I take home today and swap it with the other hard drive I took back from home. This way there is a full backup on site and a back up from yesterday off site.
Plus I mirror the current projects to another on site external hard drive. But only the current projects.
What I miss is an online storage. I think I go for Dropbox 1TB. There I could mirror the current projects and "transfer" them to my home setup at the same time.
I use 2 hard drives for daily full backups. The one that just got the current backup (from yesterday) I take home today and swap it with the other hard drive I took back from home. This way there is a full backup on site and a back up from yesterday off site.
Plus I mirror the current projects to another on site external hard drive. But only the current projects.
What I miss is an online storage. I think I go for Dropbox 1TB. There I could mirror the current projects and "transfer" them to my home setup at the same time.
stardustmedia - high end analog music services - murat-
- KVRAF
- 1645 posts since 12 Dec, 2012 from Switzerland
PS: System backups should not be forgotten of course 
But these I don't do so often. I use 2 extra external USB drives. One carries a backup from a fresh system installation, almost no apps. The other is about an actual system setup with all apps.
But these I don't do so often. I use 2 extra external USB drives. One carries a backup from a fresh system installation, almost no apps. The other is about an actual system setup with all apps. stardustmedia - high end analog music services - murat