How do you store your data?

D

Drunkard #1

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With all the HDD failures these days, I've started to worry about my data. After all, it's the only irreplaceable part in my PC.

How do you protect yours?

At first i considered RAID 1 using the onboard RAID in the PC. My plans were foiled when Windows install asked for a RAID drivers floppy disk. (The new PC has no floppy drive.) Then I started to think about the concept of PC based RAID. It doesn't make sense. Your data is still susceptible to a single point of failure, like fire, theft, viruses or meteor impact.

That lead me to NAS devices like QNAP, but I'm not sure about DRM on those devices. Also, I think they'll be too costly.

This leaves Linux:sick: as my only option. FreeNAS and so on.

So, what are your suggestions, if I were to setup a FreeNAS device.
Which motherboard?
Which RAID controller (onboard or discrete)?
What RAID level (1 or 5)?
Can I have a hot spare in FreeNAS?
Most Importantly: Which chassis? I'd like hot swap drive changing. Or don't I need it?

I'm sure that everyone has considered their data's safety and security before. How did you solve it?

Thanks in advance.
 
I backup weekly. 2nd HDD in same pc - full backup of all my docs, etc. External HDD, same thing. My stuff backed up to wife's PC. Her stuff backed up to Her 2nd HDD, and also to my 2nd HDD across the network. Her stuff also on external HDD. Only a house fire or a full cleanout by burglary (They'd still have to find the external HDD!) would cause us to lose all our stuff. I still have everything I've saved , including e-mails, from 10 years ago when I got my very 1st PC. Never lost a byte.:)

Oh, and also have an old PATA 160 Gb I image my main disk to about once a month. Call me paranoid, but, heh: As you say, your data is the one thing you can't replace.
 
Lord Fubar said:
i lol'd
Click to expand...

:confused: I was being serious.

I think you're onto something Grouter, why do I need to setup a dedicated machine when I can just put a big drive into another machine on the network, and backup that way. Assuming I'm too lazy to Google it, do you know of any free software to automate the process, say move the entire contents of c:/backup/ to a remote machine or two every day at 1 am. I'm lucky that my LAN spans 3 buildings, so that should be secure enough.
 
Drunkard : If you're doing a simple thing like that.. just write a batch file that does an xcopy at 1am.. or something like that
 
Drunkard #1 said:
:confused: I was being serious.

I think you're onto something Grouter, why do I need to setup a dedicated machine when I can just put a big drive into another machine on the network, and backup that way. Assuming I'm too lazy to Google it, do you know of any free software to automate the process, say move the entire contents of c:/backup/ to a remote machine or two every day at 1 am. I'm lucky that my LAN spans 3 buildings, so that should be secure enough.
Click to expand...

Synctoy
 
Grouter said:
Synctoy
Click to expand...
+1 !!

I have 2 external drives that I backup to - keep one in the cupboard here and one at the office. I figure if someone breaks in - they might get my pc and the drive I keep in a cupboard - but the drive at work is safe. Call me paranoid - but I do not intend to loose around 140 gigs of photos.. some of them of people that aren't around anymore :)
 
i dont bacup coz when i lose sumthin i dunno itz gone coz therez just too much of evrything lol
 
Spare HDD in the same PC, on a spare HDD in another PC and in triplicate on DVD's just in case of PC's blowing up or being stolen.
 
Thanks for the help. I've downloaded SyncToy, it seems like a nice tool. I'll test it as soon as the remote drive finishes formatting. My holiday snaps will soon be safe:).
 
Drunkard #1 said:
Thanks for the help. I've downloaded SyncToy, it seems like a nice tool. I'll test it as soon as the remote drive finishes formatting. My holiday snaps will soon be safe:).
Click to expand...

A hint when using synctoy: On the second setup screen, after you choose your source and destination folders, choose 'echo' as the option to sync, and never mess with your backup folder. This ensures that whatever you do in your source folder gets repeated in the backup. For example, if you were to choose 'synchronize', and the backup folder got changed or messed up, then synctoy would change the original (source) folder as well.

The first run will take a while to complete, but subsequent backups are quick as they are incremental. Good luck.
 
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