Cheapest way to backup 4TB?

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neokeelo

[H]ard|Gawd
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I currently have 5 hard drives in my pc and can no longer add more without upgrading to a full tower case. What is the best way to add storage and redundancy to my system? Most of my data is backed up blu-rays

1. buy (2) 2TB drives and backup everything offsite?
2. buy a NAS or external enclosure running RAID 1
3. Buy a Bluy-ray drive and burn my backups to disc?

Thanks for your input.
 
3 isn't feasible imo.

1 seems like the best option since an off-site copy is really the most desirable backup situation. But maybe put those drives in a NAS, instead of your computer itself.
 
Offsite means different things to different people.

I would use option 1 and keep the hard drives in a box in the computer room. No need to physically remove the copies.

4TB is a lot of data. I suspect you can get by with backing up much less.
 
1. buy (2) 2TB drives and backup everything offsite?
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Buy 4 2TB drives and keep 1 backup onsite and 1 backup offsite. Maybe you can get away with 1/2 that if your data compresses 2:1 or even only 2 x 3TB for 2 complete backups if you can get 1.5:1 compression with your backup software.

2. buy a NAS or external enclosure running RAID 1
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RAID1 (or any other raid level) is not a backup. Or do you mean you will keep your current disks in your computer and make a backup to the NAS?
 
drescherjm said:
Buy 4 2TB drives and keep 1 backup onsite and 1 backup offsite. Maybe you can get away with 1/2 that if your data compresses 2:1 or even only 2 x 3TB for 2 complete backups if you can get 1.5:1 compression with your backup software.
Click to expand...

^^ This
 
haha cheapest would be burn the data to cds but it shore would be the longest haha id go with the 2tb hdds
 
I ran into a similar predicament with more data than would fit on external USB drive.
I have(recklessly) decided to buy used server equipment on ebay and create a network backup --Not unheard of but, in my case, time consuming. I have an interest in this type of thing though so I don't mind. However, a prepackaged NAS (netgear, etc) would likely be a less time consuming option for you. For me using the cloud like amazon s3 or something seemed cost prohibitive. It is still a work in progess though so the cloud may start to look good at some point. Good Luck
 
RobbinHood said:
haha cheapest would be burn the data to cds but it shore would be the longest haha id go with the 2tb hdds
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Since when was +/- $800 in cds cheaper than 4TB of HDD?

HDD FTW.

Then get something like Carbonite. Unlimited data backup for $55/yr. Just make sure that you have the highest tier Fios plan :p
 
Then get something like Carbonite. Unlimited data backup for $55/yr. Just make sure that you have the highest tier Fios plan :p
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Don't they throttle your bandwidth down to such a low level that you could never ever send them 4TB?
 
RobbinHood said:
haha cheapest would be burn the data to cds but it shore would be the longest haha id go with the 2tb hdds
Click to expand...

CDs / DVDs/ BDs and even tape are all more expensive than hard drives for backing up 4TB of data. And all but tape are extremely time consuming.
 
GeorgeHR said:
Offsite means different things to different people.

I would use option 1 and keep the hard drives in a box in the computer room. No need to physically remove the copies.

4TB is a lot of data. I suspect you can get by with backing up much less.
Click to expand...

Not really, offsite is offsite, it is off the site / location of the main source.
 
drescherjm said:
Maybe you can get away with 1/2 that if your data compresses 2:1 or even only 2 x 3TB for 2 complete backups if you can get 1.5:1 compression with your backup software
Click to expand...
It's ripped BDs, you're not likely to compress them any further, better consider it's really 4 TB of data.

@neokeelo 3) is out of question for such large volumes, 2) would be better in the long term, 1) is your cheapest option, although offsite may not be practical, just external will do.

Consider also consolidating your internal drives with two 3 TB drives instead of 5 drives, and maybe one SSD for the OS. This will be so much easier to manage, and some of your old drives might be nearing the end of their life anyway.

Media backup really deserves a dedicated backup solution, unless existing solutions can use offline disks for the original backup, and use an online external disk only for the recent changes and the daily system images. If a file or block has changed, you don't need the actual file to compare, just its CRC data and a few file properties.

If you use external disks, just make sure you choose a eSATA or USB 3.0 enclosure, USB 2.0 is barely usable for large files (freezes your computer.)

Another cheap yet pro and extensible solution is to get a server chassis such as the Norco RPC-450B, and use it at first just to store the disks, and later on, convert it to a real NAS. It's rather bulky but can store a good dozen of drives for the price of a normal computer case, around $80.
 
drescherjm said:
Buy 4 2TB drives and keep 1 backup onsite and 1 backup offsite. Maybe you can get away with 1/2 that if your data compresses 2:1 or even only 2 x 3TB for 2 complete backups if you can get 1.5:1 compression with your backup software.
Click to expand...

I cannot think of ANY material a private person would have that is 4TB and compresses that well... And if you have material that compresses that well, you'd put compression=on in ZFS or whatever is used, and still have a potential of 4TB 1:1 backup to deal with...

The best thing to do is to do a full backup - store it offsite - and do deltas to separate drives - moving them offsite at a regular interval. This is dead easy with ZFS and is also quite possible with a lot of backup software.

Your unlisted and most cost effective option is to persuade a family member or someone you know to keep "a backup" of the data on their system. For bluray images that might not be very hard :)
 
MrGuvernment said:
Not really, offsite is offsite, it is off the site / location of the main source.
Click to expand...

My server is on the second floor of my house. Offsite for me is on the first floor and not connected to the server.

For me that is as much protection as being in a safe deposit box at the bank. If there is sufficient damage to my house that both the upstairs data and downstairs back up are lost, I have much bigger problems.

As I said offsite means different things to different people.
 
GeorgeHR said:
My server is on the second floor of my house. Offsite for me is on the first floor and not connected to the server.

For me that is as much protection as being in a safe deposit box at the bank. If there is sufficient damage to my house that both the upstairs data and downstairs back up are lost, I have much bigger problems.

As I said offsite means different things to different people.
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This++ If my house gets leveled, the last thing I will be worried about for years is 2TB of ripped DVD's. What I do hvae backed up offsite is anything I can't replace (videos, photos, school work, banking info, etc). That answer comes to ~50 gigabytes and 95% of that is pictures.
 
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