Most recommended external HD for backup purposes?

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cantankerous

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I do audio based work and am extremely weary regarding the size of a particular directory which holds months and months of work I could never get back. I have backed it up once among 3 DL Blu ray discs but find this far too long and cumbersome to maintain. I am needing an alternative backup method to bring me a peace of mind that all my hard work can be retrieved should something go wrong with the drive the contents currently resides on.

What would one recommend? I was thinking of getting the WD My Passport, that was until I found out you cannot specify a particular directory to keep auto backed up. This is a real shame as I have no care to backup odds and ends from my OS drive, but instead 3 directories solely that are found on a separate drive from that of my OS. I was looking for a method where files would be backed up only if their contents changed, otherwise would be left alone.

Is there any external solution (or software) that I could use where I could choose which directories get backed up and have them auto backed up when changes are made? Again, I don't want the software to think all mp3s, pictures etc are important and flag those regularly for backup.

I would appreciate any help on this matter. I would like to pick something up in the very near future to put my mind at ease. I am a cheap bastard but don't mind paying for quality if I need to. I must have reliability and dependability, my audio work is my life and extremely important to me.

Thank you.
 
Hardware: I highly suggest a "build your own" solution. That is to say, buy the actual hard drive and enclosure separate. Prefab models either use inferior-grade disks because they figure its just going to be facebook pictures and itunes junk, or cost a fortune for high-end multidisk arrays that are "smart" to some degree. You'll have better quality and price/performance building your own.

3 DL BluRay discs come to...about 150gb? You'll need to decide on exactly how much space you need now and how much you'll want available in the future. I'm assuming this particular external HDD will be exclusively for your backups, for this project and/or others. You'll also need to decide how paranoid you wish to be - for instance, a Raid 1 or Raid 5 setup would provide more protection but also increase the cost of everything involved. To give an overview of the hardware you'll need the following....

1. Enclosure. This is probably the first place to start. You will likely want something USB 3.0 and eSATA 6.0 compliant if you can find it. For moving that amount of data, it will be helpful to have such connectivity. Another option is to buy an enclosure that includes a gigabit ethernet attachment. The next thing you want to decide is the number of hard drives you'll be needing. Most external enclosures are either 1, 2, or 5 drives. If you can afford it 2 or 5 drive enclosures give you the flexibility to bring Raid 1, Raid 5, Raid 10 options to the table for better security. Its important to note that the enclosure itself needs to state what sort of RAID options it has - for the sake of simplicity and your backup's security you want your unit to be stand-alone in this regard. Many of the better multi-drive enclosures are build with NAS (Network Attached Storage) use in mind and have onboard PLATFORM INDEPENDENT (be wary of anything that requires administration via a program you need to install on Windows. Run far, far away!) administration tools, like a web UI included. However, even if you just want the thing attached via USB or eSATA that will work just fine as well. As far as materials and accessories go, steel and aluminum are the way to go and make sure that there is a decent cooling system in place. This can range from an anodized aluminum enclosure for a single drive that has the drive in contact with the enclosure itself acting as a heatsink, to a multi-drive model including 80mm fans. Enclosure selection is important and I highly suggest not to skimp, lest you run into a situation down the line. Quick Example: " http://lian-li.com/v2/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=549&cl_index=12&sc_index=42&ss_index=115&g=f " LianLi's new 5-drive USB3.0 / eSATA enclosure with RAID 0/1/5/10 (Not SATA III 6gb but otherwise looking great).

2. Hard Drives - This if where you'll need the drives themselves. Now, I don't know a ton about the specific needs of audio work so if someone does, chime in. However, I do know that you will need quality drives that are reliable and relatively speedy. Western Digital makes their line of Green drives for backup, which provide rock solid reliability, large capacity, low power use, and better speed than most "storage" focused drives, without paying the premium for enterprise storage reliability (Which can be a ton). As I'm assuming you'll be backing up audio work in batch jobs, (ie transferring files once you're done, not using these HDDs to write video/audio constantly like from a security camera) you'll probably be fine with consumer WD drives. I'm pretty sure that Green drives will give you all you need but if for some reason you're limited by HDD speed, upgrade to their Black line: performance drives usually used as primary system drives by enthusiasts. They're generally the fastest standard 7200rpm drives around and come in similar capacities as the Green drives, but cost a bit more and have a 5 year warranty instead of a 3 year. Another option for you, which may be worth it is the WD AV GP drives - http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=150 These are made with audio/video streaming in mind and seem to serve as an "enhanced" consumer Green drive. It may or may not be worth the additional cost. No matter which you pick, unless you're buying used to save cash try and get a latest Sata III 6.0gb version. Note you can use any drives you wish, I personally like to stick with Western Digital because I've found them the fastest and most reliable on average and they tend to have something for just about every need.

Whew... I'll write about software later when I have the time but for the time being... do NOT build any system around proprietary backup software! There are many open solutions that can basically do exactly what you're talking about with versioning and incremental backup (Only backup changes, not copy the whole thing over again).
 
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Wow, thanks a ton for the response! Vastly appreciated!

You are right, 150gb is about what I have now. It will get larger over time, but not immensely so. I am thinking a single 500gb drive would be sufficient. Would allow me to grow 3 times what I have now which will take a considerable amount of time. By the time that point comes, there will probably be much better solutions on the market to 'upgrade to'.

As for my paranoia, it isn't a 10/10, more like a 7-8. All of these files must stay as they are until they are needed (or not) for a particular project. They are samples (individual wav files) for song creation, so don't need to be streamed or attended to unless they are called upon by me for use in a particular project. They generally just stay put untouched. If I were to lose this library of sounds however, I would be in deep shit and would have to start all over again as I would no longer have content to work with. Problem is, most of this stuff I would never be able to get back again, wouldn't remember what half of it was to get back etc. It would just be a real mess. All I am wanting is a means to backup the 3 directories which contain these files and put it aside. Every once in a while when changes or additions are made to these 3 directories, I would like to plug the external drive back in and update it to what the drive in my computer contains to have a mirror image so to say. The samples will only be worked from the drive inside my computer in which they currently reside, never from the back up drive. Should my main drive fail, at least I could get it replaced and drag and drop the 3 directories from the backup drive back to the replaced drive and I would more or less be where I started minus any loss from between my last backup. If I get around to updating the backup drive frequently this should not be a problem at all.

Now that you know my situation a little better, should I still worry about a build your own solution, or go all crazy with multi raid drives etc? I understand fully what you are getting at, but this isn't a mission critical business, more of a deep passion and hobby for myself as a past time outside of the stresses of life. I am really wanting a quick and easy solution that isn't overly complicated, convoluted or expensive. I do want reliability and dependability however with a good peace of mind that the backup will be there as I need it when I need it.

The WD Passport seemed small, compact and fairly straightforward to use. Its software seems to suck however as it will only backup the main drive without user intervention as to picking and choosing particular directories in which to focus on backing up. I couldn't care less about my pictures and mp3's on my OS drive, I am concerned about my secondary physical drive which contains the 3 very important directories mentioned above. I want these and these solely to be the focus of the backups.

Thanks again for your reply. If you, or anyone else has anything else to add please do!
 
Imho you should get two drives and alternate backups on them, keeping one somewhere else.
 
such as two external drives and have each drive contain a different day of dumps to be sure I am safe? I had thought of this also to be honest, but then thought it was overkill..... =/
 
It really depends how much you value the data. Hard drives are cheap, fairly fast and have alot of capacity. Trouble is, they die quite often, particularly if they're being handled and transported on a regular basis. My recommendation for HDD based backup of difficult to replace data is at least two copies, and never have both of them plugged into the same computer at the same time.

For irreplaceable data, as opposed to just difficult to replace, I don't recommend purely HDD based storage at all for long term storage. IMHO this is what tape is for.

Dustin
 
Just thought I would chime in on backups.


I have 6 hard drives. Drives 1, 2, and 3 have TV Shows, Movies, and Music\My data

I have drives 4, 5, and 6 that are the same capacity of the previous 3 drives,

So they match up as Drive 1 going with Drive 4, etc

I simply copy the contents of each drive to the corresponding drive once a week or whenever I have changes.

Other than that, I would have to have Drives 1 and 4 to go out at the same time before I would loose data. I have 2 spare drives in case on of them crash, I replace, recopy and I am back running.

They are all labeled within the computer case so I can easily replace the correct drive.

I feel that this method is a cheap but fairly safe way to back up my stuff.

:)
 
jordan12 said:
Just thought I would chime in on backups.

I have 6 hard drives. Drives 1, 2, and 3 have TV Shows, Movies, and Music\My data

I have drives 4, 5, and 6 that are the same capacity of the previous 3 drives,

So they match up as Drive 1 going with Drive 4, etc

I simply copy the contents of each drive to the corresponding drive once a week or whenever I have changes.

Other than that, I would have to have Drives 1 and 4 to go out at the same time before I would loose data. I have 2 spare drives in case on of them crash, I replace, recopy and I am back running.

They are all labeled within the computer case so I can easily replace the correct drive.

I feel that this method is a cheap but fairly safe way to back up my stuff.

:)
Click to expand...

Are they all running at the same time ? If so, it's not that safe.

cantankerous said:
such as two external drives and have each drive contain a different day of dumps to be sure I am safe? I had thought of this also to be honest, but then thought it was overkill..... =/
Click to expand...

The exact backup strategy will depend on what software you'll use, but the idea is to have a backup far from the other, in case of an "act of god". Some put it in a bank safe.
 
That's not the problem that I was eluding to. The problem with having them both plugged in is mainly that malicious software on the host could damage both copies at the same time. If they are connected to a running PC, they are vulnerable to this, as well as accidental deletion at the hands of the user. Physical seperation, even to the point of another address as mentioned above, is important.

Ideally what you'd want is two backups, one current and one a day or two old, thereby limiting the amount of data lost to the day or two between swapping out the drives. You also want to use some kind of software for this purpose, not depend on manually copying. This is usually more efficient in terms of speed (it will write only what it needs to) and reliability (people screw up, quite alot).
 
Offi-site storage or a fireproof safe is another good idea if your data is very important.
 
dustNbone said:
That's not the problem that I was eluding to. The problem with having them both plugged in is mainly that malicious software on the host could damage both copies at the same time. If they are connected to a running PC, they are vulnerable to this, as well as accidental deletion at the hands of the user. ...
Click to expand...
In addition to Mr. Virus and Mr. FumbleFingers, let us not forget Mr. Murphy. Both drives being simultaneously connected (even if not spinning) are vulnerable to a rogue Power Supply, or just a good old electrical spike (or lightning hit).

Never disrespect, or ignore, Murphy:). [Remember: We have laws for a reason.]

--UhClem
 
dustNbone said:
That's not the problem that I was eluding to. The problem with having them both plugged in is mainly that malicious software on the host could damage both copies at the same time. If they are connected to a running PC, they are vulnerable to this, as well as accidental deletion at the hands of the user. Physical seperation, even to the point of another address as mentioned above, is important.

Ideally what you'd want is two backups, one current and one a day or two old, thereby limiting the amount of data lost to the day or two between swapping out the drives. You also want to use some kind of software for this purpose, not depend on manually copying. This is usually more efficient in terms of speed (it will write only what it needs to) and reliability (people screw up, quite alot).
Click to expand...

I had asked about this exact type of software in my initial post, but no one chimed in until you. What would you recommend software wise that will allow backups to happen automatically and only on files that have changed since their last backup? I would love to not have to rely on manual copying every day if at all possible, but I need a peace of mind that this software will be reliable enough to do what it is suppose to 110% of the time without falter.

Suggestions?

Thanks as usual.
 
dustNbone said:
It really depends how much you value the data. Hard drives are cheap, fairly fast and have alot of capacity. Trouble is, they die quite often, particularly if they're being handled and transported on a regular basis. My recommendation for HDD based backup of difficult to replace data is at least two copies, and never have both of them plugged into the same computer at the same time.

For irreplaceable data, as opposed to just difficult to replace, I don't recommend purely HDD based storage at all for long term storage. IMHO this is what tape is for.

Dustin
Click to expand...

The problem with tape is that the drives tend to be expensive (I was looking at something like LTO-2 or LTO-3 but I admit, I haven't kept up on tape technology). If there's a physical disaster that wipes out your data and your drive, you've got the additional cost of grabbing a new drive. Even the best tape solutions can run into problems. Gartner was estimating that 15% of all tape backups fail.

These days, long term storage does not seem like a necessity, at least for this requirement. You'll simply be rotating the data through new technology at a reasonable pace.

There's also the consideration of a big disaster (all local copies lost, you've only got your offsite copy left). The two hdd solution works out well but if you're only rotating once every 6 months and something happens 5 months and 28 days in, you've got about a 6 month difference in data.
 
cantankerous said:
I had asked about this exact type of software in my initial post, but no one chimed in until you. What would you recommend software wise that will allow backups to happen automatically and only on files that have changed since their last backup? I would love to not have to rely on manual copying every day if at all possible, but I need a peace of mind that this software will be reliable enough to do what it is suppose to 110% of the time without falter.

Suggestions?

Thanks as usual.
Click to expand...

Crashplan, SyncToy? That's what I use.

FWIW, primary storage is on my PC. Every night, SyncToy echo to my fileserver , duplicated with CrashPlan to another hard drive in that, copied online to CrashPlan Central, and once a month or so I take an external drive to my parents' house 500 miles away.

...I'm still worried I don't have enough duplication.
 
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