Viable backup solution?

K

KevC

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Oct 21, 2001
Messages
6,365
Hello,

I am a photographer. I have a growing archive of (digital) negatives. Now they're all on one HDD, which goes completely against the mantra "never put all your eggs in one basket". So I intend to fix that. However, I'm lazy and don't like optical backup since DVDs "only" fit 4.3GB and I'm too lazy to have bunch of DVDs.

So I thought about this. How about a HDD backup? HDDs are designed to run hundreds of thousands of hours right? (MTBF is supposed to be about a million hours on a raptor, wow =)).

I intend to buy a 320GB HDD... put it in an enclosure... plug her in, and move all my photos onto it. Then I turn it off, pack it away in somewhere safe, and don't touch it until next month... where I update my pictures on that HDD... rinse, repeat.

Therefore, the HDD will only be running approximately an hour a MONTH, and I assume... given those circumstances, it will be pretty safe.

Now I think this is quite possibly the easiest form of backup, does anyone have any comments? Obvious flaws? Any software I should use to backup or just use windows to click and drag? Use something like MD5summer for cyclic redundancy check?

Thanks
 
Perfect idea. Chances of two drives failing at once, while the one is plugged in for an "update" is basically zero and if one goes out, you have to other to copy to a replacement. And unless you're super paranoid, a drag and drop is just fine.
 
What are your chances of losing both drives? Pretty slim, but would you really want to risk it? Let's say there is a power surge and everything gets fried, you have no backups anymore :( . If this business is something you absolutely need, I highly suggest using a tape solution.
 
Not to argue, but tapes aren't bulletproof either. I've been burned by admins that didn't feel that verifying that a backup tape was restorable was an important part of the process. The lesson is your backup is only good if you verify and confirm that you can recover from it.

-TeedOff
 
protias said:
What are your chances of losing both drives? Pretty slim, but would you really want to risk it? Let's say there is a power surge and everything gets fried, you have no backups anymore :( . If this business is something you absolutely need, I highly suggest using a tape solution.
Click to expand...

Um... the backup drive would be plugged in for maybe MAYBE an hour a month.

Sure, let's do say there is a power surge and everything gets fried.. wouldn't the tape solution be fried too (while writing?)
 
I know a photographer who uses both external hard drives and DVD backups. You can't be too careful.

I will see him this weekend, and I'll ask him exactly what he does for backup.
 
Hey, floppy disks are REAL cheap.




Back to reality...I have seen the pricing on the new LiteON BluRay Recorders and they are ~$500, and the disks will store 50GB each. Might be a viable once in awhile backup option, of course I don't know your exact storage requirements, but lets say you have 300GBs, thats only 6 disks.
 
If you are going to do it I would do it with a least 2 external hds. Do a backup at least once a week and just keep rotating the drives. Also I would use a raid 1 or something to store them in the machine you are using. Another big thing. Don't keep the backup in the same building as the machine. Last thing you want is a fire or theft to take out both the backup and the normal version.
 
swatbat said:
If you are going to do it I would do it with a least 2 external hds. Do a backup at least once a week and just keep rotating the drives. Also I would use a raid 1 or something to store them in the machine you are using. Another big thing. Don't keep the backup in the same building as the machine. Last thing you want is a fire or theft to take out both the backup and the normal version.
Click to expand...
QFT. Backups should exist offsite, and there should be one out of arm's reach at all times. Don't bring them all together, even for a ten-year reunion :p
 
KevC said:
Um... the backup drive would be plugged in for maybe MAYBE an hour a month.

Sure, let's do say there is a power surge and everything gets fried.. wouldn't the tape solution be fried too (while writing?)
Click to expand...

How would a power surge fry a tape? There is no electricity moving through it.

swatbat said:
If you are going to do it I would do it with a least 2 external hds. Do a backup at least once a week and just keep rotating the drives. Also I would use a raid 1 or something to store them in the machine you are using. Another big thing. Don't keep the backup in the same building as the machine. Last thing you want is a fire or theft to take out both the backup and the normal version.
Click to expand...

Swatbat is correct, as u_m already beat me to it :p
 
Ok well tapes are too expensive a solution so I"m gonna stick with my original idea.

Does anyone have a systematic way of backing up like this? Just copy and paste then check CRCs? How do I check file integrity? THanks!
 
1. Never use media discs for backups of important data regardless of the quality (not even Verbatim)... read more on media discs PI errors and PI failures.

2. Go with an external drive (you can take it with you if you have to run :) ).

3. I like norton ghost, but feel free to use any other tool to make the task easier.

ps. you might want to put those files under version control (CVS) and tie in Wiki for browsing them... I mean if you want to be [H]ard... :) (nothing to do with backups though)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top