Safeguarding my digital files

Posted by: Timbo on 24 June 2014

I'm getting to the stage where my downloaded music files are becoming so numerous that I'm not sure how to back them up so I can have a reasonably safe copy. Hard disks don't last that long and this year I have had two NAS boxes crash. One where two hard disks failed simultaneously and one where the circuit board developed a fault and rendered the unit useless. I did manage to find an identical unit but just swapping the hard disks would not work and I had to format them and re-set them up.

I have a few 64gb usb sticks and have been considering a Blue Ray burner, which I believe can hold up to 50gb. I'm also investigating cloud storage as an option.

Same applies to my photographs, although I keep a few back ups of my cherished pictures I can always print the rest out for long term storage.

Does anyone have any good ideas about keeping a reliable backup.

Thanks

Tim

Posted on: 01 July 2014 by charlesphoto

"At home I use a 4 drive Synology NAS that uses Raid 5 giving me the ability to cope with 2 simultaneous hard drive failures."

RAID 5 is NOT double redundancy - Raid 6 is. Don't rely on Raid 5 (or even six) for your backup. It's a great way to have lots of tb in one place for working, but one should be doing back up beyond that on individual drives or the cloud. More often than not it's the power supply's etc in the case that fails, in which case with Raid above 1 you are toast.

My 2008 Mac Pro went bust over the weekend (I'm a photographer) so went and bought one of the new 'cylinder' Mac Pro's. It doesn't have any drives in it beyond a 256gb ssd, so I will be working from a five bay Drobo 5D. That will get backed up to individual bare drives with a stand alone bare drive reader (about $35-70 depending on interface, great piece of kit) which are stored in anti-static drive boxes. Eventually when, my wallet catches up, I'll probably add another NAS to the chain for more incremental back ups, but will always put the bare RAW files etc on copies of bare drives that are then stored offsite and/or in fireproof/waterproof safe. My vortexbox I back up with a couple of little portable 2.5" drive, which then also gets transferred to a bare 3.5" drive and the Drobo 9I have about 500gb of music).

I would be very wary of RAID unless one has lots (over 4tb) of storage they need to access on a working basis. Too much to go wrong otherwise.

Posted on: 01 July 2014 by charlesphoto

Oh, and that new Mac Pro is an amazing piece of design! Seriously, it's tiny (esp compared to my old beast), about the size of an oatmeal box, entirely quiet, and FAST! It's not perfect - what is - but is easily one of my top three favorite tech designs, second only to Naim half boxes and Leica M cameras. Now if only Apple can get their s**t together on the software...

Posted on: 01 July 2014 by Timbo

@Charlesphoto

I'm considering a new Mac pro, my current one is late 2008 vintage. My big concern is that I have two of the old style LCD cinema displays and will need a dual link dvi adaptor for each. However, I have heard of mixed results with the adaptors, do you have any experience with them?

Tim

Posted on: 01 July 2014 by charlesphoto

@Tim

Yes, I have an NEC 2690 and a newer PA271W. Having some sleep issues with the new Mac Pro (lots of sleep issues across the Apple line with Mavericks) and I don't think the DVI-D adapter I'm using with the 2690 is helping. I'm just using the non-USB powered one, though may have better results with the powered one. For now just working with the one monitor until I get this sorted. So, yes, it is a real concern with older displays. Like I said, not perfect, though how much is the nMP, Mavericks, or NEC I'm not sure. Will keep trying things and let you know. That said, it screams compared to my 2008 eight core MP (with SSD drive even).

Posted on: 01 July 2014 by pcstockton

You guys are over thinking this. Back up to 4tb Seagate external drives. As many as make you comfortable.

A NAS or RAID array is great, but you still need to back it all up to another NAS or RAID array. That sounds spendy. Just get some externals. Done. USe FreefileSync for backups.

Cheers!

Posted on: 02 July 2014 by Timbo

@Charles - interesting, I have been advised to use the Kanex MDPC30 dual link dvi adaptor which has a USB plug for power.

Tim