How do you accomplish your Backups?

[Bacon2002]

Hi,

I don't backup all of my recordings but I do use two RAID5 arrays, one held on a NETGEAR NAS with 4 x 2TB HDD for my old SD recordings and the other on the server PC via an Adaptec 5805 with 6 x 1TB HDD which I use for HD & 3D recordings, whilst RAID5 arrays may not be foul proof they do give me some comfort.

A useful application I use is SyncToy, it's a free Microsoft application and enables you to sync folders etc, I find it very handy for automating and moving blocks of files around.

David

[bialio]

I backup:

Pictures / Family Videos / Documents : to CrashPlan (offsite) as well as have them mirrored (WHS) and about once a year I burn a BD of that years content and drop it in my safety deposit box.

TV / Movies don't get backed up at all.

btl.

[corwiniii]

I don't backup anything I can re-rip (music and movies) just because it's approaching 2.5TB. I don't care at all about TV shows, so they are on their own drive. I do backup all personal pictures, videos, and documents and image the system once a week using Windows 7 backup on a 2TB external drive. All media (except TV) is on a 5x1TB RAID5 array in case of disc failure. Personal documents are all synced in my dropbox folder. Personal pictures and videos I manually backup to a web site host I use, Lunarpages via FTP on a monthly schedule. I'm sure I could automate that process with an FTP job, but I just haven't.

I'm fairly comfortable with the backups and risks for that setup. Reflecting back, I think the RAID5 is a bit of overkill, but it was something fun to try. I would do JBOD in the future.

Just a note: dropbox and idrive accounts can be useful and FREE off-site backup and syncing options. I'm a gamer, so all my save files are backed up to dropbox and synced to different computers using Windows symbolic links. Both have smartphone apps as well. You can also pay for more storage on both.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by corwiniii

I don't backup anything I can re-rip (music and movies) just because it's approaching 2.5TB.

I think you have to do a cost-time tradeoff. My music collection is something like 50 GB. But it would take a lot of time to re-rep my 500 or so CDs and 50GB now only costs about $2.50 worth of hard drive (2TB=$100 so 1GB = $0.05) so why not back it up. I have a bunch of 500GB hard drives from previous systems that are no longer worth using up a slot in a PC. So I back up stuff to external hard drives that I take out of the system and leave on site, as well as some that I take offsite.

[corwiniii]

Originally Posted by wayner

I think you have to do a cost-time tradeoff. My music collection is something like 50 GB. But it would take a lot of time to re-rep my 500 or so CDs and 50GB now only costs about $2.50 worth of hard drive (2TB=$100 so 1GB = $0.05) so why not back it up. I have a bunch of 500GB hard drives from previous systems that are no longer worth using up a slot in a PC. So I back up stuff to external hard drives that I take out of the system and leave on site, as well as some that I take offsite.

Without doubt that's the better thing to do, I just haven't gotten around to it. I'm replacing some HDD so I might make use of an older one and do just that. I have both FLAC and MP3, so it takes up some considerable room just for music. On the other hand, it's not that important to me that if I lost it I would be tearing hair out.

[ayjax]

I use DeltaCopy and Rsync to backup items like Pics, and important docs on multiple desktops to my Freenas server which is running ZFS, those items are then stored in the cloud (dropbox) as well much of it is burned to DVD.

If I need to backup a whole System drive I use Acronis which also sends the image to the Freenas box. I dont worry about TV recordings as they will be aired again, but my ripped music and movies (which took time that I dont have a lot of) all sit on the Freenas box which sage accesses without a problem.