Best Way to Back up

  • Thread starter Thread starter Addammer
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Addammer

I have been reading about many different ways to back up data. Is
there a popular method that is used today? I am trying to decide on
Tapes or DVDs or any other method. Is there a convention method that is
used today? I would probably be backing up the system once a week. I
would be backing up somewhere around 10-20GB.
 
I have been reading about many different ways to back up data. Is
there a popular method that is used today? I am trying to decide on
Tapes or DVDs or any other method. Is there a convention method that is
used today? I would probably be backing up the system once a week. I
would be backing up somewhere around 10-20GB.
Click to expand...

Are you backing up your grandma's 486 or a datacenter enterprise exchange
server?
 
I have been reading about many different ways to back up data. Is
there a popular method that is used today? I am trying to decide on
Tapes or DVDs or any other method. Is there a convention method
that is used today? I would probably be backing up the system
once a week. I would be backing up somewhere around 10-20GB.
Click to expand...

Tapes are way past their useby date for your situation now.

DVDs arent ideal for that volume, because of the hassle of changing DVDs.

Most use an external USB2 or firewire hard drive for your situation.

That isnt ideal either, mainly because if it stays in the same
place as the system being backed up, you dont get any real
protection against fire, theft of the system or flood etc.

If you want offsite backups to protect yourself against fire,
flood, theft etc, external hard drives arent ideal, they're
rather vulnerable to being dropped, but can be viable if
you are reasonably careful and transport them in one of
those decent padded cases intended for cameras etc.

DVDs are much better for taking offsite, so if you dont mind the
hassle of putting that many blanks into the drive once a week
and sitting there while the system writes on them, are viable.
Most think that's too much effort and quickly stop doing it tho.

Do you really get 10-20GB of data changing every week ?
Thats a lot of data with all except video files.

So it really comes down to DVDs or external hard drives.
 
I've been making backups for over 20 years and have progressed from floppies
through tapes to HDDs in mobile racks. I currently use 2 160 GB HDDs, each
of which fits into the mobile-rack frame installed in my computer. I can
keep the backups offsite and in different locations, and I can have as many
as I need. The only caveat I can think of is getting a high-quality
all-metal mobile rack with a large bottom or multiple fans for good cooling
such as the ones made by Kingwin. I'd also advise against Maxtor drives for
such use because they run quite hot as opposed to Samsungs that run
significantly cooler. Note that these are the only two brands I'm familiar
with, so ask around to see which drives run cool.
 
Andy said:
I've been making backups for over 20 years and have progressed from floppies
through tapes to HDDs in mobile racks. I currently use 2 160 GB HDDs, each
of which fits into the mobile-rack frame installed in my computer. I can
keep the backups offsite and in different locations, and I can have as many
as I need. The only caveat I can think of is getting a high-quality
all-metal mobile rack with a large bottom or multiple fans for good cooling
such as the ones made by Kingwin. I'd also advise against Maxtor drives for
such use because they run quite hot as opposed to Samsungs that run
significantly cooler. Note that these are the only two brands I'm familiar
with, so ask around to see which drives run cool.
Click to expand...

Can you put some numbers to that?

How much power do the Samsungs consume? The Maxtors?
 
Previously said:
I have been reading about many different ways to back up data. Is
there a popular method that is used today? I am trying to decide on
Tapes or DVDs or any other method. Is there a convention method that is
used today? I would probably be backing up the system once a week. I
would be backing up somewhere around 10-20GB.
Click to expand...

Populatrity of a baclup method is not what you want to know. Also
convenience is not a primary concern. What you need to know is
how reliable your backup needs to be and what level odetail control
you want to have. Do you want to be abvle to restore individual
files on a weekly basis from sebveral weeks back? Dou you
want to have a backup from half a year ago?

If you just want to have a general desaster recovery that
puts you back to the last week, you can to with 3-4 independent
media sets used in rotation, 3 if you are confident you
will not make any serious errors on restore. 2 independent media
sets is too little, since usually destroy one when doing a backup.
If there is a problem during backup you are then left with one
working copy, which is generally though to be one too little.

Four your backup volume, I see two reasonable options:

3-4 40GB good quality HDDs in USB enclosures, to be used in
rotation. Do not use less than 3 independent ones!
You can of course use larger ones.

3-4 Sets of 2-4 DVD-RAM, to be used in weekly rotation.

The HDD option is more convenient, since you can do the backup
without media changes. The DVD-RAM solution might be a bit cheaper.

As to the backup procedure itself, allways make sure you can restore
your data. Try regularly (e.g. once every 6 months) that you can
restore a backup. Compare backup and files on disk for every backup.
This not only serves to ensure readability, but also to find
problems with bit-errors due to memory, bus, CPU and other problems
and ensure that the backup medium is still in good shape.

Arno
 
Populatrity of a baclup method is not what you want to know. Also
convenience is not a primary concern. What you need to know is
how reliable your backup needs to be and what level odetail control
you want to have. Do you want to be abvle to restore individual
files on a weekly basis from sebveral weeks back? Dou you
want to have a backup from half a year ago?

If you just want to have a general desaster recovery that
puts you back to the last week, you can to with 3-4 independent
media sets used in rotation, 3 if you are confident you
will not make any serious errors on restore. 2 independent media
sets is too little, since usually destroy one when doing a backup.
If there is a problem during backup you are then left with one
working copy, which is generally though to be one too little.

Four your backup volume, I see two reasonable options:

3-4 40GB good quality HDDs in USB enclosures, to be used in
rotation. Do not use less than 3 independent ones!
You can of course use larger ones.

3-4 Sets of 2-4 DVD-RAM, to be used in weekly rotation.

The HDD option is more convenient, since you can do the backup
without media changes. The DVD-RAM solution might be a bit cheaper.

As to the backup procedure itself, allways make sure you can restore
your data. Try regularly (e.g. once every 6 months) that you can
restore a backup. Compare backup and files on disk for every backup.
This not only serves to ensure readability, but also to find
problems with bit-errors due to memory, bus, CPU and other problems
and ensure that the backup medium is still in good shape.

Arno
Click to expand...

Howdy,

No expert I, but...

I would add for the OP that it is important to avoid the
common habit of creating the backup and then leaving it on
the desk next to the system that was backed up.

With that, in the event of fire or theft, you are... Well, I
don't even want to think about it <g>.

All the best,
 
CJT said:
Can you put some numbers to that?
Click to expand...

If you mean the temperature, no numbers just the touch test. Maxtors run hot
to the touch; Samsungs, warm. I've had 2 Maxtors die on me almost certainly
as a result of heat and poor cooling.
How much power do the Samsungs consume? The Maxtors?
Click to expand...

No idea. I'm not a tech.
 
Ubiquitous fledgling
Outright

I agree that backing up to external USB disk is the most convenient
method, primarily because of speed, and because you do not have to baby
sit the backup to replace media.

Some other questions you need to ask yourself:

* How frequent you want to take the backup (hourly, daily, weekly)? In
other words how much work are you willing to loose?

* How much backup history do you want to keep (few days, weeks,
months)? Note, the more backup history you retain, the more time you
will have to notice a corrupt/deleted file before it propagates all
over your backups.

* Another question is the number of media. As suggested here do not use
a single backup disk, use at least two, and try to rotate them as
frequent as possible. That way they all will be as up-to-date as
possible.

Anyway, try to keep as much backup history as you can, and take as
frequent backup as you can.



You may also want to look at our solution at http://www.datamills.com
that has several nice features to reduce the required attention, backup
space and backup time, while maximizing retention period and backup
frequency.
 
Previously Joe Rom King said:
Ubiquitous fledgling
Outright
Click to expand...
I agree that backing up to external USB disk is the most convenient
method, primarily because of speed, and because you do not have to baby
sit the backup to replace media.
Click to expand...
Some other questions you need to ask yourself:
Click to expand...
* How frequent you want to take the backup (hourly, daily, weekly)? In
other words how much work are you willing to loose?
Click to expand...
* How much backup history do you want to keep (few days, weeks,
months)? Note, the more backup history you retain, the more time you
will have to notice a corrupt/deleted file before it propagates all
over your backups.
Click to expand...
* Another question is the number of media. As suggested here do not use
a single backup disk, use at least two, and try to rotate them as
frequent as possible. That way they all will be as up-to-date as
possible.
Click to expand...

One problem with two is that if one fails during backup, you
cannot make another backup at that time without loosing your
only older one. Use at least three.

Arno
 
Rod Speed said:
Tapes are way past their useby date for your situation now.

DVDs arent ideal for that volume, because of the hassle of changing DVDs.
Click to expand...

With DVD drive prices now quite reasonably I did briefly consider putting 4+
drives in an external enclosure!
 
J. Clarke said:
Is that 20 gig the total size and the largest that the backup is going to
grow? Is that the full system size or just the data files? What is the
worst that happens if you lose the data? What kind of budget do you have?
How often does the data change?

There are many options, and there is tradeoff between cost and reliability.
Need more details in order to make a sound recommendation.
Click to expand...


Hello, John:

I have a "sound recommendation" of my own. Reset your computer's clock,
as it's a bit fast...by about a day. <g>


Cordially,
John Turco <[email protected]>
 
With DVD drive prices now quite reasonably I did briefly
consider putting 4+ drives in an external enclosure!
Click to expand...

Or even a decent case.

Not sure how much of the software could handle that config tho.
 
I have been reading about many different ways to back up data. Is
there a popular method that is used today? I am trying to decide on
Tapes or DVDs or any other method. Is there a convention method that is
used today? I would probably be backing up the system once a week. I
would be backing up somewhere around 10-20GB.
Click to expand...

Is that 20 gig the total size and the largest that the backup is going to
grow? Is that the full system size or just the data files? What is the
worst that happens if you lose the data? What kind of budget do you have?
How often does the data change?

There are many options, and there is tradeoff between cost and reliability.
Need more details in order to make a sound recommendation.
 
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