External Storage - two options, advice please.

Hi. Long-time lurker, first time poster.

I've got quite a lot of data that i want to back up and i had originally wanted a backup solution incorporating RAID1 (mirroring) for added security. So i was looking along the lines of a DAS (i don't need a NAS) or creating a "psuedo-RAID1" array by using two external hard drives and saving the data to each (thus creating a mirror).

I've gone away and had a re-think and i've come up with these two options. Your opinions/advice would be extremely useful.

I've had to reasess the amount i've got to spend so can't afford to buy two 1TB drives (...yet) so both solutions will have to survive 6 months alone.

So....two solutions, A and B:

A) Western Digital 1TB My Book Essential II - £85

B) Samsung 1TB Spinpoint F1 hard drive - £80 in this enclosure (which i already own).

Two discussion points would be, first, that the WD has only a USB connection whereas my enclosure accepts USB, FW and eSATA. (my laptop doesn't have eSATA-but i could get an adapter later down the line).

Second, the WD has an auto on and off function which, as i understand it, is if the disk has idled for a preset period of time the drive and WD enclosure will shut down. The icybox has no such option and the enclosure and drive will be left on. UNLESS, i can set the drive to turn off after a set period of "idle-ness"?

The main attraction of the WD's auto on/off, in addition to being energy conscious, is that i can leave the computer on and schedule a back-up it will be able to backup. If i forget to turn on the icybox, no back-up (obviously) can occur.

Reilability is a big issue for me as 1TB is a lot of data! As for the pseudo-RAID1/RAID1, when funds free up i'll buy a second drive and use SyncToy to create the backups.

Any input guys and gals?

Cheers

Option A. The ability to have backups automated is a key feature. I find that relying on people to backup their own data, it's risky and people tend to stop doing it because it becomes tedious.

Know Nuttin said:

Option A.

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Do you think being limited to USB will be a problem?

Most files will be large photo files (RAW) but any work will be on the laptop not streamed.

OPtion A would be the better option for you. The only real problem with USB will be the time it takes to backup the files. RAW images can get quite large. However, if you set it to backup overnight, it shouldnt be an issue.

Your only other options for greater xfer speed would be firewire 800, which you probably dont have, gigabit ethernet or esata.

If you use a backup program, it might have the option to check which files changed, and only back those up. If you don't have much data change in between backups, there will not have to be much file transfer (aka wont take a long time on USB). The program I'm using is SyncBack, and described by lifehacker.com.

A plus to a pseudo-RAID 1 over a regular RAID 1 is if you accidentally delete/overwrite a file that is already backed up, you can still recover an older version.

Synctoy can also check to see what is changed and back that up only.

How big are your raw files? Mine are around 15MB, and USB 2.0 is good for around 30MB/sec, give or take a bit. That's plenty fast for me, I back up once a week so there isn't always that much to back up. If you wait a month, then it may be slow but as mentioned, you don't have to be there to back up with option A, you can just set it for when it is convenient.

Know Nuttin said:

Synctoy can also check to see what is changed and back that up only.

How big are your raw files? Mine are around 15MB

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My RAW files average about 15mb too but the .psd files can go pretty large - but again, i can go away and leave the backup running.

neonblingbling said:

If you use a backup program, it might have the option to check which files changed, and only back those up. If you don't have much data change in between backups, there will not have to be much file transfer (aka wont take a long time on USB). The program I'm using is SyncBack, and described by lifehacker.com.

Click to expand...

I've looked into the free version of SyncBack and it looks promising. Do you think the method outlined in the Lifehacker review is the most efficient? The way i read it is that i'd end up having three similar backup copies...in terms of content and size, therefore the 1TB would be eaten up pretty quicky!

Can anyone suggest a good backup regime, or comment on what proceedure you currently arer using?

I'm going to go ahead with option A as i think it is the best option for "get up and go", i'll set ti up and then i'll be able to forget about it (for the most part)

Cheers!

I use 3 separate drives to store my data. Internal drive, and then 2 external's. I basically just plug them in once a week, and then run synctoy to sync them. Takes about 10 minutes or so, depending on how much new stuff there is.

verbyl.belch said:

I've looked into the free version of SyncBack and it looks promising. Do you think the method outlined in the Lifehacker review is the most efficient? The way i read it is that i'd end up having three similar backup copies...in terms of content and size, therefore the 1TB would be eaten up pretty quicky!

Click to expand...

I have only one copy of files (daily backup). I think their daily/weekly/monthly backup is quite overkill for my pictures/schoolwork backup. I think the biggest advantage of having a daily/every-three-days/weekly backup regime is if you are working on projects that might need a huge 'undo' button. Otherwise, if your one backup drive dies, your three copies of data are gone anyway. Unless of course, you have your 'daily' hard drive, 'weekly' hard drive...

verbyl.belch said:

My RAW files average about 15mb too but the .psd files can go pretty large - but again, i can go away and leave the backup running.



I've looked into the free version of SyncBack and it looks promising. Do you think the method outlined in the Lifehacker review is the most efficient? The way i read it is that i'd end up having three similar backup copies...in terms of content and size, therefore the 1TB would be eaten up pretty quicky!

Can anyone suggest a good backup regime, or comment on what proceedure you currently arer using?

I'm going to go ahead with option A as i think it is the best option for "get up and go", i'll set ti up and then i'll be able to forget about it (for the most part)

Cheers!

Click to expand...

You are missing the point of the 3 different backups here.

The daily backup would only cover your very important files such as word, excel, CAD drawings, financial files, etc. These you want backed up each day and they only take up a small amount of space.

Having both weekly and monthly backups seems excessive to me. I would probably just add in a weekly one to backup music/video/pictures. This way your drive wouldn't have doubles or triples of huge files and your really important stuff is backed up each day.

If your backup drive dies...you would still have the data on your primary drive in your computer.