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Backup Strategy: "The Threes"

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mouser:
I'm trying to get back into good backup habits.  I thought it might be worth documenting a new approach I'm taking.

FIRST A WORD ABOUT RAID:
Note that many people use a RAID approach to keeping their data safe; I have not adopted RAID yet and still have some uneasy feelings about it, but it may indeed be a good alternative solution to part of the goals I am outlining here.  HOWEVER -- While RAID does a good job of protecting your data against a hard drive hardware failure, that is only one of the goals of backing up data.  The other main goal is to keep backups against accidental modification/deletion/overwriting/corruption of files, which is only discovered days/weeks/months after it occurs without notice.

Three "tiers" of backup software:

* 1. Full disk imaging (software example: Macrium Reflect); backup full drives once per month; scope: all content on all drives; keep a few old images, delete old image to make room.
* 2. Broad document backup (software example; Backup4All); performed weekly or every couple of days (perhaps even daily); scope: all user data documents, even large databases; incremental if space allows; mirrored to spare hd if not; can delete old copies if space is limited.
* 3. Instant versioned/incremental backup (software example: FileHamster); keeps instant copies of every version; scope: small set of important documents that are frequently modified by user.
Justification:

* The full disk imaging is the comprehensive approach that backs up everything; but it takes too long and occupies too much space to perform too frequently.
* The instant versioned/incremental backups are too cpu and space demanding to have run on EVERY file that you might modify (for example if you have large databases that don't version well).
* The broad document backup may be best performed by mirroring directories onto a spare drive, which can be done quickly at the end of each day, occupying little extra space and taking little cpu.

Where to backup: 3 internal drives
I think a 3-internal-drive pc is the best way to go here:

* 1. A super fast system C drive (10k rpm, or solid state drive); 100gb or so.
* 2. A fast user document drive (10k rpm preferably).
* 3. A large backup drive (2tb preferably; speed not too important, but 7200rpm is nice)
All backups go from the system and document drive to the internal backup drive, which should be very fast to perform.

Alternatives: You could use an external usb drive for backups, but you want the connection to be fast if you are performing instant versioned backups; an alternative would be to back up from the system drive to the user drive, and vice versa, which is fine if you have enough space.

Lastly I think it make sense to keep copies the lastest full drive images on a removeable hard drive that is left outside of the house.  Using a hard drive dock will let you buy 2 hds and swap them every other time with a drive kept offsite.  Or you could upload to an online backup space.  This will protect from fire/theft.

cranioscopical:
My routine's pretty much like that. There's redundancy but that's okay by me. It took me many years to take this seriously but I really do believe that it's essential for anyone with material that matters to them, for whatever reason.

[*]Weekly imaging to a rotating set of alternating external HDDs (overnight) one of which is always moved off site.


[*]Daily copies of e.g., application data and MyDocuments to alternating internal HDDs.


[*]Per-project versioned backups, for current projects, to internal and external HDDs and across the network to other machines.


[*]Any-time on-demand reversion to previous boot-drive state (boot drive only).


[*]Periodic 'convenience' sync of selected sets of data between the originating and dedicated backup external HDDs e.g. photos, audio, software installations.
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When I'm working (seldom, thank goodness) it's to air-date deadlines, so this has to save my bacon only once to make the whole thing worthwhile. So far it's saved me more often than that.


Afterthought: docks for 'bare' external drives are very cheap and very useful. The few that I have provide an on-board choice between SATA and USB connections (BlacX). USB3 models are already on the market. Many of us have old drives lying around and such docks put these to good use cheaply and with a minimum of fuss. They might as well be lying around preserving data as lying around doing nothing useful.

mouser:
Sounds like you are doing things right chris -- i wish i was as disciplined about keeping offsite copies, it's my one weakness.

Another thing that has changed in recent years is that drives are really cheap enough that i think it makes sense to treat them as basically write-once permanent backup media.  That is, I think it makes sense to think about buying a new 1 or 2 TB drive each year to use as a backup and download repository, never erasing anything, and simply placing it on the shelf (or offsite) when it gets filled up, and then buy a new one, leaving the old full drives for emergency restoration should something really go wrong.

cranioscopical:
That is, I think it makes sense to think about buying a new 1 or 2 TB drive each year to use as a backup and download repository, never erasing anything, and simply placing it on the shelf (or offsite) when it gets filled up, and then buy a new one, leaving the old full drives for emergency restoration should something really go wrong.
-mouser (May 30, 2011, 07:18 AM)
--- End quote ---

Too true, I just bought a couple of bare 2TB drives for a laughably small sum.

Probably a good idea to spin up those full repository drives now and again.

If you're going just keep everything, having a couple of (a few) drives and a minimal plan (drive A, code; drive B, photos etc.) will save hunting through multiple drives later, unless you are super-diligent with your indexing.

cranioscopical:
i wish i was as disciplined about keeping offsite copies, it's my one weakness.

-mouser (May 30, 2011, 07:18 AM)
--- End quote ---

My neighbours are far enough away that it's a no-brainer. We meet up with them once a week anyway.

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