External HD, Back Up System

Status
Not open for further replies.
trigatch4

trigatch4

BuildAndEarn
Aug 23, 2006
2,557
79
0
East Coast
www.eurekadiary.com
Looking for an External HD to backup all my websites locally. Also wondering if there is software and/or system to make the process simple and most effective.

Best buy has some 500GB and 1TB crap on sale for $125 and $250 but I don't really know what I'm buying... don't want to get a total piece of crap so lets hear your recommendations
 


I'm probably the most ignorant person around with this stuff. So, when I bought mine, a good friend recommended Seagate. I think it was $200 (not sure about the capacity).

My friend has been involved with that stuff (for his company) for years. He usually prefers going with a name brand that has a great reputation. Even if it costs more.

Hope that helps a little. Like I said, I'm an idiot with these things.
 
Problems with backup software (almost any): OPEN FILES
If a file is in use (say you left a torrent program running, or Word open, or a PDF open or didn't close Excel)and it tries to get a read-lock, it will not be able to.

Some software is able to get around stuff like MS software (takes a moment-in-time snapshot) but most of the time that costs $$$.

The nice 500, 750 & 1gig drive solutions out there are large, but single or double drive (double drive in raid 0 configuration to make a big disk) and offers no redundant data protections. Your absolute minimum for using a hard drive backup is raid 5 (min 3 disks, 2 for data, one for the parity bits) so if one drive goes out, you can replace it and rebuild the missing data from the good drive + parity. Hardware raid is the way to go, not Windows software raid. Now if TWO drives fail at the same time... well... Not good. That is when Raid 5+1 comes into play, 6 drives, standard raid 5 deployment, but that raid5 disk array is then mirrored to the other raid 5 array. Much better, but much more $$$.

And last but not least, this only offers HARDWARE protection. A rogue application (warez or badly written code of your own) or an accidental save over an existing file will not be able to be recovered.

I prefer to do the following:
1) back up ONLY datafiles, such as business folders, camera image archive, thunderbird data files, MySQL databases, \dev directories and so on. I do FULL backups, not incremental. Drive space is cheap, and I can dump old copies to DVD.
2) STORE data I will not use for awhile (software, ebooks (not IM books, but programming reference not being used) on CD/DVD, 2 copies of each disk. One in a binder, one in a sleeve, stored in seperate parts of the house (not worried enough for off-site storage yet)
3) Keep a master CD/DVD with the MUST HAVE software on it, updating it every so often. If my machine dies, Windows probably needed to be reinstalled anyways. Takes a little while, but well worth it, for the speed increase. All my most used stuff, right there, makes install easy(ish).

If I had a budget, I'd do the whole Raid 5+1 (network accessible), VMware virtual machines, and have gigabit ethernet between machines and the raid. But I don't.
 
If you're looking for a quick solution without RAID, Norton Ghost does a good job. I'm using that for data and the built in Vista backup for the OS. Very easy, set and forget.
 
cashflowrusty said:
Your absolute minimum for using a hard drive backup is raid 5 (min 3 disks, 2 for data, one for the parity bits) so if one drive goes out, you can replace it and rebuild the missing data from the good drive + parity. Hardware raid is the way to go, not Windows software raid. Now if TWO drives fail at the same time... well... Not good. That is when Raid 5+1 comes into play, 6 drives, standard raid 5 deployment, but that raid5 disk array is then mirrored to the other raid 5 array. Much better, but much more $$$.
Click to expand...

Please stop spreading wrong information and confusing everyone. Your definition of RAID5 is wrong but I'm not even going to get into it.

I think the most practical approach is to use USB external hard drives as you suggested. Get a name brand. I have seen some of the Seagate drives that come with backup software to let you schedule it to automatically backup what you want at regular intervals.

For extra protection, get a second external drive and rotate them out. Keep one at a friend's house or somewhere offsite in case of fire, theft, etc.
 
hwy24 said:
Please stop spreading wrong information and confusing everyone. Your definition of RAID5 is wrong but I'm not even going to get into it.
Click to expand...


You cannot get into it because you are wrong.

I said:
"Your absolute minimum for using a hard drive backup is raid 5 (min 3 disks, 2 for data, one for the parity bits) so if one drive goes out, you can replace it and rebuild the missing data from the good drive + parity"

See Wikipedia: Standard RAID levels - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"RAID 5 Striped set with distributed parity. Distributed parity requires all but one drive to be present to operate; drive failure requires replacement, but the array is not destroyed by a single drive failure. Upon drive failure, any subsequent reads can be calculated from the distributed parity such that the drive failure is masked from the end user. The array will have data loss in the event of a second drive failure and is vulnerable until the data that was on the failed drive is rebuilt onto a replacement drive."

I am correct in my statement about RAID 5.

Also, as for the statement that I made(which is NOT what you ignorantly attacked without explaination):
"Your absolute minimum for using a hard drive backup is raid 5"

This is stated AFTER explaining the issues of single drive backup (or raid 0):
"The nice 500, 750 & 1gig drive solutions out there are large, but single or double drive (double drive in raid 0 configuration to make a big disk) and offers no redundant data protections. "

Yes, there is RAID 1, but for RELIABLE BACKUP you want RAID 5 with redundancy.

I will accept your apology in the form of cash only.
 
cashflowrusty said:
I said:
"Your absolute minimum for using a hard drive backup is raid 5 (min 3 disks, 2 for data, one for the parity bits) so if one drive goes out, you can replace it and rebuild the missing data from the good drive + parity"
Click to expand...

That is why you are wrong. In RAID5, the data and parity is spread evenly across all disks. What you described is RAID4, where one disk is reserved for parity. Even the wikipedia page you linked to explains this.

Also, you can't say that RAID5 is more reliable than RAID1 (mirror).
 
Ok, I agree, in technical terms, the data is spread evenly on the drives. I was giving an overly simplistic view of RAID 5, and I failed in my example.

The idea, though, that the data can be regenerated is one drive goes out, is the main point of what I said, and that IS what RAID 5 is good for. RAID 4, you have to rebuild your data before the drive array is usable again, I BELIEVE, but RAID 5 is can 'limp along' by computing the missing data via CRC computations until the drive is replaced, THEN it does the rebuild, with the drives still available during rebuild.

Also, you can't say that RAID5 is more reliable than RAID1 (mirror).
Click to expand...
But I did, and I do. RAID 1, one drive goes out, you have to switch to the mirror drive. This is not automatic. RAID 5 can continue processing data, as I mentioned before, by limping along. Reliability is operational up-time in this case.

But thanks for pointing out, with your kindly worded and through initial explanation, the glaringly huge whole in my example that totally invalidated the whole comment.

Oh wait, you didn't, and it didn't, and it wasn't.

Like I said, I was wrong on the technical detail of the RAID 5 example, but the whole comment is still valid as a discussing of backup. Your comment, although correct, was stated in such a way that it was saying "you spelled a word wrong, but I am not telling you which one."

Thanks again, though.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom