External Hard Drives and Backup: I'm looking for suggestions on a file storage solution. (Like a Drobo). I'm thinking 2 separate hard drives - plus a third drive just for backup. I'm...

dandev Loc: Enumclaw, WA

I'm looking for suggestions on a file storage solution. (Like a Drobo).
I'm thinking 2 separate hard drives - plus a third drive just for backup. I'm ready to spring for solid state drives.
Or maybe the backup is in the cloud.

Thanks...

cbtsam Loc: Monkton, MD

I can't help with Drobos, but you need both external drives and the cloud. I use Backblaze for my cloud backup and it has been easy, painless, and quite helpful when my external backup and another drive both failed, putting back up and running without any loss in less than a week (much quicker for smaller losses).

dandev Loc: Enumclaw, WA

Thanks

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I have a Synology NAS with two hard drives rated for a NAS. An SSD is fast, but do you need speed for backing up? SSDs have a limited (long, but limited) life. Then you have to buy a new one. If you're buying an SSD, look for its TBW rating - TerraBytes Written.

https://blog.westerndigital.com/ssd-endurance-speeds-feeds-needs/

Fred Harwood Loc: Sheffield, Mass.

The thought of losing my 30,000+ photos keeps me in drives. On my iMac I use Apple's Time Machine for all my daily data and photos, then monthly also copy my originals to two other Tbyte drives. I use iPhoto (Photo) as an index of key-worded smaller files in smart folders to display them or acess my originals. Also, I load my latest Photo library onto my laptop from time to time.

lreisner Loc: Union,NJ

Just as a reminder to Amazon Prime members: They offer unlimited back up of your digital photo files without size restrictions. It is at no additional cost. It is not ideal but does work and as they say its better than nothing. If you down load the app it will also upload all of your cell phone pictures as well.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I have three 3.5" hard drives that I cycle for backups in a drive dock, plus a Western Digital USB pocket drive.
I use Carbonite for the cloud as a disaster recovery storage of all images, songs, docs, spreadsheets, etc.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

lreisner wrote:

Just as a reminder to Amazon Prime members: They offer unlimited back up of your digital photo files without size restrictions. It is at no additional cost. It is not ideal but does work and as they say its better than nothing. If you down load the app it will also upload all of your cell phone pictures as well.

What about documents, and such?
Or do you only backup photos.

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

cbtsam wrote:

I can't help with Drobos, but you need both external drives and the cloud. I use Backblaze for my cloud backup and it has been easy, painless, and quite helpful when my external backup and another drive both failed, putting back up and running without any loss in less than a week (much quicker for smaller losses).

YES - One local backup hard drive for convenience and one cloud backup for disaster insurance is the recommended way to go.

The local can be an internal or external and disc or solid state. External via USB is the most convenient, easiest to install. Solid state can be faster if connected with a fast bus like internal but is more expensive.

I backup all in the cloud with Carbonite.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Three drives is good, but I don't see much point in spending big bucks for SSD. The spinners are cheaper and will work just fine. Backup is not something where you need fast access to the files.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

DirtFarmer wrote:

Three drives is good, but I don't see much point in spending big bucks for SSD. The spinners are cheaper and will work just fine. Backup is not something where you need fast access to the files.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Longshadow wrote:

What about documents, and such?

I have thousands of documents backed up. It's better than storing the paper. All my manuals are on the computer, but I kept the paper versions, too. It's very easy to read them on the computer

lreisner Loc: Union,NJ

Longshadow wrote:

What about documents, and such?
Or do you only backup photos.

I back up my non photo files to external hard drives and to One Drive where I have free storage. My non picture files take up very little storage space. I have over 80,000 picture files in the Cloud. Most are Raw files requiring a lot of space. Granted there are probably a lot of duplicate files in the cloud. You also get 5 gigs of backup for videos before you have to pay extra.

If you are not a Amazon Prime member, I would recommend looking at a different alternative. If you are a prime member there is nothing to loose. You can always find an alternative if it doesn't work for you. If you have music files that you want to back up and lots of video then Prime will not work.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

lreisner wrote:

I back up my non photo files to external hard driv... (show quote)

Good!
Many people only back up their photos!

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

dandev wrote:

I'm looking for suggestions on a file storage solution. (Like a Drobo).
I'm thinking 2 separate hard drives - plus a third drive just for backup. I'm ready to spring for solid state drives.
Or maybe the backup is in the cloud.

Thanks...

If you are thinking of a drobo, then forget it and look at Synology - industrial, scalable NAS at affordable prices. Better company, great support, no reason to consider second best. No, I don't own one, but if I did that would be the one. I've installed a dozen of them for friends and colleagues, and I only have great things to say about them.

But this is not a backup solution - it is redundancy. A proper backup solution involves a bit more. Too much to go into here - but if you google "what is a good backup strategy" you'll learn a lot.