BackBlaze is pointless for two reasons:

1) my data from the drive wasn’t saved
2) I have all my data stored on external drives. If they are unmounted, BB can’t find them.

Plus, if I set up a NAS system, I’ll have my own personal cloud. I would keep BB if it had kept my data safe, but it didn’t!

Thanks for your input.

From my research, it seems NAS is preferred over DROBO, albeit more complex. It seems to be working for you though and that’s good. I, too, will be dismounting my drives when not in use going forward. My computer guy compared it to letting your car run when you aren’t driving it.

Thanks for your input!

I had RAID 1 set up on 2 drives in an enclosure, connected to my computer. Unfortunately, BOTH drives failed at the same time, causing a near total loss of my data (some of the data was backed up on other external drives and/or CDs/DVDs). I also have BackBlaze but these files were not there either. I'm using a MAC Big Sur 11.6.2.

I took the drives to a computer guy to possibly retrieve the data and had quite a lengthily discussion on the NAS backup SYSTEM. This is your own personal "cloud" because it is connected via the internet and WiFi and not attached to the computer. He also said that I should unmount the drives when I am not using them and to shut down the computer. This is not a practice that I have been following.

I have done extensive research on setting up NAS, including searching this site. I am considering either Synology DiskStation or WD MyCloud EX. I would like at least 4 bays. Currently I have 2 WD Red Plus drives that are 2TB each. Currently, they are independent and in an enclosure that is connected to the computer. I was debating about leaving them that way and purchasing a third drive to store a backup copy of my data to keep off site. If I go with a NAS system, another backup is still recommended. I have thousands of pictures dating back to 1900 (scanned or other).

4 questions:

1) Do you only mount your drives when you are using them? If so, then BackBlaze is pointless.
2) Is a NAS system the best option or should I just keep 3 separate drives?
3) Recommendations for a NAS system (either what I am considering or something different).
3) My computer guy recommended Raid 5 but that does not mirror my data. Instead, should I use Raid 10?

I took my drives to a computer guy and I do not know if he'll be able to retrieve my data. Now I'm considering a NAS setup going forward (one that doesn't connect to the computer but rather is my own private "cloud").

Thank you for this detailed advice. I will definitely be changing and testing my backup system

I do have another Raid 1 in a hot swappable setup but the difference is that I have a third drive that I swap out monthly and keep in the safe AND I make another copy to another drive, so I actually have four copies of my pictures from 2015 to current.

The drives that failed had my older pictures, scanned pictures and documents on it. I do have other copies of the pictures and the most important documents are either in Dropbox, Google Docs or Sheets or Apple cloud.

Carbon Copy Cloner might make my life easier. One of those copies needs to be offsite.

I want to avoid a repeat failure and I really was hoping for a way to retrieve everything from the unreadable drive. I’ll have to leave that to the professionals.

No worries. I should have mentioned I was a MAC user in the initial post. Thanks!

Yes, I do plan on taking the old drives to a specialist. I think I have copies of the pictures on an older external drive that is off site. I also have the best pictures and old scanned pictures on a CD. However, I don’t have my documents anywhere else. I’ll have to change that practice!

It’s very possible that a power outage caused the problem while I was away. I’m not sure about a surge/spike. I’m pretty sure that both the computer and the drive enclosure are plugged into the surge protector/batter backup. I’ll be double checking that later today.

What do you mean when you say to use my computer and not my drives for the BB backup? Currently, BB backs up both. Also, Time Machine backs up just the computer on another external drive.

I think I will keep the two new drives separate to avoid loosing both drives simultaneously again.

Thanks for all your advice.

I GIVE UP. Nothing I tried works; so I am just going to use the new drives as independent drives and copy the data manually to the 2nd drive!! I've set up BackBlaze to back up drive one in this set. Thanks to everyone who responded.

I read this article and while it explained everything quite well, my MAC computer cannot download the repair software. Thanks for trying to help me!

I did try a recovery software and the files recovered were basically trash. Now the old drive won't even mount.

I tried this. The first drive I inserted created the message, "The disk you attached was not readable by this computer". The second drive caused no message to appear on the computer and on Disk Utility, it says "missing/damaged" for the old drive. If I click on repair, both drives are grayed out on the popup list. Also, in Disk Utility, it says "unmounted". When I select the old drive and choose mount, I get this message:"Invalid disk"

Currently, it is setup as 2 independent drives. What software would you recommend to recover the data on the unreadable drive? I am using BigSur on a MAC

I had 2 disks set up as Raid 1 so as to have a copy if one disk fails. They are stored in a G-Technology box.However, the drives disappeared in Finder, so I turned off the G-Technology box that stored them and turned the power back on. I got this message: "The connected drive is not readable". I know when Raid 1 is set up, the computer sees it as one drive and copies from drive 1 to drive 2 in the background. I got the same message whether one drive or both drives were in the enclosure. I called G-Technology and was told that both drives were probably encrypted. I thought the purpose of Raid 1 was to have data on a 2nd disk if the first drive failed. In my case, BOTH drives are unreadable.

I thought perhaps the encasement was at fault but that is not the case. I ordered 2 more drives and set them up through disk utility. Now I have 2 questions.

1) Finder shows 2 drives. How should I set this up? My choices are: leave them alone or set up as Raid 1 (again) or Raid 0.

2) How can I retrieve the date on the unreadable drives (OR is it lost forever?)

I have researched like crazy and could not find an answer.

In addition, I use BackBlaze but the data from the G-Tech drives is missing from there, too. I know that I had BB set up to backup that drive. I think perhaps I'm wasting my money on BackBlaze if I cannot restore the data on a failed drive.

Any advice is appreciated. Thank you.

I actually have a dedicated photo printer, the Canon Pro 10. This printer is for my daughter-in-law. She just wants an all around that will do a decent job on 4x6 pictures. I am on a waiting list for the Canon G620. She decided to spend $300 instead of $600 for the Epson.

Thanks for your input. You steered me to this printer.