Backing up computers properly

[BsFaninCGY]

I woke up this morning to a failing harddrive on my iMac and realized I haven't backed up since 2013. While things are getting transferred to an old external harddrive I had lying around, I've decided I need to do this right for once.

Currently I have my iMac with a 1TB (failing) harddrive, a 500GB MacMini with a 2TB external attached to it half full of media. I also have an old Macbook that is never used and an iPad & iPhone. Yes, I'm very much aware at how I've been sucked into the Apple ecosystem.

I plan on getting a new harddrive for the iMac today. SSD has always looked good to me but I'm a little leary on the cost vs. getting a larger drive with moving parts.

I'm not really sure what the best way to back everything up is. Current total storage capacity among all Apple devices & hardware is over 4GB. Using TimeMachine seems easiest - tho I believe it needs much more space than my current capacity as it saves versions and each backup is cumulative. Maybe I'm wrong there?

Basically I started this thread looking for ideas from anyone who has done something like this before. My iMac is my work computer and is most important - tho I'd hate to start over again with my Plex library too. What is a relatively affordable way to keep everything backed up, on a schedule, and able to be restored should the worst happen without too much of a headache?

Thanks in advance!

[J Diddy]

I use Crashplan to send my music, photos and docs to the cloud and to my parents PC (offsite). $55 for the year and unlimited upload. I use the Crashplan client to send backups of my entire desktop to my home server and vice versa. I then send my complete backups to an external drive bay.

[Regulator75]

^^^ What he said.

Check online backups. We've had a few threads about them.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/mainte...p_services.htm

I use Crashplan (unlimited) and have no issues restoring files.

[BsFaninCGY]

Thanks to you both. Online/cloud backups was definitely something I wanted to look into, but I thought keeping a physical backup would be a good idea too. Maybe someone has some recommendations on that?

[ken0042]

I bought my mom a Western Digital MyBook external drive a few years ago. Easy to setup, and every time I remote into her computer I check the status. It's still doing what I asked; backing up the folders I specified and keeping 6 weeks of weekly backups stored.

I have since added Microsoft One Drive; which I also use myself. It takes anything new and backs it up.

I'm keeping the physical backup for her, as it is more likely she could get some sort of file locker virus.

[Finger Cookin]

I've looked into cloud based services, but I'm still more comfortable with a physical back-up. I just connect it once a month when I do my back-up, and disconnect it afterwards. I guess that kind of back-up wouldn't work in the event of a disaster (fire, flood, etc.), as the back-up drive is in the same space as my PC. But it would work fine for recovery due to power surges or general unexpected PC shenanigans.

I've thought about getting a safe deposit box to keep my back-up drive in offsite.

[J Diddy]

Originally Posted by BsFaninCGY

Thanks to you both. Online/cloud backups was definitely something I wanted to look into, but I thought keeping a physical backup would be a good idea too. Maybe someone has some recommendations on that?

Leave an external drive attached to your PC or add a second drive to your mac (no idea if that is possible) or use another computer in the house...use CrashPlan client (free) to backup to it. Setup a backup job and turn email notifications on to confirm the backups are completing. So now you have CrashPlan doing onsite and offsite backups.

My sisters have not had good luck with the Apple time capsule. Stalls to the point where they need to wipe it clean and start over.

[J Diddy]

Originally Posted by Finger Cookin

I've looked into cloud based services, but I'm still more comfortable with a physical back-up. I just connect it once a month when I do my back-up, and disconnect it afterwards. I guess that kind of back-up wouldn't work in the event of a disaster (fire, flood, etc.), as the back-up drive is in the same space as my PC. But it would work fine for recovery due to power surges or general unexpected PC shenanigans.

I've thought about getting a safe deposit box to keep my back-up drive in offsite.

So if you do your backups manually on the first of the month (lets assume you remember)...what do you do when your harddrive fails on the last of the month? Just accept that you lost a months worth of data?

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by BsFaninCGY

Current total storage capacity among all Apple devices & hardware is over 4GB. Using TimeMachine seems easiest - tho I believe it needs much more space than my current capacity as it saves versions and each backup is cumulative. Maybe I'm wrong there?

I assume you meant 4TB?

It does, but will overwrite older versions when it needs more space, and also only updates changed files. It won't take the full 4TB, considering it doesn't back up programs, OS, etc. iOS devices can get backed up to the computer (compressed), and will be included in the time machine backup. I think you're over-estimating how much storage space you'll need.

Your other option if you still think you'll run out of space is pick up 2 4TB external drives, and separate the backups.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

So if you do your backups manually on the first of the month (lets assume you remember)...what do you do when your harddrive fails on the last of the month? Just accept that you lost a months worth of data?

On a personal computer, is a month of data really that much?

[J Diddy]

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

On a personal computer, is a month of data really that much?

Doesn't matter how much data it is...if you lose data it's not a backup SOLUTION now is it.

[Regulator75]

I use a 5 TB external drive for my backups (on top of Crashplan), I also backup certain important files with my BluRay writer. Kind of paranoid about losing TB's of photographs.

I was looking into a RAID solution, but didn't make the jump.

[TSXCman]

I just bought a wireless 2 HDD bay NAS for backup and wireless media sharing. My goal is to have my laptop and PC auto backup when fired up in its area.

Now I need to research HDDs, whether to match 2 of them, whether to raid or not, etc. Red WD drives seem to be pretty expensive still.

[Fuzz]

I just run a script that copies the data from mine to my wife's computer, and vice versa once a week. Every few months I'll backup to an external that I encrypt and keep in my office at work.

[Finger Cookin]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

So if you do your backups manually on the first of the month (lets assume you remember)...what do you do when your harddrive fails on the last of the month? Just accept that you lost a months worth of data?

I have a recurring calendar reminder, so it remembers for me. God knows I would forget without it.

And yeah, a month's worth of data isn't a lot that couldn't be recovered. Some emails, some media files, maybe some file updates. It would be a pain, but it would be much less pain than losing everything.

I dunno though, maybe I should back-up more frequently.

[BsFaninCGY]

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

I assume you meant 4TB?

It does, but will overwrite older versions when it needs more space, and also only updates changed files. It won't take the full 4TB, considering it doesn't back up programs, OS, etc. iOS devices can get backed up to the computer (compressed), and will be included in the time machine backup. I think you're over-estimating how much storage space you'll need.

Your other option if you still think you'll run out of space is pick up 2 4TB external drives, and separate the backups.

Yes, 4TB - my bad. But that's great to know I won't have to go out and buy 12TB worth of storage.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Any important data I have lives in at least 2 separate drives (my main desktop has 4), and I have a script run nightly to backup my Windows user profile folder so that if my main drive crashes I can re-install Windows and get back up in short order

[BlackArcher101]

I'll add another personal recommendation for Crashplan. I implemented it and uploaded most of my critical files to their cloud/offsite backup service. Took 3 weeks of constant upload. No sooner than a month later, and my main storage drive failed unexpectedly. After installing a new drive, Crashplan recognizes the missing data and automatically restores it.

What I love the best about Crashplan is that it is silent in the background, constantly backing up any changes you make. As well, the free version of it allows for backups remotely to a computer with Crashplan installed elsewhere. This allows my dad to backup his computer onto mine (and encrypted so I can't see anything) for free, giving him a service similar to mine with their cloud storage.

The only thing I don't backup with Crashplan is my music, instead I use Google Play to archive and a full download is a click away.

Having to constantly shuffle hard drives due to end of life or other issues became pricey. This cloud backup is a fairly worry free way of doing it.

[BsFaninCGY]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

I'll add another personal recommendation for Crashplan. I implemented it and uploaded most of my critical files to their cloud/offsite backup service. Took 3 weeks of constant upload. No sooner than a month later, and my main storage drive failed unexpectedly. After installing a new drive, Crashplan recognizes the missing data and automatically restores it.

What I love the best about Crashplan is that it is silent in the background, constantly backing up any changes you make. As well, the free version of it allows for backups remotely to a computer with Crashplan installed elsewhere. This allows my dad to backup his computer onto mine (and encrypted so I can't see anything) for free, giving him a service similar to mine with their cloud storage.

The only thing I don't backup with Crashplan is my music, instead I use Google Play to archive and a full download is a click away.

Having to constantly shuffle hard drives due to end of life or other issues became pricey. This cloud backup is a fairly worry free way of doing it.

Can I ask what your advertised upload speed is and how much data you were uploading? I recently cut my internet plan back to the bare minimum because I wasn't using anywhere near the bandwidth I had been paying for. So far the cut in DL speed hasn't really affected me, but uploading even a few pictures to Dropbox brings everything to a standstill. I suppose I could temporarily go back to a faster plan...

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by BsFaninCGY

Can I ask what your advertised upload speed is and how much data you were uploading? I recently cut my internet plan back to the bare minimum because I wasn't using anywhere near the bandwidth I had been paying for. So far the cut in DL speed hasn't really affected me, but uploading even a few pictures to Dropbox brings everything to a standstill. I suppose I could temporarily go back to a faster plan...

I actually started to use Shaw 50 plan to upload, but quickly discovered Shaw's upload speed just wasn't going to cut it, as the estimated time was over 2 months. So I switched to the Telus 100 plan with 20 upload. I currently have just under 1TB GB stored on their server, but can't recall what upload speed I was getting. Probably somewhere between 2-3 MB/s.