Best Backup Solution

NutFlush920 · Feb 13, 2015

I have a external 4TB HDD that I frequently update with video files. I want to keep a offsite backup of this drive which the person holding for me can access the files. Till now, they just have been bringing the drive over to my house once a month to have it updated and that has worked OK for the most part but is time consuming.

I'd like to know what the advantage is of doing a "clone" in CCC or SuperDuper has over my method (if any). I see the new CCC can do offsite backup. If I do that, can we avoid the need to manually bring the backup drive to be updated by letting the software manage what files were changed and updating the drive accordingly?

What advantage is there to cloning vs just selecting all and copying/pasting from one drive to another?

Thanks for the help on m newbie questions.

ColdCase · Feb 13, 2015

Are you currently dragging and dropping all files or just the new ones or ones that have changed?

CCC will go through your master drive and only copy updated or new files to the backup drive. If that was what you were doing, then it will take about the same time, but probably less error prone. CCC can be set to archive files that were on the backup drive but not on the master drive (like if they were deleted). As far as being able to read the drive, it just looks like the master drive files, no difference.

if you want to backup to the drive remotely instead of carrying it, you need to have some connection to the remote drive via internet (VPN or remote access). If you are routinely backing up 10+GBs of files, that can be agonizing slow.

Your current method may still be the best for you.

glenthompson · Feb 13, 2015

If you both have decent internet connections you can use CrashPlan to backup the files without having to move the drives around.

StE823 · Feb 13, 2015

glenthompson said:
If you both have decent internet connections you can use CrashPlan to backup the files without having to move the drives around.

+1 on crashplan... was planning to spend more $ on harddrives and now backing up with crashplan without having physical drives in my office now. Even better than time machine

ColdCase · Feb 14, 2015

StE823 said:
+1 on crashplan... was planning to spend more $ on harddrives and now backing up with crashplan without having physical drives in my office now. Even better than time machine

The OP has a lot of large files. Crashplan is a disaster in most areas for large video files. It will upload the first 1GB or so and then slow to a crawl. Crashplan support told me their system is not designed to handle that use case and they throttle in order to serve their target consumer. One needs to look for another on line backup and they generally are expensive. Crashplan fine for small files, but its performance varies with what server you get assigned and the path your data takes through the cloud.

The most annoying thing is that once you install crashplan, it is sometimes near impossible to remove short of a fresh OS install and being careful what you migrate. The app just will not be emptied out of the trash.

StE823 · Feb 14, 2015

ColdCase said:
The OP has a lot of large files. Crashplan is a disaster in most areas for large video files. It will upload the first 1GB or so and then slow to a crawl. Crashplan support told me their system is not designed to handle that use case and they throttle in order to serve their target consumer. One needs to look for another on line backup and they generally are expensive. Crashplan fine for small files, but its performance varies with what server you get assigned and the path your data takes through the cloud.

The most annoying thing is that once you install crashplan, it is sometimes near impossible to remove short of a fresh OS install and being careful what you migrate. The app just will not be emptied out of the trash.

umm... I've been uploading a good amount of large files too. (Mostly 2GB PSB files). Everything is working fine for me.. My internet speed is 30 down 5 up.

viorelgn · Feb 14, 2015

Your techie friends keep telling you to back up your data. Your IT guy (or gal) scolds you on the importance of backing up your data. Both of them state how easy it is to do this. Weve even shown you how to do it. However, you keep hearing about a variety of solutions, ranging from small USB Flash drives, to external book drives, to backing up to the cloud. So heres the question

Should you use cloud services to back up your files or should you use external hard drives?

The opinions are divided. On the one hand, Cloud storage technology has matured to the point where its fairly reliable. On the other hand, External Hard Drives only cost you the one time, but your data isnt always available everywhere.

There are 2 different goals here and , depending upon how important one or the other is to you, will determine the best solution for you.

Have your data in two different places.
Have your data synchronized across multiple computers (e.g. Work Desktop and Work Laptop, or Work Desktop and Home Laptop).

Goal # 1 is the most important. If your data isnt in at least two different places, then you will lose it. This is one of the pitfalls of using external hard drives. Most people use them incorrectly.

If you want access to your data from anywhere, then goal #2 is equally important, although it requires a different solution. You need to decide how important this goal is to you. If you are constantly e-mailing files from your personal account to your work account (and filling up your quota), then you need to try out a synchronizing service.

glenthompson · Feb 14, 2015

viorelgn said:
Your “techie” friends keep telling you to back up your data. Your IT guy (or gal) scolds you on the importance of backing up your data. Both of them state how easy it is to do this. We’ve even shown you how to do it. However, you keep hearing about a variety of solutions, ranging from small USB Flash drives, to external “book” drives, to backing up to the cloud. So here’s the question…

Should you use “cloud” services to back up your files or should you use external hard drives?

The opinions are divided. On the one hand, Cloud storage technology has matured to the point where it’s fairly reliable. On the other hand, External Hard Drives only cost you the one time, but your data isn’t always available everywhere.

There are 2 different goals here and , depending upon how important one or the other is to you, will determine the best solution for you.

Have your data in two different places.
Have your data synchronized across multiple computers (e.g. Work Desktop and Work Laptop, or Work Desktop and Home Laptop).

Goal # 1 is the most important. If your data isn’t in at least two different places, then you will lose it. This is one of the pitfalls of using external hard drives. Most people use them incorrectly.

If you want access to your data from anywhere, then goal #2 is equally important, although it requires a different solution. You need to decide how important this goal is to you. If you are constantly e-mailing files from your personal account to your work account (and filling up your quota), then you need to try out a synchronizing service.

I prefer using both methods. I use time machine and CCC for local backup sand Crashplan for offsite. If my MBP dies completely I can plug the CCC clone into my wife's iMac, boot off it,and be running pretty much like I was before. The time machine backups protect me from my own screw ups. If I delete or overwrite a file, I can get it back. The Crashplan backup is for when everything else fails. I I lost everything in a fire or theft, I would orders backup drive from Crashplan and use it to restore my new system instead of trying to download everything.

Any good backup plan considers all the various failure modes and how to recover from them. One of the things I like about Crashplan is the ability to access my files from my iPad.

Fishrrman · Feb 14, 2015

OP wrote above:
[[ I have a external 4TB HDD that I frequently update with video files. I want to keep a offsite backup of this drive which the person holding for me can access the files. Till now, they just have been bringing the drive over to my house once a month to have it updated and that has worked OK for the most part but is time consuming. ]]

This task is what CCC and SD are designed for.

I suggest you try one or the other (or both) and base your decision on that experience.

CCC is FREE to download, and it is FREE to use for the first 30 days.
SD will do a "full clone" (everything) of a drive FOREVER without registering. If you want to do incremental backups, registration is required.

I again suggest you try CCC.
This will do EXACTLY what you are looking to do...

gc916 · Feb 15, 2015

For local backup, I'm using CCC/External USB drive for local clone, and Time Machine to a WD My Book Live on my network.

For an offsite alternative, I use Arq with Amazon's AWS S3 cloud storage. The Arq app is very customizable and easy to use. S3 is inexpensive, especially if you use the "Glacier" option, and offers reliability and redundancy. No data size limits for either the app or the storage.

I guess one could say I'm backup-obsessed.

SusanK · Feb 16, 2015

gc916 said:
I guess one could say I'm backup-obsessed.

Prudent

brentsg · Feb 16, 2015

Another vote for Crashplan here.. I have plenty of large files but I'm not sitting here benchmarking the upload. They get there just fine and are archived, and that's what matters. Honestly I've not noticed any throttling.

I use Crashplan to produce a local + cloud backup so that I have both available.

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