Back Up Solution - Help

[PreetinderBajwa]

Hi !

I am looking at creating a backup solution for my iMac and MBA. I need your advise to understand how I can do the following :

1. Use a Synology kind of solution with 4GB disks in each slot,
2. Use Disk 1 to keep all photo's and iTunes files and free up space on my iMac and MBA.... central repository of the media to store/access
3. Use disk 2 to be a replica of the disk 1
4. Use Disk 3 to be a Time Machine backup of Disk 1 and iMac
5. Use Disk 4 to be a CCC backup of Disk 1 and iMac
6. Use Partition Disk 5 for Time Machine and CCC of MBA
7. Use Disk 6 for Clone of Disk 3
8. Use Disk 7 for Clone of Disk 4
8. Use Disk 8 for Clone of Disk 5

So there is a backup and a backup of a backup. I have considered the cloud services like carbonate, blackblaze etc it could be my third backup just incase onsite backups are lost due to floor/fire/earthquakes/breakins etc

I am not sure how I can achieve what I am looking for, I am a non techie.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

 

[Tumbleweed666]

Summary: too complex.

Detail: I think you have too many backups of backups of clones of backups, especially considering that you have no offsite backups.
No offsite backups leads you extremely vulnerable to fire,theft, flood.
Every additional backup in the same location only adds an increasingly smaller increment of chances of recovery (eg adding extra backups doesn't help rescue you from fire for example) and in any chance by the time you add the fourth clone of a copy of a backup you aren't really getting any extra protection.
I also think all the manual intervention required to implement all this may lead to errors and at some point actually decrease availability.
Finally, all your backups, all connected, are potentially liable to some user error or malware or electrical fault which could potentially wipe them all out in one go.

So, I would suggest instead you slim down to separate CCC and time machine backups, another CCC backup that you take and then put offline, electrically isolated, ideally offsite, and then an offsite online backup with one of the many cloud backup solutions.

 

[zhenya]

Totally agree. I effectively do the same thing you want with a 3TB disk attached to my iMac - it backs up both the iMac and our MBA, serves content to the entire house, and I also store image backups there. I then also back up those computers individually, plus select content from the 3TB disk to Crashplan.

It's a simple, extremely reliable backup system that I virtually never need to manage.

 

[canuckle]

Summary: too complex.

Finally, all your backups, all connected, are potentially liable to some user error or malware or electrical fault which could potentially wipe them all out in one go.

This. I run a Synology NAS (5 bay) and I'm always aware that the weak point is the Raid hardware itself. NAS is not a backup, it's a storage solution with data protection. The controller itself is the single point of failure. Critical data should always be backed up to another solution.

 

[yjchua95]

Hi !

I am looking at creating a backup solution for my iMac and MBA. I need your advise to understand how I can do the following :

1. Use a Synology kind of solution with 4GB disks in each slot,
2. Use Disk 1 to keep all photo's and iTunes files and free up space on my iMac and MBA.... central repository of the media to store/access
3. Use disk 2 to be a replica of the disk 1
4. Use Disk 3 to be a Time Machine backup of Disk 1 and iMac
5. Use Disk 4 to be a CCC backup of Disk 1 and iMac
6. Use Partition Disk 5 for Time Machine and CCC of MBA
7. Use Disk 6 for Clone of Disk 3
8. Use Disk 7 for Clone of Disk 4
8. Use Disk 8 for Clone of Disk 5

So there is a backup and a backup of a backup. I have considered the cloud services like carbonate, blackblaze etc it could be my third backup just incase onsite backups are lost due to floor/fire/earthquakes/breakins etc

I am not sure how I can achieve what I am looking for, I am a non techie.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Here's another easier way:

Buy two Buffalo HD-PATU3 Thunderbolt drives. They're relatively inexpensive.

For the first one, make three partitions: one for your iMac and one for your MBA and one for the media libraries. Then back up to the relevant partition for the corresponding device (both Time Machine).

Do the same thing for the second drive. Then you have two images of your backups. The second drive should be placed somewhere else (i.e. your workplace or something like that) in case anything happens to your home like earthquakes, fires...or Armageddon itself.

 

[MacOG728893]

Check out my thread. There are helpful things discussed. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1681667/