Backup plan/suggestions

[mac nutt]

I am about to purchase a new iMac with a 1 TB Fusion Drive, and I am trying to layout my backup gameplan to purchase any necessary drives/enclosures. The iMac will be my primary computer, but I also have two older Windows laptops that will be used sparingly (probably no need for backup). I plan to purchase some streaming boxes/sticks (Roku?) in the near future.

The drives I currently own are a 1 TB WD My Book NAS connected to my router and a 1 TB WD My Passport USB drive.

My plan was to have a 2 TB drive always connected for Time Machine backups. An additional drive will be used for cloning using either CCC or SuperDuper. I may add an additional layer of protection with some form of cloud storage in the future. My plan was to use the WD NAS for duplicate storage/common access/streaming of photos, videos, and music.

I did have some additional questions:
Pre-built or DIY?
3.5" or 2.5"?
Should I use two drives for both TM and clone and rotate?
What storage size would be best for the clone drive?
Should I leave the clone backup drive always connected or not?
Does this seem like a solid plan? What am I missing?

 

[thedeske]

I am about to purchase a new iMac with a 1 TB Fusion Drive, and I am trying to layout my backup gameplan to purchase any necessary drives/enclosures. The iMac will be my primary computer, but I also have two older Windows laptops that will be used sparingly (probably no need for backup). I plan to purchase some streaming boxes/sticks (Roku?) in the near future.

The drives I currently own are a 1 TB WD My Book NAS connected to my router and a 1 TB WD My Passport USB drive.

My plan was to have a 2 TB drive always connected for Time Machine backups. An additional drive will be used for cloning using either CCC or SuperDuper. I may add an additional layer of protection with some form of cloud storage in the future. My plan was to use the WD NAS for duplicate storage/common access/streaming of photos, videos, and music.

I did have some additional questions:
Pre-built or DIY?
3.5" or 2.5"?
Should I use two drives for both TM and clone and rotate?
What storage size would be best for the clone drive?
Should I leave the clone backup drive always connected or not?
Does this seem like a solid plan? What am I missing?

The clone doesn't really need to be connected. In fact, it's good to have at least one system clone away from the electrical in case something pops.

Sounds like you have a good basic plan. Which drives to use is not as important as sticking with a routine.

People who depend on their media for a living, use a 1,2,3 plan.
1 connected backup
2 second backup local & disconnected
3 third backup offsite

 

[ColdCase]

Yeah sounds like a good plan, especially keeping you TM backups on a dedicated drive. You may want to set up your clone as a bootable drive.

I may be mistaken, but I think you may need a backup app to backup those windows boxes to a NAS or shared drive. I use one of the ones OWC packages with their drives... novastore or something.

 

[mac nutt]

Anyone have any advice for pre-built vs DIY drives or desktop vs portable?

 

[matreya]

Anyone have any advice for pre-built vs DIY drives or desktop vs portable?

Personally, I prefer to buy bare drives and enclosures rather than pre-built drives. Portable drives have their place, but on a desktop, I prefer 3.5" drives, usually in RAID configurations for speed.

The best enclosure around is the Thunderbay 4 from OWC. I have two of their earlier TB1 incarnation, and they are superb.

As for the make/model of drive I use, I lean towards HGST (formerly Hitachi, now a part of WD) Deskstar NAS drives. I have 4 x 3TB and 4 x 4TB of them and they are quiet and reliable.

I am also quite impressed with the Toshiba drives (which were formerly Hitachi Deskstars) which I have setup in a 4 x 2TB RAID0 and get just over 400MB/sec when 75% full.