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Best way to backup a 500GB G5?
- Thread starter link92
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or how about7on said:
a lot of dvd-r's
many many cd-r's
a crapola of zip disks
or a infinite amount of floppy disks or usb flash drives
Do you need to back-up large video projects? Then you will need a large external hard drive. For smaller stuff you will need DVD-R's or DVD-RW's.
get two or more harddisks that you have as a spare and built a external enclosure around it (or buy it). or keep that machine on which you are working with and when the G5 gets there, hook them up!
The best way, not the cheapest
Here's my back-up system:
2 * 500GB LaCie drives for working and current files (last 3 months)
1 * LaCie AIT 2 tape back-up and a pile of tapes
The tape back-up is worth it's weight in gold, to me at least. For each new job I buy 2 tapes, one stays in the office and one copy at a friends. Using Retrospect automates the back-up process so it's a no brainer. I once lost 3 months worth of 3D work, it cost me the client and a load of cash. From that day on I take backing up very seriously.
It may seem cheaper to use DVDs but here's what I did. Download a copy of MacMinder and set it to record your usage of Toast. That way you can get a very accurate picture of how long you spend backing up to DVD. If you use your Mac to make a living tasks like burning DVDs quickly eats away at your profits.
It's much wiser to invest the money upfront to build a system that is:
a) Very reliable, with two tape back-ups you'd need a major catastrophe to lose any work.
b) Doesn't need your input, changing tapes takes 10 seconds.
It may take a while to learn how to use Retrospect properly but you will thank me one day. It may not happen soon but the day will come when your tape back-ups may just save your a@se.
Also invest in a good UPS. The APC RS series are pretty good. No use having a back-up system that a little lightning can too easily fry.
Here's my back-up system:
2 * 500GB LaCie drives for working and current files (last 3 months)
1 * LaCie AIT 2 tape back-up and a pile of tapes
The tape back-up is worth it's weight in gold, to me at least. For each new job I buy 2 tapes, one stays in the office and one copy at a friends. Using Retrospect automates the back-up process so it's a no brainer. I once lost 3 months worth of 3D work, it cost me the client and a load of cash. From that day on I take backing up very seriously.
It may seem cheaper to use DVDs but here's what I did. Download a copy of MacMinder and set it to record your usage of Toast. That way you can get a very accurate picture of how long you spend backing up to DVD. If you use your Mac to make a living tasks like burning DVDs quickly eats away at your profits.
It's much wiser to invest the money upfront to build a system that is:
a) Very reliable, with two tape back-ups you'd need a major catastrophe to lose any work.
b) Doesn't need your input, changing tapes takes 10 seconds.
It may take a while to learn how to use Retrospect properly but you will thank me one day. It may not happen soon but the day will come when your tape back-ups may just save your a@se.
Also invest in a good UPS. The APC RS series are pretty good. No use having a back-up system that a little lightning can too easily fry.
It really depends what you're backing up. If it's just personal documents and other odds and ends a few CD/DVD-R's will do it. If what you're doing is mission critical I'd follow zoetropeuk's advice.
An X-RAID might protect you from disk errors, but only offsite backups (via tape or HD) will do much good in case of a fire?
An X-RAID might protect you from disk errors, but only offsite backups (via tape or HD) will do much good in case of a fire?
Depends on what is being backed up
How important is the data? is there varying levels of importance? How big are the files? I personally use a combination of DVD-R's and external hard disks. How likely is it you will fill an entire 500 gig hard drive? I use a series of 120 gig external harddrives as a storage solution. But 200Gig might be better if you store large files. And if you have super important info suitable to fit on a dvd-R taking a burned/varified DVD-R to a safe deposit box is a pretty good system.
How important is the data? is there varying levels of importance? How big are the files? I personally use a combination of DVD-R's and external hard disks. How likely is it you will fill an entire 500 gig hard drive? I use a series of 120 gig external harddrives as a storage solution. But 200Gig might be better if you store large files. And if you have super important info suitable to fit on a dvd-R taking a burned/varified DVD-R to a safe deposit box is a pretty good system.
LaCie's Biggest Disk (Either Bigger Disk, or Big Disk Extreme, not sure) is avalible up to 1.6TB, is small for the storage space, and can be daisy-chained with other ones the same as it. Connects via USB 2.0 and Firewire 400/800. It can also record raw DV video off a camera without a computer.
I think it's one thousand-something dollars. Cheaper than an X-RAID, which is several thousand I think.
I think it's one thousand-something dollars. Cheaper than an X-RAID, which is several thousand I think.
I'm tempted by the Bigger Disk Extreme, because I would prefer not having tapes, and I could partion it into a 500GB section, and a 1.1TB section, so, I could have an extra hard drive to put DV content onto, what do you think of that idea?
link92 said:
It all depends on how important your data is. For truly important data, you need automated, off-site backups. Think of the "what if your house burns down" scenario. For stuff that would simply be a pain to lose, e.g. software you could reinstall, etc., maybe you don't need to back up at all. There's a whole spectrum of backing up inbetween. You need to decide how important your data is, then select an appropriate backup system.
Personally, I have (barely) less than 100 MB of mission-critical data, so I simply use iDisk for backing up day-to-day stuff, and CDs for archives. But I'm a writer, not a DV editor.
I use an external firewire HD enclosure and a stack of old 80 GB, 40Gb, 35GB drives. I took this one step further with using a removable drive case inside the firewire HD enclosure. It only works with drives under 135 GB. The backup process is manual as I drag folders over logically. I don't backup the O/S partition except for critical files to my .Mac account.
Newer firewire HD enclosures support drives over 135 GB. DVDs and CDs are too expensive to backup that much in time and materials. Tape backup systems are also too expensive. HDs are the way to go. If possible store you HDs offsite.
Newer firewire HD enclosures support drives over 135 GB. DVDs and CDs are too expensive to backup that much in time and materials. Tape backup systems are also too expensive. HDs are the way to go. If possible store you HDs offsite.
I should probably switch to a hybrid backup system like yours because I like the idea so much. What I'm thinking of doing is using iDisk for the simple stuff, archiving other data on CD/DVD, and continuing regular complete backups using Carbon Copy Cloner.wordmunger said:
Well, then, I'd say a second hard drive is a very reasonable and convenient option. Makes a lot of sense.link92 said:There again, I'm not a DV editor, and most of the DV isn't mission-critical, heck, none of it is, I have a couple of megs of mission critical data, and that's all in a MySQL database online
500GB is a lot of porn man!
I would go for the Floppy Disk method. Granted, stacking up all 365,715 disks would be nearly 3/4ths of a mile high, but the Windows world would still consider them a useful and legit storage method.
Honestly though, I would get some external HDs and some high-class back-up software.
I would go for the Floppy Disk method. Granted, stacking up all 365,715 disks would be nearly 3/4ths of a mile high, but the Windows world would still consider them a useful and legit storage method.
Honestly though, I would get some external HDs and some high-class back-up software.