Critique my backup system please.

[bradl]

Ouch! My head hurts reading all the acronyms, tech jargon, etc. ?

Is there an simple off-the-shelf buy X and run Time Machine or some other app simple solution?

Yes.

1. Buy an external portable drive.
2. Run Time Machine.
3. Done.

However, where you store that drive is the issue, because while you have that backup with you in case of an emergency, if the disaster that wipes out your Mac also happens to wipe out your portable drive, you're in the same situation of having nothing to restore from.

In short, what we are talking about is having a backup strategy to your backup strategy. Always have a secondary plan available (or at least think about it) should your main backup strategy also fails.

BL.

 

[Kaikidan]

Ouch! My head hurts reading all the acronyms, tech jargon, etc. ?

Is there an simple off-the-shelf buy X and run Time Machine or some other app simple solution?

Depends of your needs,

1. Most simple and cheaper solution: Connect a external HD to your mac and let it run time machine on it.
2. Simple solution but more expensive: Find a Airport time capsule for sale, connect it to the network, backup to it automagically (apple product on apple ecosystem, very easy setup).
3. Most common but expensive: Buy a synology or whatever brand NAS that supports the time machine protocol, backup automatically to it.
4. Subscription based: Backup to Backblaze
5. Advanced solution but cheapper: use an old computer, install freeNAS/TrueNAS and use it as a NAS to backup to it, like if it was the option 3, but DIY.

 

[gilby101]

Ouch! My head hurts reading all the acronyms, tech jargon, etc. ?

1. Hard disk (at least twice size of internal disk) with Time Machine. This allows you to recover from most disasters to your Mac.
2. Backup to the cloud. My choice is Arq (not Backblaze) to a storage service like OneDrive, Google, B2, Wasabi, etc. This allows (slower) recovery from a more serious disaster (electronic or physical) which wipes out both Mac and local backup disk.

 

[Saturn007]

Had forgotten about this thread… Thanks for the solid responses!

My Time Capsule is still running well, but getting a replacement lined up makes sense. Given that it serves two functions, I have two questions!

1. What would you suggest as a *wireless* external drive?

I use a MacBook Air and move from room to room — so a wireless set up would be more convenient than a USB-C physical one!​

2. What would you suggest for a speedy router, but for a relatively budget-conscious consumer?

I may get an M1 MBA soon, if that matters. (Seems it does as related to WiFi…)​

 

[bradl]

Had forgotten about this thread… Thanks for the solid responses!

My Time Capsule is still running well, but getting a replacement lined up makes sense. Given that it serves two functions, I have two questions!

1. What would you suggest as a *wireless* external drive?

I use a MacBook Air and move from room to room — so a wireless set up would be more convenient than a USB-C physical one!​

For backups, I would not suggest anything wireless. Backups require consistency, persistency, and speed. Seeing that you will be limited by the speeds your router can serve over WiFi (which will probably still be 802.11g, giving you 54Mbps), you'll be limited to the speed of your router, not the drive or your Mac. That will severely impact the time and speed of your backups, as all of that has to go over the network. Additionally, the slightest loss of signal to your router will cause your Mac's connection to that drive to either slow down severely or lose it altogether. Not worth it. When it comes to backups, speed and consistency are ALWAYS preferred over convenience.

2. What would you suggest for a speedy router, but for a relatively budget-conscious consumer?

I may get an M1 MBA soon, if that matters. (Seems it does as related to WiFi…)​

Let's throw this another way. Will this router or switch only be internal to your home network, or will it replace the router supplied by your ISP? If it is not replacing your ISP's router, the only way it would be worth it is for you to disable WiFi completely on your ISP's router, and have this new one serve WiFi. It would then have to be connected to your ISP's router via ethernet.

But if that's the case, that new router would still be able to function as a switch, meaning that you would still get faster speeds connecting your Mac directly to that switch, and run your backups via that. At that point, you'd be limited to the speed of new switch/router, which you would easily get Gigabit speeds. 1Gbps vs. 54Mbps? you'd take the Gigabit speeds any day.

But again, as consistency is the issue, you'd get the best of both worlds by just using an external USB drive. You could carry both with you and as they'd be connected over USB, wouldn't have to worry about any network issues whatsoever.

BL.

 

[glenthompson]

Had forgotten about this thread… Thanks for the solid responses!

My Time Capsule is still running well, but getting a replacement lined up makes sense. Given that it serves two functions, I have two questions!

1. What would you suggest as a *wireless* external drive?

I use a MacBook Air and move from room to room — so a wireless set up would be more convenient than a USB-C physical one!​

2. What would you suggest for a speedy router, but for a relatively budget-conscious consumer?

I may get an M1 MBA soon, if that matters. (Seems it does as related to WiFi…)​

You don't need a wireless hard drive, you need one that can attach to your router and be served up by it. Alternatively, there are drives that act as basic NAS units. WD makes one but there have been issues with it. Many routers have USB ports to serve up a shared drive. Check the review sites to see which offers the capabilities you need. My current choice of an Eero doesn't meet that need.

As mentioned, wireless doesn't always work well for backups, particularly the initial backup. I find that CCC works much better for wireless backups. Unless you need continuous backups, placing the Air so it has a wired connection overnight will do a great job. I have a lot of backup tasks that run in the middle of the night.