Need help with back up solutions

[guy curlewis]

Help - I need help with coming up with an easy backup workflow and external hard drive solution.

What I have at the moment is

iMac with 1TB storage for documents, etc
1 x gTech 320gb firewire 800 with a number of Aperture Library vaults (310gb used)

1 x gTech 1tb storage daisy chained to the other Gtech - on this is 540gb of Aperture libraries, assorted videos.

1 x WD My passport 500gb usb 2 - time machine back up (goes back a month)


I am feeling a little paranoid about not having off site storage somewhere and should I be using software like Superduper for bootable back ups etc.

I am not a professional photographer - just someone who likes taking pictures and has amassed rather a lot of them still in RAW format (i will get round to converting to Jpeg at some point)

Can anyone give me some pointers as to

1. suggested workflow
2. additional external hard drives (not expensive please)
3. Any other advice most welcome

Thanks

iMac 21.5" i3 3.2, canon 7d and too many lenses to list here

 

[mrTortex]

You sound like you are in the same pickle as I was a year or so back. I had stuff all over the place, photos mainly. I decided to sort it, and so I now have:

MacBook Pro as my main system, external 3TB G-Tech Drive as my main storage for photos. The MBP has almost nothing on it at all, it all goes on the G-Tech.

I have a second identical G-Tech 3TB drive which syncs to the original, but never deletes. So anything new on drive 1 automatically gets synced to drive 2. To do this I use a custom script which runs hourly, but GetBackup can do the same thing for you.

I then have a second script which runs every week which syncs drive 2 to a third drive, also a G-Tech which I keep at work on my Mac there. This happens over night. The easier option would be to bring the drive home every Friday and do it manually, but I'd forget.

So that's 3 copies with 1 off-site.

Not this is where I get a bit crazy! I take that third copy and sync that to a server I have (also at work) which itself it backed up to a second identical server, both of which are backed up daily to tape by our IT department. The tapes are stored in a vault.

I shoot in RAW, but my first script makes a TIFF file and a lower res JPEG for me. So that covers formats.

I'm realising I may have gone over board with my backup solution.

Anyway, if I were you I'd use GetBackup Pro and buy two 3TB G-Tech drives, move all your stuff onto one, sync that to the second, and use your existing 1TB G-Tech for off-site storage of the really important stuff.

 

[guy curlewis]

sounds like your two 3tb drives are in slightly alternative version of RAID!

Do you have experience of anything else apart from Gtech (lovely but expensive!)

Secondly does back up pro remove the need for time machine?

 

[blueroom]

Time Machine is a pretty handy backup solution. Easy and automatic.

 

[mrTortex]

Ye, similar to RAID but the duplicate doesn't mirror the original, so accidental delta from the original doesn't end up in delete from the backup.

I really like G-Tech, however I've had great experiences with Lacie also. I'd happily go for a Lacie drive.

Time Machine, as blue room notes, is a great simple solution. You could use that to keep iTunes etc backed up, but I'd personally not use it for very important things.