Your offsite backup solution?

[seveej]

I'd like to hear about the solutions you have employed to manage offsite backuping (having a security copy of your data at a remote location in case of fire etc.).

RGDS,

P.S. I deliberately post this in the Pro section, because I'm interested in the views of people who have a lot of data to secure and to whom the data is really worth something...

 

[rctlr]

I have a rsync into Dropbox.

 

[AppleDeviceUser]

I use Final Cut Pro X, Aperture, Motion 5, and Logic Pro, however everything I edit in them is not important enough to worry about backing up somewhere else, (I'd be more worried about my 15" Retina MacBook Pro.) However when I make my editing business bigger I am going to have a time machine both at my house and my business, so I can back up to both.

 

[GermanyChris]

I've got a home built Linux based NAS. It resides in a Lian Li mid tower with corsair drive racks..

I use cloud based storage for photos and important videos, Along with a buffalo drive station quad here at the work apartment and at home. Neither stay plugged in..

 

[DPUser]

I record audio. Files too large and numerous for convenient cloud storage.

I record to SSD.

I immediately back up all project data to second and third internal HDs in my Mac Pro as well.

I rotate external Time Machine drives on and off site bi-weekly.

 

[GGJstudios]

I'd like to hear about the solutions you have employed to manage offsite backuping (having a security copy of your data at a remote location in case of fire etc.).

I use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone all my drives and rotate backup drives, some stored on site and others in a secure remote location.

P.S. I deliberately post this in the Pro section, because I'm interested in the views of people who have a lot of data to secure and to whom the data is really worth something...

Which computer model you have has no relation to how much data you have or how you value that data. Mac Pro users are by no means exclusive in that regard, and users of other models may find or offer useful backup tips in this thread.

 

[goodcow]

CrashPlan.

 

[m4v3r1ck]

Local: Carbon Clone Copy (OSX Bootable & Data)
Offsite: Backup Online, backup of all ccc backups to keep it neat & tidy

 

[brentsg]

I use CrashPlan for offsite backup and have had great success with it, and that's considering that I had to recover 1.5TB of data from it recently.

Locally I have a file server, so when the data loss occurred I initially tried recover from that archive. However, I found that an undetected hardware issue had caused some corruption. I recovered partial from this source, and the remainder from the cloud archive. In the end I lost nothing.

I am in a transitional phase currently, as the server has not been replaced or repaired. As such I have dedicated a 4TB in my Mac Pro to be the local archive in the interim. This certainly isn't ideal but it will do for now.

In all I have about 2TB archived in the cloud.

 

[utekineir]

jaz drive

 

[Tesselator]

Physical drives kept at off-site locations are cool.

Cloud services suck butt IMO: https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/16879436/

 

[-hh]

Physical drives kept at off-site locations are cool.

This is what I've been doing .. I have one 3.5" HDD backup in my desk drawer at work and another 3.5" HDD backup in the safety deposit box at the bank. Both are roughly equal on the 'inconvenience' scale.

Cloud services suck butt IMO...

A lot of the question depends on the bandwidth of your ISP connection ("speed") and how much data you have to move around. If we were talking about only a couple of Megabytes, it wouldn't be much of an issue. However, when you start looking at a couple of TB, the process becomes very slow (days/weeks) and the prices for a Cloud service makes the idea buying HDD's downright cheap.


-hh

 

[Tesselator]

A lot of the question depends on the bandwidth of your ISP connection ("speed") and how much data you have to move around. If we were talking about only a couple of Megabytes, it wouldn't be much of an issue. However, when you start looking at a couple of TB, the process becomes very slow (days/weeks) and the prices for a Cloud service makes the idea buying HDD's downright cheap.

-hh

Downright cheap? I don't think so. What are they, like between $100 and $200 a year? A cheap 3TB HDD is like $90 to $120 and how long will an off-line drive last? I say the physical drive will last 20 years or more if only placed on-line once a month. But I guess a typical person goes about it differently:

I would assume that as they upgrade HDDs to newer faster units or replace them due to a policy based on uptime hours (as in my case), the old ones become the offline storage units. You can look at this as a zero cost investment quite easily. And this is also true for a new users setting it up for the first time when he rotates in the backup units as the replacements when the hour limit is hit. Assuming you use at least 3 identical drives in your system (I use 6 identical ones and one system drive) that's three separate external backups on drives you would be throwing away (or selling for $25) anyway.

That makes the $300 too $500 a cloud service wants over those same three years look pretty expensive to me. Anyway, I personally have so many "monthly payments" (bills mostly) the very last thing I need or want is yet another one. UG!



I don't think the convenience factor is equal either. Sure if it's only a few gigs... but then you wouldn't be keeping it on HDDs. Just throw-away monthly DVDs will do you. But if it's closer to a terabyte then yeah, no way - well unless your safe deposit box is two states away or something. Figure it's about 10min. to your bank and maybe a 1 hour operation all total to retrieve the offsite unit and hook it up. In that time you could download only about 2GB. And that's with the FASTEST bandwidth there is. I mean really, who has more than 120Mb/s connections and who has an ISP which typically offers and supplies more than about 1 or2 MB/s per connection? Like almost no one... right?

 

[Windowsrefugee]

I use CrashPlan. I back up (for free) to another computer belonging to a family member across town AND to CP Central (for ~$4/ month) in addition, must to be sure in addition to CP, TM and CCC on site. Can't be too careful!

 

[Nugget]

I use Backblaze and I'm very happy with it.

 

[dmax35]

I rotate external Time Machine drives on and off site bi-weekly.

Same here, I don't trust prying eyes with online backup services.

 

[Macsonic]

I just backup the old fashion way with external-internal hard drives on 2 levels. And some files on DVD discs.

 

[mjsmke]

I use Time Machine and CCC and a mixture of onsite and offsite drives.


Boot drive
Backed up on internal clone and external clone left offsite

RAID (home folder/current work)
Backed up with TM and external clone left offsite

Storage (complete work)
Backed up with external clone left offsite

Scratch disk/internal boot clone
TM for scratch disk only

 

[Nugget]

Same here, I don't trust prying eyes with online backup services.

For those with privacy concerns, Backblaze lets you (optionally) set a local encryption key that they do not have. Your data cannot be decrypted by them at all if you do that.

 

[brentsg]

For those with privacy concerns, Backblaze lets you (optionally) set a local encryption key that they do not have. Your data cannot be decrypted by them at all if you do that.

CrashPlan is no different in this regard, but lose your key and you're out of luck.

 

[MatthewAMEL]

Crashplan.

Just broke 7TB.

 

[Lebthree]

I am not using a Mac Pro. I have a mac notebook with thunderbolt connection. Most data files kept on a Pegasus R6 which is in a Raid 5 configuration. I use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone a copy of the Pegasus files onto Seagate GoFlex drives. I have two of the GoFlex drives which I rotate to an offsite location. I also use Time Machine to backup the computer to both the GoFlex drives and also the Pegasus drive.

 

[-hh]

Downright cheap? I don't think so. What are they, like between $100 and $200 a year? A cheap 3TB HDD is like $90 to $120 and how long will an off-line drive last? I say the physical drive will last 20 years or more if only placed on-line once a month. But I guess a typical person goes about it differently:

I would assume that as they upgrade HDDs to newer faster units or replace them due to a policy based on uptime hours (as in my case), the old ones become the offline storage units. You can look at this as a zero cost investment quite easily. And this is also true for a new users setting it up for the first time when he rotates in the backup units as the replacements when the hour limit is hit. Assuming you use at least 3 identical drives in your system (I use 6 identical ones and one system drive) that's three separate external backups on drives you would be throwing away (or selling for $25) anyway.

That makes the $300 too $500 a cloud service wants over those same three years look pretty expensive to me. Anyway, I personally have so many "monthly payments" (bills mostly) the very last thing I need or want is yet another one. UG!

I think something got lost in translation, as I think we are saying the same thing: a stack of local HDDs (particularly if recycled) is cheaper than paying 'forever' for a Cloud service.

For example, a Cloud service that's $100/year means that one can add $100 worth of HDDs every year and be at 'break even'.

I don't think the convenience factor is equal either. Sure if it's only a few gigs... but then you wouldn't be keeping it on HDDs. Just throw-away monthly DVDs will do you. But if it's closer to a terabyte then yeah, no way - well unless your safe deposit box is two states away or something. Figure it's about 10min. to your bank and maybe a 1 hour operation all total to retrieve the offsite unit and hook it up. In that time you could download only about 2GB. And that's with the FASTEST bandwidth there is. I mean really, who has more than 120Mb/s connections and who has an ISP which typically offers and supplies more than about 1 or2 MB/s per connection? Like almost no one... right?

This is also a good illustration that "SneakerNet" still isn't dead While ISP connections are pretty good at moving some stuff, when it comes to big data transfers, FedEx'ing a (tape, or) hard drive is still higher bandwidth.


-hh

 

[maflynn]

I take a portable hard drive that I use with Carbon Copy Cloner. Works better then any cloud solution since I maintain control of my data and in the event that I need it, I just go to my office and retrieve it (locked up in my desk).

 

[js81]

Portable hard drive kept at my parent's house (20 mins away). About once a month I take it home, clone the important stuff to it (mostly my baby's photos), then send it back. Not uber-convenient, but it works for me.

And my most important "work" stuff is on my work (classroom) computer. Anything I do at home for school, I end up taking and putting on my school computer anyway. No real need to back up, as it's going to be on both anyway.