How redundant is your data?

[skytreader]

I used to archive a lot of stuff in DVDs. However, as I saw that I soon won't have enough (physical storage) space for all of them, I decided to buy an external hard drive. I transferred most of my DVD stuff into the external hard drive. Since then, I kind of shied away from burning and instead used my external HD a lot.

Then I realized that I have two copies of my stuff from my pre-EHD days: one in the EHD, another one in the discs. That's good so, in case one fails, I have another one. However, those that came after I bought my EHD are only stored in the EHD. So...is that dangerous?

Heh. I probably sound like a librarian guarding records from Alexandria. But how about you? How redundant is your data? Would love to hear your opinions. Thanks!

[Cracklepop]

I have a second copy of all data I care about. I recently filled my 500GB external disk, so bought a 1TB network disk and copied everything to it. When this disk is full I'll buy a 2TB disk, then 4TB, then 8TB, and so on...
While I'm in the process of filling the current disk the new data is mirrored on whichever computer in my network downloaded it.

I'd like to have DVD copies, but they're just too slow to burn.

[pi3.1415926535...]

I really do not back-up particularly much of my data. The most is that most of my important work is sync with Ubuntu One. My hard drive is fairly new, so I do not expect it to fail.

[Cracklepop]

I really do not back-up particularly much of my data. The most is that most of my important work is sync with Ubuntu One. My hard drive is fairly new, so I do not expect it to fail.

Look Mum, no hands! :D

No-one who ever lost important data to a disk failure was expecting it...

[3Miro]

Currently, everything that I consider important is triple copied. On my main computer at home, on my work computer, on my external HDD.

[coffeecat]

My hard drive is fairly new, so I do not expect it to fail.

A small but significant number of HDs fail early on. Those that survive the initial period usually last for years. Let's hope your drive is indeed "fairly" new and not very new. :wink:

[JP121]

None of my data is backed up at all.

Probably should fix that.

I take that back. I have a lot of unimportant school documents on Google Docs as well.

[Sporkman]

My data resides on two disks in a RAID-1 array on my home server, backed up to an external HD connected to it, and periodically archived (in encrypted form) to an additional external HD which I keep offsite.

[Jesus_Valdez]

Data redundancy is for the weak.

[Xantheil]

My data resides on two disks in a RAID-1 array on my home server, backed up to an external HD connected to it, and periodically archived (in encrypted form) to an additional external HD which I keep offsite.

Likewise.

[CharlesA]

I store almost everything on my server at home, which is backed up daily.

I tried the whole zip disk and 'burn to cd/dvd' thing and it was just too much of a hassle when a huge external hard drive is relatively cheap nowadays.

Really important stuff is also on a thumb drive I have with me.

[BkkBonanza]

One thing I've learned over the years is that DVDs are not very reliable. Hard disks are a far better backup medium now, and if their power is usually off then I don't see why they shouldn't last a lot longer too.

[BandD]

Everything on my mainmachine is backed-up weekly to an external hard drive at my house (double redundancy). I also remotely back-up to a NAS (D-Link 323 Raid 1) located at my in-laws' house..so I have double redundancy there as well.

So I not only have quadruple redundancy, but I have geographic redundancy as well (if one house is destroyed somehow, barring an extremely catastrophic event, I should be able to access all of my pictures, music, and other important files).

Rsync is my best friend!

[Ctrl-Alt-F1]

I don't really have a lot of data. I have copies of some things across multiple partitions on my HDD. I also keep important files on an external drive. For the really important stuff I have a third copy on a thumb drive that usually goes where I go. A few things, like music, are also copied to my phone and my wife's phone.

[robro]

I don't realy have anything worth backing up :lol:
although when by hdd fails i'll just c&p everything from a live usb, to my external hard drive

[Roasted]

No RAID capability here, but I have two identical 1TB drives in my system. The 2nd drive is simply one solid EXT4 partition. Every 12 hours I have a simple rsync script that runs via crontab, synchronizing my home directory to the backup drive. I've had to use the backup 3 times, as my awesome Seagate drive I was previously running as my primary drive failed 3 times in a row.

Now I'm running some Samsung's. No issues as of yet. :popcorn:

[Elysius]

Got a synology nas with a raid 1 setup, plus one extra usb harddrive for backups.

[scouser73]

My film collection is backed up to three different externals, music to two externals and television to two also. I'm planning on backing up both music and television again to different externals that way I'll have treble redundancy.

I've learnt the hard way so backing up is a constant process for me, 5TB's of data storage space and counting.

[Ozor Mox]

I have a folder full of everything I care about, and this is synced regularly between my desktop, laptop and external hard drive using rsync either locally, or over a network using openssh. Both of these tools are fantastic and I recommend checking them out.

[Grenage]

I used to have a backup of my data, but now that my store is nearly 7TB - I'm not that keen on shelling out for the same again.

A decision, of course, I'm sure I will regret; thankfully most of it isn't that important.

[Ozor Mox]

I used to have a backup of my data, but now that my store is nearly 7TB - I'm not that keen on shelling out for the same again.

What is all that? I have what I consider to be a fairly substantial music collection (~6000 tracks) and an absolute load of all kinds of other random crap but my stuff still only amounts to about 35 GB. I think the fact that I don't have a collection of films or TV shows might be the reason...

[Grenage]

What is all that? I have what I consider to be a fairly substantial music collection (~6000 tracks) and an absolute load of all kinds of other random crap but my stuff still only amounts to about 35 GB. I think the fact that I don't have a collection of films or TV shows might be the reason...

I have a collection of ripped DVD and Bluray images, and an awful lot of old data that's simply been added to over the last 20 years. It adds up rather quickly!

[Paqman]

I don't trust hard drives. At all.

All my data is on a RAID1 NAS, so i'm protected against a single-point failure of a hard drive. In case the NAS goes mad and the array gets corrupted it gets periodically synced to a backup drive that is disconnected and stored separately. I'd like to be doing an off-site backup, but it's not economical for the amount of data i've got.

The only input required from me is connect the backup drive once a month and start it syncing. Sod doing manual backups.

[Joeb454]

I have my documents and a few images in dropbox, which means that's on 3 pc's and dropbox.

My music is on the same 3 PC's and an external hard drive

[Cracklepop]

I have my documents and a few images in dropbox, which means that's on 3 pc's and dropbox.

My music is on the same 3 PC's and an external hard drive

This is basically how I'd like to handle my data, but using the cloud for terabytes of not-quite-essential data still won't be an option until we all have 100Mb - 1Gb connections, and by then we'll be thinking in terms of petabytes...

I keep essential documents on an svn server at work.

[Joeb454]

This is basically how I'd like to handle my data, but using the cloud for terabytes of not-quite-essential data still won't be an option until we all have 100Mb - 1Gb connections, and by then we'll be thinking in terms of petabytes...

That's why I keep my music separate ;) I also don't have huge images on it either, they're mainly background images. I think all told it comes to around 500MB that's stored on there for me.

As for the connections, you could have a 1Gbps download speed, but your upload speed would need to match it to make cloud storage (in the quantity you're referring to) practical.

[Sporkman]

I have a folder full of everything I care about, and this is synced regularly between my desktop, laptop and external hard drive using rsync either locally, or over a network using openssh. Both of these tools are fantastic and I recommend checking them out.

You can rsync over ssh as well:

rsync -alvz -e ssh

[Sporkman]

I'd like to be doing an off-site backup, but it's not economical for the amount of data i've got.

Get a harddrive enclosure like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182155

Stick in a cheap, low-spec SATA internal harddrive, back up all your stuff (preferably encrypted), then mail it to a relative, or keep it at your desk at work.

[Paqman]

Get a harddrive enclosure like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182155

Stick in a cheap, low-spec SATA internal harddrive, back up all your stuff (preferably encrypted), then mail it to a relative, or keep it at your desk at work.

I used to use an enclosure, but I switched to just plugging the drive into eSATA. USB sucks! ;)

Neither of those off-site options are really practical for me, unfortunately. If I had a secure, easy-to-access off-site location i'd be using it. Ideally i'd like to set up some kind of mutual arrangement with a friend and just sync over the internet, but that involves convincing someone else to invest in hardware for my benefit!

Crashplan seem to do an unlimited backup service for reasonable prices, but i've not checked it out in detail yet.

[ndstate]

My laptop has 2 hard drives built in so the drives mirror each other. In addition to that I backup my laptop (usually nightly) to an external hard drive. In addition to this I continuously backup my files via SpiderOak. I like SpiderOak because its cross platform, keeps several version of the files, and is encrypted locally before being sent to "the cloud."

If you are a college student you can get a 50% discount. If you want 3 gigs of storage for free I can give you a promo code for that (you normally get 2 gigs free).

I also rotate local hard drives off-site every so often. I am also thinking about looking at Crashplan for the heck of it.

Basically I have 4x redundancy plus whatever SpiderOak does.