For how long are you using your External HDD ? Which brand is it ?

[guiverc]

I had a WD Elements drive purchased Dec-2018 go bad after 3 weeks; definitely under warranty but a reading of the warranty (data becomes their property on warranty claim) made me not claim... (as I couldn't get it to function in its case to erase my unencrypted data... and opening the case voided the warranty. I realize the data-becomes-their-property on claim is possibly a so-you-can't-sue should data get leaked, but still...)

Didn't stop me buying another; I've the latest one unopened in it's box under this desk, and another was purchased last month too which already has data on it. The data is worth more than the cost of the drive.

(I need it too; idiot-insurance, an errant `dd` ran on the wrong box recently erased a 9TB array..)

[linuxyogi]

A 32 USB pendrive is not very reliable. This type of product is mass-produced and is subject to wear and corruption. It is more likely to fail without warning compared to other alternatives.

I would double the backup (using two 32 USB pendrives) in order to decrease the risk.

---

A 32 GB SSD connected via USB is a more reliable alternative (and survives mechanical shock much better than a HDD).

I have registered at MEGAsync. So now I have two backups.

[sudodus]

(I need it too; idiot-insurance, an errant `dd` ran on the wrong box recently erased a 9TB array..)

Are you still cloning with 'dd' without a safety belt?

[guiverc]

Are you still cloning with 'dd' without a safety belt?

Yeah, I'm a slow learner....

(or maybe just an unplanned backup-restoration testing opportunity )

[TheFu]

I had a WD Elements drive purchased Dec-2018 go bad after 3 weeks; definitely under warranty but a reading of the warranty (data becomes their property on warranty claim) made me not claim... (as I couldn't get it to function in its case to erase my unencrypted data... and opening the case voided the warranty. I realize the data-becomes-their-property on claim is possibly a so-you-can't-sue should data get leaked, but still...)

Didn't stop me buying another; I've the latest one unopened in it's box under this desk, and another was purchased last month too which already has data on it. The data is worth more than the cost of the drive.

(I need it too; idiot-insurance, an errant `dd` ran on the wrong box recently erased a 9TB array..)

This is an example for why all portable, external, HDDs need to use LUKS encryption. With LUKS, you wouldn't mind sending the disk in for warranty reasons.

[mastablasta]

With LUKS, you wouldn't mind sending the disk in for warranty reasons.

good point. never really though about that.

mine is still getting smashed or drilled through though.

[vidtek]

One of our local retailers here in the UK went belly up a year ago Maplin Electronics. I bought a couple of 4tb external Seagate Backup Plus usb3 2 1/2inch drives for £50 each.

I ripped them out of their enclosures and they are used weekly (rotated) to back up my main 4tb 3 1/2 inch in my desktop. One has already got signs of bad sectors after being used once a fortnight. I use a Turbo Leopard dual sata clone enclosure, removing the data drive from the desktop, it takes about 6 hours for 3.5tb of data to copy. I also run a nightly backup using rsync using this enclosure's usb3 connection.
All my multimedia is on a separate 5tb 3 1/2 inch drive (with no backups) I really don't care if I lose that.

I have lots of old hdd's lying around with archive material ranging from my original database3 programme I wrote in 1984 with all my customer data on it when I ran my tv/video repair business in Western Australia. Wouldn't be allowed now with data protection etc, all addresses, phone numbers and equipment details of each customer, about 20,000 of them, it is now totally useless of course.

[mastablasta]

I use a Turbo Leopard dual sata clone enclosure, removing the data drive from the desktop, it takes about 6 hours for 3.5tb of data to copy. I also run a nightly backup using rsync using this enclosure's usb3 connection.

you create 3.5 TB of data a week?

[vidtek]

you create 3.5 TB of data a week?

Haha, No the cloning dock is just that - it clones the whole drive.

[TheFu]

Versioned backups rock.

$ sudo rdiff-backup --list-increment-sizes  nextcloud
        Time                       Size        Cumulative size
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sun Feb 16 02:50:11 2020         9.06 GB           9.06 GB   (current mirror)
Sat Feb 15 02:50:10 2020         10.9 MB           9.07 GB
Fri Feb 14 02:50:09 2020         14.2 MB           9.09 GB
Thu Feb 13 02:50:10 2020         14.9 MB           9.10 GB
Wed Feb 12 02:50:10 2020         15.8 MB           9.12 GB
Tue Feb 11 02:50:10 2020         15.1 MB           9.13 GB
...
Fri Nov 22 02:50:14 2019         14.7 MB           10.4 GB
Thu Nov 21 02:50:11 2019         15.8 MB           10.4 GB
Wed Nov 20 02:50:13 2019         15.3 MB           10.4 GB
Tue Nov 19 02:50:12 2019         15.3 MB           10.4 GB

First backup is like an rsync, but all after that are just a few minutes each and add just the change data and metadata for any changes to permissions.
Last night, the versioned back for that system was:

no crontab for tf

INFO: Backing up .... --include /root --include /etc --include /usr/local --include /var/www --include /opt --include /var/lib/mysql --include /var/lib/znc --include /home    to 
               backups@romulus::/Backups/nextcloud/
INFO: Removing backups older than 90D.
INFO: Backup Start: Mon Feb 17 02:50:01 EST 2020
INFO: Backup End: Mon Feb 17 02:55:06 EST 2020
INFO: Backup Job Complete.

So, about 5 minutes total, including capturing some configuration data pre-backup and removing the old . That machine runs nextcloud, wallabag and znc. The summary report for just the backup task alone:

=== Time for Backups to nextcloud === 
StartTime 1581925810.00 (Mon Feb 17 02:50:10 2020)
EndTime 1581926082.31 (Mon Feb 17 02:54:42 2020)
ElapsedTime 272.31 (4 minutes 32.31 seconds)
TotalDestinationSizeChange 7797725 (7.44 MB)

Daily, automatic, versioned, backups. The large number of tiny files are what slow this backup down. rsync is slower, BTW.