Backing up data, easier than ever
My goal is to keep this short, sweet and hopefully get some people to properly back up their work.
In this day and age, NOT having a backup solution is like playing with fire. I’ve dealt with solutions in the past from running a USB drive along with some kind of back up software to just using Google Drive to get two copies of my data. While the need to protect the OS disk (with all my apps and such) was really low because all I would need to do is log into my account or sign into Steam/Adobe. Email is online and my windows profile doesn't hold much. However, my work would not be so lucky. I needed a less hands-on off the shelf solution.
Two weeks ago I retired my 2009 Mac Mini with 4TB storage space. Setting it up was more of a chore than anything to get it to back up stuff over the network, but it was possible. Then with it running really hot in this Kansai heat and threatening to fail, it was time to take it out back and put a bullet in its head. What I wanted to do was get an all-in-one solution. Disk space should be about the 3TB-6TB mark, as most of my projects are in the 2 - 6GB size. Last week I purchased the 6TB WD Cloud ($440). On paper it seemed to do everything that I would want it to do: back stuff up and allow me to send data to it over the network. Media server is a bonus. The device came in and booted fine. Then I tried to transfer some simple MP3’s over the network to start the process of moving my data. Crash. Took down my PC. Ok. Small hiccup. Did a restart and again… crash. This isn’t looking good. The same day I decided to return the WD Cloud. My time setting up wasn’t pleasant and it seems it had a problem with Windows 10 (specifically the file explorer). So back to Amazon.jp.
I found quite a few solutions for NAS drives. One of them was from the Synology lineup. I purchased the 2-core dual bay setups for about $200 and two 3TB HDD for an additional $90 each. Just a bit shy of $400 after taxes and 3TB less than what I had before. No big deal I hope, as I can add another USB drive for additional storage if I need to.
Setup and install is as simple as plug-and-play. My personal work and contract work are backed up constantly to two locations: one is on-site to the Synology NAS and another location is off-site via Crashplan. I wanted to get Crashplan to run on the NAS, but it was turning out to be more of a chore than I wanted, but hopefully there will be a version coming soon that is easy to install for someone as simple like myself. Not so bad for a modest setup.
Now I feel I have total protection should the unthinkable happen. Being more responsible with how I deal with personal and client data. The tech is there, the hardware is relatively cheap, the software is reliable and very easy to use, there is no reason NOT to have some kind of backup. You can go with just Crashplan and get awesome service for $5 a month, which is what I had considered doing first. But the added bonus of freeing up disk space by putting all my videos and music on a remote drive was too alluring.
Hopefully the need to test this system won’t come for a while.
Replies
I will say though that if we're talking about an easy solution, Dropbox Pro would probably be the easiest for the average user. Literally just buy it, put all your art related stuff into the folder, and forget about it. It has version control if something is overwritten/deleted and it's easy to access your files from wherever, which can be super helpful if you're working on separate computers.
https://www.sync.com/features/
Sync is pretty great, seemed to be the best cloud after my research. More features and less expensive and no 30 day version limit.
We have everything on sync and turtoise SVN, works great.
I also backup to a harddrive using Bvckup 2, which is a very nice programm with outstanding UI. Create syncronity work too for free.
While backing up to an external drive is better than nothing, it's not what I would consider reliable backup. To properly back up your data, you should store files at minimum with 2 local copies and 1 remote copy. Having a backup on a drive sitting in your house next to your computer won't help you in the case of fire, flood or theft.
Also, because it needs to be said: Backing up to DVD is also not reliable backup. DVD media degrades over time and should not be used for long term/archival purposes.
This is something that I want to and REALLY need to get on, but I'm scared to organize the 4TB of messy crap I've accumulated over the years and then have to worry about backups not reflecting nuanced changes I make over time.
What I mean is that it would be invaluable to have a system that lets me just press a button and 1-1 backup a drive once a week, day, or whenever I want. I've spent some time looking into this but I haven't found something good that lets you do a 1-1 copy of your data where when you overwrite stuff on the master drive, it propagates those changes out (including renaming, deletions, etc). I want a file backup system that works just like repo commits.
As someone said, Crashplan is unlimited for $60 a year, a good choice.
I have my Crashplan set to constant backup. Which is nice if I accidentally delete a new file, since I can usually get it right back. It also automatically does incrementals which is pleasant.
This seems like it should also work fairly well as source control.
As to which one you want, just read reviews as Eric states. I would get at least a 2-bay one for Raid 1. A 4 bay NAS so you have room to add extra space in the future is a good idea. Unless you're planing on using the NAS as a file server to stream high quality media, you can go with a NAS with lower end specs (cpu/ram).
When it comes to picking out the right hard drive, make sure to look for NAS compatible drives. Standard HDs can burn out when used in NAS applications. Speed doesn't matter for NAS (your drives will be faster than your LAN most likely) so just get the biggest NAS compat drive(s) you can afford.
I use a google drive account for backup now, but looking at crash plan I might switch to that as I'm likely to hit the 1TB limit on my drive account soon.
Would definitely recommend some form of online back-up on top of a NAS, obviously. Can't have too much security!
I subscribed yesterday for a year with Crashplan and started my backups.
It seems like it's gonna take 24 days to backup - and only a few of my data, I didnt back up the whole PC to begin with)
Any way to speed that up? Googled it, changed the maximum kbs, I will check tonight if it did affect it or not.
Also, seems like there are no way to use it with Tortoise SVN, but can I still update/commit from my different PCs? Thats what I understood from your description but it is quite blurry still in my mind. Thanks again
I haven't assigned any of my SVN/Perforce/Github folders in Crashplan, as they're backed up already in their own clouds. But I don't see why you couldn't simply add the root SVN folder to your backup list.
About the SVN use, I mean:
I have a X folder at home, I want to use data from this folder at work but not all of it, is there a way to download only x or y folder on the other computer, work on some stuff, and commit it so it's also updated at home ?
Sorry if I am not clear, I am myself a little lost with those softwares -
Go inside the folder you want to update, right-click, get latest. It won't get any files in any other folders.
If you want to get ev erything updated for the whole project, then you go to the root folder instead.
Will give it a try... in 24 days I guess !
Crashplan works on it, with a little fiddling (have to remote in from a PC to config backup settings, thereafter it just runs fine).
Ripped all my DVDs to it, works great as a movie server. Also backs up from PCs around the house.
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170822005727/en/Code42-Focus-Exclusively-Rapidly-Growing-Business-Enterprise
Bummer. Now I need to find a replacement that covers all the things I liked about Crashplan, at an affordable price.
Crashplan Home was $150/year for me, while Small Business is $600/year for 5 machines. Even if I did only 2 machines, it would be $240/year.
Ugh.
-Edit- Nevermind, they explicitly refuse to back up NAS devices, because they don't think the amount of data being stored that way would match their price point.
it'd be nice to keep this thread up to date with current options.
I was using Crashplan until it recently closed and was very (very) satisfied with it.
As they shut it they recommended switching to Carbonite, which I did and was very disappointed as backup of your .obj is not guaranteed and the download feature to get file(s) back on your or another computer is very different and doesn't let you download multiple folders at once. Means you gotta avoid using folders or spend time clicking on each one of them.
I also had trouble with Carbonite. Iirc they didn't back up video files, unless I manually selected them. Also, I think they might not work with NAS.
https://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/index.html
They also offer commercial versions as well. I've used the freeware for the last year and have been very pleased. While it does not offer source control, if you're looking for a simple way to automate synchronization of drives or folders to a backup, SyncBackFree can handle it. I set up a fairly simple profile in the software that runs every night. It scans the local folders I have chosen, and mirrors my backup drive only with those changes. This makes the backup process very quick and efficient.
I will reiterate, this is a poor mans setup, and the previous advice regarding NAS and remote storage is far superior and should be heeded.