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  • #1

    Computer Back Up Methods

    The dark side bit me. My Seagate external hard drive bit the dust (getting USB error and I have tried USB ports that I know are working, so it must be internal on the Seagate drive.. I currently have a little over 200GB of important stuff on my desktop per what's showing in storage. I don't know if a computer shop can retrieve what was on there either.

    The question I have is what is the best way to back up. With SD cards at 512GB and some USB drives. (sticks) am I better off going that way instead of and external drive?

    Thoughts/Ideas

    Thanks
    Keith
    2018 Reflection 150 Series 220RK 5th whee, Star White 2022 F350 King Ranch CC Long bed (HAL) (CCC 4062lbs), B&W 25K OEM Companion,. SteadyFast system, Trailer reverse lights, rear receiver spare tire holder, storage tube, sumo springs, Victron MultiPlus 12/120/3000, Solar, Custom 6K axles upgrade, and other modifications.
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  • #2
    A company might be able to retrieve the data depending on what has actually failed. It is also not cheap. Assuming it is a spinning drive, you could try putting it in a different external case as it might be the electronics and not the actual drive. As far as backups go,it all depends on how valuable your data is. You could get a NAS with a minimum of 2 drives. This gives you redundancy if 1 fails. Decent NAS boxes are Synology and QNAP. The alternative is cloud storage.

    Overall USB drives are usually poor backup devices because of the lack of redundancy. Cloud providers vary. I have about 10TB of data on a NAS that is then backed up to Backblaze in the cloud.
    Rob, Betsy and Kali (Rhodesian Ridgeback)
    2022 Solitude-S 2930RL
    2023 GMC Sierra 3500HD Duramax Denali

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    • #3
      We do backup of protected health information and other medical records as a part of our business. I second the suggestion of a NAS (we use Synology) and mirror that in the cloud for anything critical.
      Forum moderators are not GD employees--we are volunteers and owners presumably just like yourself. Unless specifically mentioned otherwise, we have nothing to gain should you choose to purchase a product or engage a service we discuss on this forum.​

      Neil Citro
      2018 Reflection 28BH Pepwave
      2019 F350 6.7L Long Bed Crew Cab

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      • #4
        Keith, look for SSD or PCIE NAT with mirroring or Raid 5. With Raid 5 you need 3 drives as it allows for one drive to fail completely without loss of data due to the way data is stored.

        I'm going to swap over to SSD on my next external as they seem to be a bit more robust for traveling vs the ones I currently have.

        I also use FileSync (https://freefilesync.org) to copy drive to drive for backup. One drive is left at home the other travels with me (work stuff b/c our network does not play nice with most of our clients). The program compares the files between the drives and depending on the option it allows you to do various things with the differences it finds.
        Joseph
        Tow         Vehicle: 2024 GMC K3500 Denali Ultimate Diesel
        Coach: 303RLS Delivered March 5, 2021
        South of Houston Texas

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Yoda View Post
          I don't know if a computer shop can retrieve what was on there either.
          Depends how important the information is. You gotta pay for that service.
          Generally I just keep the important information in two locations, be that drives, memory cards, whatever. If one fails....replace and mirror the one that didn't fail so you have two locations again.Won't help you now...but will in the future.

          2018 Dodge 3500 6.7 Cummins w Aisin and 9 cup holders
          2021 303RLS
          Electricians were created because engineers need heroes too...

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          • #6
            Well I am lucky everything is still on the desktop unit. However looking up the options suggested I am befuddled - I have no clue what to look for or what I am looking at.. I found Synology 2 bay but the description says diskless. Does that mean I need to add the hard drives to it? Most say SATA only - is that the drive type?

            I like the idea of SSD - Solid State Drive as they can stand traveling. My laptop has that. Speaking of witch is it possible to set them up to backup two separate computers?

            I am just looking for a stand alone backup - no need to network. It make sense to mirror (both drives have the same set up and information - right). so by chance can you recommend a SSD set up (with the disks) that is basically plug and play.?

            Sorry for being so computer inept.
            Keith
            2018 Reflection 150 Series 220RK 5th whee, Star White 2022 F350 King Ranch CC Long bed (HAL) (CCC 4062lbs), B&W 25K OEM Companion,. SteadyFast system, Trailer reverse lights, rear receiver spare tire holder, storage tube, sumo springs, Victron MultiPlus 12/120/3000, Solar, Custom 6K axles upgrade, and other modifications.

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            • #7
              First, you won't find a RAID1 that is not networked. If you don't want the network, then cloud backup is the best way to go.

              If you do go networked, I don't really think you need to go SSD. SSDs are more if you are going to use it as active storage (think many people accessing it at the same time). The 2 bay Synology will fit your need very well. Diskless just means it is sold without drives so you can populate the size that you want. I would go with 2 1TB hard drives, https://www.amazon.com/WD-Blue-1TB-H.../dp/B0088PUEPK. This is based on the size of your current external storage. You will then set it up a as a RAID1 system. This means that everything on 1 drive is mirrored to the other. If 1 fails, you still have the other one. Just replace the failed drive and it will resync everything. It is not as robust as the RAID5 but should be enough for your purposes. Just for information purposes, I have been running 2 Synology NAS boxes both configured for RAID5 (all spinning disks) for about 10 years and only had 1 drive failure. Like ncitro, I also backup to Backblaze cloud storage.
              Rob, Betsy and Kali (Rhodesian Ridgeback)
              2022 Solitude-S 2930RL
              2023 GMC Sierra 3500HD Duramax Denali

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              • #8
                Keith if you still have the data, look at an SSD portable drive, they are cheap now (https://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung...?skuId=6408299) and require no setup or network connectivity. You can purchase multiple and then manually sync them.
                Joseph
                Tow                 Vehicle: 2024 GMC K3500 Denali Ultimate Diesel
                Coach: 303RLS Delivered March 5, 2021
                South of Houston Texas

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                • #9
                  Rob is right on, get a diskless Synology two drive unit, and set it up to mirror. You could get SSD instead of spinning but in non bouncing cases (fixed home installs) spinning disks are generally considered more reliable in the long term if they are going to be written to continuously. For your use I would not think that limitation would apply. I run two four bay Synology units one at my office and one at my home, and they are set to mirror each other, plus I push the critical data to the cloud. I have also had this setup for over ten years and have not had a disk fail, or one of the NAS units fail.
                  Forum moderators are not GD employees--we are volunteers and owners presumably just like yourself. Unless specifically mentioned otherwise, we have nothing to gain should you choose to purchase a product or engage a service we discuss on this forum.​

                  Neil Citro
                  2018 Reflection 28BH Pepwave
                  2019 F350 6.7L Long Bed Crew Cab

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by ncitro View Post
                    Rob is right on, get a diskless Synology two drive unit, and set it up to mirror. You could get SSD instead of spinning but in non bouncing cases (fixed home installs) spinning disks are generally considered more reliable in the long term if they are going to be written to continuously. For your use I would not think that limitation would apply. I run two four bay Synology units one at my office and one at my home, and they are set to mirror each other, plus I push the critical data to the cloud. I have also had this setup for over ten years and have not had a disk fail, or one of the NAS units fail.
                    Thanks Neil. I do plan to take it with me traveling as well as at home. Can you recommend a current model? Synology has a lot to choose from.

                    Now for the weird part. Since I started this I had disconnected the old unit. But for grins and to double check I plugged it back in, both to power and the USB cable. It fired up, so I backed it up on a 512 SD card - took an hour with a few error stalls, but it looks like I got most of it, but I can tell by the way it is acting its time is up.

                    Appreciate the help folks. I have had to do a bit of side reading so I have a smidge of understanding this stuff.

                    Computer knowledge I do not have - learn I will.

                    I kind of like Josephs Jlawles2 suggestion, but not finding much on how to manually sync. Price wise it looks appealing. Neil any thoughts on that?

                    Thanks

                    Keith
                    2018 Reflection 150 Series 220RK 5th whee, Star White 2022 F350 King Ranch CC Long bed (HAL) (CCC 4062lbs), B&W 25K OEM Companion,. SteadyFast system, Trailer reverse lights, rear receiver spare tire holder, storage tube, sumo springs, Victron MultiPlus 12/120/3000, Solar, Custom 6K axles upgrade, and other modifications.

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                    • #11
                      Doing things manually as I do, you will have gaps and holes from time to time with your data. I have very little stuff that HAS to be backed up so I ensure that is done but other less important stuff...sometimes gets forgotten or done after a long time. Hence a 'hole' in your data. If you want it done automatically and consistently and dependably, mirrored drives (spinning or solid) is the way to go-Raid. As for size I would go by price point. If 2TB is just a few bucks more than a 1TB...go 2TB.
                      I don't go to the extra expense just because I don't have that much stuff that would be a real issue if it was lost. Financial stuff is all retrievable online, so must have backups are just passwords, a few docs, pictures. Pictures are really the most irreplaceable.
                      Last edited by Scott'n'Wendy; 03-30-2024, 06:40 AM.
                      2018 Dodge 3500 6.7 Cummins w Aisin and 9 cup holders
                      2021 303RLS
                      Electricians were created because engineers need heroes too...

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                      • #12
                        Keith, look up free file sync. it's a simple program to learn and it retains your settings (Windows machine) when you close it. Basically if all of your important documents are in one folder, you set the source and destination (computer and external locations) hit the compare button, when the compare finishes it will let you know what has changed and if you choose you can alter the action, then when you hit sync, it only updates those things that are changed and have selected to let it sync.

                        I have found the program works much faster than the standard windows copy (I use it for copying folders at work when I travel).
                        Joseph
                        Tow                         Vehicle: 2024 GMC K3500 Denali Ultimate Diesel
                        Coach: 303RLS Delivered March 5, 2021
                        South of Houston Texas
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                        • #13
                          Same as Scott, very little of my data NEEDS to be backed up, so I do it manually as needed. Our photos backup to iCloud automatically (we pay for extra there) so its only critical documents and whatnot.

                          As fro a model, I would get a two drive, and the current hardware (so it lasts the longest). For Synology the last two numbers in the model number are the year it was released, so for instance the 223 is a two bay (two hard drives) released in 2023. I would go with that:

                          https://www.synology.com/en-us/products/DS223j

                          They have a list here of drives verified to work with it. Make sure to change the pull down to third party for drives other than Synology branded if desired.

                          https://www.synology.com/en-us/compa...ds_no_ssd_trim
                          Forum moderators are not GD employees--we are volunteers and owners presumably just like yourself. Unless specifically mentioned otherwise, we have nothing to gain should you choose to purchase a product or engage a service we discuss on this forum.​

                          Neil Citro
                          2018 Reflection 28BH Pepwave
                          2019 F350 6.7L Long Bed Crew Cab

                          Comment

                          • #14
                            Keith, Nephew just sent me this:

                            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsM6b5yix0U&t=1s
                            Joseph
                            Tow                             Vehicle: 2024 GMC K3500 Denali Ultimate Diesel
                            Coach: 303RLS Delivered March 5, 2021
                            South of Houston Texas

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                            • #15
                              Western Digital or Seagate spinning drives all work well in the Synology boxes. I use WD Red drives and as I said, only had 1 failure in out of 7 drives running since 2015
                              Rob, Betsy and Kali (Rhodesian Ridgeback)
                              2022 Solitude-S 2930RL
                              2023 GMC Sierra 3500HD Duramax Denali

                              Comment

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