Offsite backup solutions

R

ritchiec80

Messages
32
Edit My Images
No
Do any of you guys use an off site backup solution like crash plan? I currently use a time machine backup via USB on my desktop but am concerned that if I was ever burgled the chances of my Mac and my backup going are quite high so I'm looking for an automated off site or cloud backup so that I know everything is safe somewhere. Any suggestions?
 
I use backup solutions (Iron Mountain reseller as far as I can see). I tried them all when I was looking and it was the only one that saturated my 16Mbit link up.

I store a lot of data online....
 
On the cheap?

I use a nas drive and DVD backups as well as Onedrive.
My NAS is really well hidden with no tell tail signs of where it could be. I didn't do it for security but for tidiness. It also contains my yearly image backup. Fire is also catered for my holding the DVDs offsite
 
Incidentally please don't rely on DVD as your fail safe. Horrible things to store without having issues with delamination.

If you must use optical then bluray is much less suceptable to environmental issues causing degradation.
 
I like the look of the wd my cloud solution but it looks like if has to be plugged into the router via Ethernet meaning that I can't have it hidden away upstairs away from my Mac.
 
I have just started using Backblaze cloud backup, backs up my iMac, 400GB took about 20 days initial now it just updates new files. Unlimited backup of one computer and any attached usb drives (doesn't do a NAS) $5 per month. Simple to set up, tested a restore of just a few files and that was easy and quick.

I have a NAS (hidden as per Peter) that holds previous years data/images plus a copy of iMac, the NAS is backed up to an external drives attached plus I have other external drives that I copy the NAS to monthly and these are kept offsite. I also backup important jobs to offsite DVDs (going to change to blu-ray). Purpose of cloud backup is for instant backing up on new files, purpose of the DVDs is to quickly get backup off site of key images.

Even if you use cloud backup you really need to also have offsite for the baulk of your data, to restore from cloud backups can takes weeks/months unless you pay them to copy onto a external drive and send which is very expensive.

I'm a bit OCD (why aren't those letter in the right order) about back ups as you might notice.
 
Yeah it does, my main concern is if some stole my Mac and time machine backup as they are next to each other... At least the NAs drive could be in a different location that's my thinking anyway. Maybe I just want to buy a gadget lol
 
My offsite backup is a lot less technical than your solutions guys.
I use a hard drive dock and will on a regular basis leave a copy of a backup on hard drive at my parents house.
 
Buy a Netgear NAS 104, fill it with 4TB drives and stick it in the attic. Et voila, your very own cloud backup solution!

If you're not happy having it in your own house then put it somewhere else but unless your house burns down then your data is safe in your attic. And if your house burns down then you have bigger problems than lost pics!!
 
Don't buy any netgear storage. It's the Kia of the NAS world compared to the VW/Audi that are Synology and QNap.

Units are unreliable, even in enterprise form and their support is woeful.
 
I supplement my local data file backups with Dropbox, now that it's only £80/year for 1Tb it's a good proposition. I also run Acronis incrementally daily and let that synch as well.
Most importantly though do a test restore to make sure your plan works! - It's no good having backups if you can't restore them.
 
Downloaded a trail of crashplan, the initial backup is going to take 30 days which is fine but I'm guessing if you ever needed all the data back then it would take this long too unless you paid extra for hard drive recovery. Maybe a NAS is the way to go alongside offsite usb backup.
 
Ballyman said:
but unless your house burns down then your data is safe in your attic.
Click to expand...
The attic is the last place I'd want to store data. Hot in the summer, freezing cold in the winter - there must be close to a 50 deg C difference between hottest and coldest up there.. HDDs have a narrow good operating temperature range.

There's a reason so much money is spent in datacentres for aircon.... It's definitely not for the people that work in there.
 
arad85 said:
The attic is the last place I'd want to store data. Hot in the summer, freezing cold in the winter - there must be close to a 50 deg C difference between hottest and coldest up there.. HDDs have a narrow good operating temperature range.

There's a reason so much money is spent in datacentres for aircon.... It's definitely not for the people that work in there.
Click to expand...
agreed. missed that first time around, was too busy raging at netgear :D
 
ritchiec80 said:
Downloaded a trail of crashplan, the initial backup is going to take 30 days
Click to expand...
Check how much of your upload bandwidth is being used. I found crashplan to only trickle feed the upload. It was next to useless IMHO as they were using servers in the US (the one I'm with use UK servers).
 
I was contemplating installing the now spare second NAS at my parents and using that for off-site, huge advantage being I could do the initial backup onto it on-site. Dyndns + port-forward + Rsync = win. The only downside is that the upload speed won't be much to write home about. Even so, 0.5 mbit/second would still equate to 35 GBytes/week in terms of upload - which I'd imagine is ample of most home users.

I appreciate this is completely anecdotal and draging the thread further off-topic, but having owned both Netgear ReadyNAS Duo and a Syno DS211j, the ReadyNAS is far better built and (after it has spun up) runs quieter too. If there was a way of flashing it with decent firmware, it would be my pick. As it is, the Syno knocks the spots off it in-terms of flexibility... (..even if the power brick died within 24 hours of first-turning it on.)
 
I've been burned by Netgear too many times to even contemplate using their equipment again, much like Zyxel. The switches, access-points, and routers were simply unreliable in most cases. And I am seriously impressed at the speed of which updates come out for Syno devices!
 
I have used Crashplan for a little over a year now and find it to be spot on. When I first started with it I was still on ADSL at around 6MB and had severl GB's of data to upload.

The network settings allow you to set the upload limits so data uploads a lot faster than you may think especially if you just leave the machine on to get on with it.
 
On the netgear vs synology thing, I can't comment directly on the two models above as I have no experience of them.

However, I used to own a pair of 4 bay netgear nv+. After a while my second unit started having issues. Started an RMA with netgear and a replacement unit arrived, I kid you not it looked like it had been thrown down the stairs. It was also an older pre-netgear buy out model. Netgear response was pretty much "yeah and? We often ship refurbed units". After arguing with them for a while I rejected the unit, cancelled the rma and fortunately the retailer took it back for refund. I sold the second unit shortly after.

At work we have a netgear rack mount for junk that doesn't need regular access etc and it's always having bother with data consistency (drives are 100% healthy). It's about to get swapped out for a synology rack mount.

When I got rid of the nv+ I replaced them with a synology ds1010+ and while okay maybe there's a bit more plastic in the build but it's night and day in operation. Had some experience of their support too, when I expanded into drive bay 5 I started having I/o issues, logged with their support and arranged for them to dial in. They diagnosed a faulty back board and RMA it. Brand new replacement arrived, restored config and away I went.

Reliability, performance and support are squarely with synology.

Power bricks are power bricks. I've lost count how many LaCie bricks have died at work.
 
Last edited:
We use Netgear consumer 8 port desk switches at work. I know some here swear by them, but I've just thrown 2 in the bin this week as they were causing more bother than they were worth. If the replacement gives the same issue (dropped packets when cascaded) that will be going in the bin too and a decent 16 port ordered....

Sorry, I know it's not about switches - I'm just joining in the anti-Netgear rant ;) :D
 
neil_g said:
get cisco kit installed you cheapskate :p
Click to expand...
Network infrastructure is ProCurve and Cisco. For a desk switch, I'd probably get a TP-Link smart switch. :)
 
Limited experience of commercial grade Netgear stuff.

Based on current experience, I'd go ProCurve over Cisco any day. Numerous bad experiences with a Cisco RV220 + catalyst switch.
 
I dug a trench in the garden and buried ethernet cable (and power and Sky while I was at it) to my shed which is about 20 metres away.

Offsite enough for me :)
 
Ballyman said:
Buy a Netgear NAS 104, fill it with 4TB drives and stick it in the attic. Et voila, your very own cloud backup solution!

If you're not happy having it in your own house then put it somewhere else but unless your house burns down then your data is safe in your attic. And if your house burns down then you have bigger problems than lost pics!!
Click to expand...

I actually have a synology ds214play NAS with 2x4GB disks in the shed - if I had a plug in my attic it would be there!! I use power line adaptors to get my network to the shed and so far everything works swimmingly. I have a small PC attached to it also as a Plex server which I built for £75 as the synology can't transcode. Put TeamViewer on it and you can check it remotely and do what you want without having to hook up a monitor or keyboard.

I use the NAS to back up my pc and laptop as well as for media storage to stream tothe tv etc. All my photography work is stored on mirrored several 1GB HDDs, one attached to the desktop in my house and the mirror in my laptop bag. Also in my house, not the most secure :(

If I had my time and money back I would have bought a basic 4 bay NAS ( I used the netgrar as an example, I didn't realise they were unreliable!!) without any bells and whistles and used the 16GB in the shed as pure backup storage for all my photography work.
 
ritchiec80 said:
Do any of you guys use an off site backup solution like crash plan? I currently use a time machine backup via USB on my desktop but am concerned that if I was ever burgled the chances of my Mac and my backup going are quite high so I'm looking for an automated off site or cloud backup so that I know everything is safe somewhere. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Mine is like this..

Back up to an external HDD which is on the floor under the desk, at the rear. The tower is on top of the desk.

I make regular back up to the external HDD. However once a week, I make a back up to a USB memory stick which I then take off site. Sometimes leave it at my mother's or at my storage lock up.
 
neil_g said:
Incidentally please don't rely on DVD as your fail safe. Horrible things to store without having issues with delamination.

If you must use optical then bluray is much less suceptable to environmental issues causing degradation.
Click to expand...

I think it depends on the make and the conditions they are stored in - I have branded (DataWrite) DVDs going back 10 years still OK, but as I showed a couple of years ago sunlight will totally corrupt them in a few weeks, just keep them in a CD/DVD folder (£1 Poundland) and they will last for years.

On the other hand, as I showed much more recently metal Blu-Rays are seemingly indestructible as far as sunlight and heat seem concerned.

But definitely avoid Blu-Rays that use dye since as far as I can see they would have the same problems as DVDs.
.
 
petersmart said:
I think it depends on the make and the conditions they are stored in - I have branded (DataWrite) DVDs going back 10 years still OK, but as I showed a couple of years ago sunlight will totally corrupt them in a few weeks, just keep them in a CD/DVD folder (£1 Poundland) and they will last for years...................
.
Click to expand...

:plus1: A nice dark drawer and cheap flexi sleeves.

Just checked my oldest DVD (cheap as chips White Label by Ritek) 9th September 2002 and it still works a treat!
 
ritchiec80 said:
Have you any experience of wd my cloud?
Click to expand...
I use the My Cloud 3tb drive. It's easy to use and you can attach additional usb drives to it. It isn't blindingly fast but it will acheive 70MBs on my system (connected directly). Speeds drop alot over wifi & I'm using 200mbps powerline so they are slowing it down too.
I paid £99 for mine from John Lewis (free delivery to your local Waitrose too).
It does the job, is cheap & expandable
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top