MY BACKUP SYSTEM

EdinburghGary

EdinburghGary

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Gary
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Guys,

Thought I would share my current backup plan which is based on protecting client photos only (no system software will be backed up).

The plan is cheap enough, currently used 4x 1TB external drives, picked up earlier in the week from PCWORLD for less than £60 each.

I am using FREEWARE software to schedule a daily backup.

screenshot20100416at052.png


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Here's how I plan to run with it.


  1. Connect Camera to Computer
  2. Copy ENTIRE contents of Memory Card to INSPIRE03
  3. Run Backupset INSPIRE03toINSPIRE04
  4. Make my initial image selection
  5. Create Client Folder on INSPIRE01
  6. Copy all my selected images from INSPIRE03 to INSPIRE01
  7. Run INSPIRE01toINSPIRE02 backup set

OK so far, I have two copies of ALL my raw data, and four copies of my selected images.

INSPIRE01 and INSPIRE02 will mirror one another (albeit on a schedule). If I delete from INSPIRE01, the delete will sync to INSPIRE02. If I edit on INSPIRE01, the edit will sync over to INSPIRE02. This is exactly what I want.

INSPIRE03 to INSPIRE04 is a one way backup, in other words, once the backup takes place, INSPIRE04 will never sync deleted data requests to INSPIRE03. Even in the event of stupidly removing data from INSPIRE03 (I won't), it would still remain on INSPIRE04.

All my finished edits, which are print / DVD ready, will be uploaded to a private site via FTP and stored forever more.

At the end of each day, I will sync to a MOBILE DRIVE, (INSPIRE05), and take this home to Sync offsite with INSPIRE06.....

It sounds like a lot of work, but in reality, it's no more work than copying and pasting your data manually - in fact it's less.....

Hope it helps someone, and please - pick holes if you will, any improvements appreciated.

G.
 
That does sound like a lot of work!! how long will it take to fill those drives and need more drives?
 
Hi Fraggle,

I think I will go through perhaps 1TB every two month or so, just depends how busy the shop is.

I know it reads like it's a lot of work, but other than the copying to the edit folder, the rest is automatic. The only manual bit is as follows:

1: Create your client folders (you need to do this even when not backing up)
2: Manually copy your SELECTED PHOTOS to the Client Edits folder.

The rest of the backup is automated on a daily basis.

G.
 
It sounds good.. did you have to make up a script to do the copying? or is it setup in some other way?
 
Gary,
As the business picks up I reckon you'll be getting through drives like there's no tomorrow. It's a great system but has potential to become a bit of a howler when you need to find images on a decommissioned (or full up) disk and you're not sure which one it's on.

I know we're talking tons of data so it may not be practical without coughing up more cash for a bonded line internet connection, but it may be worth having a look into the Amazon S3 storage offerings. Benefits there are that you could fully automate it, it's secure, it's backed up multiple times (by them) and it's off site..........
We're shifting all our work databases and servers into the 'cloud' in the next couple of months, and I've been looking at 'borrowing' a few TB off of the firm so I can chuck some of my data up there.
 
fraggle101 said:
It sounds good.. did you have to make up a script to do the copying? or is it setup in some other way?
Click to expand...

I installed a program, screenshot in my Opening Post. Easy to use and free (OSX)....


yoby said:
Gary,
As the business picks up I reckon you'll be getting through drives like there's no tomorrow. It's a great system but has potential to become a bit of a howler when you need to find images on a decommissioned (or full up) disk and you're not sure which one it's on.

I know we're talking tons of data so it may not be practical without coughing up more cash for a bonded line internet connection, but it may be worth having a look into the Amazon S3 storage offerings. Benefits there are that you could fully automate it, it's secure, it's backed up multiple times (by them) and it's off site..........
We're shifting all our work databases and servers into the 'cloud' in the next couple of months, and I've been looking at 'borrowing' a few TB off of the firm so I can chuck some of my data up there.
Click to expand...

I would really struggle to justify the cost of the line - last time I checked such things, £10K a year or so....and that was considered cheap. If I could get the VIRGIN 50MB system, it could work.

My plan in terms of archiving is simply to print the folder contents onto an A4 sheet and store one on site, and one off site, each labeled with the client names.

It could grow arms and legs....

G.
 
If you started finding the manual C&P-ing a chore, you could look into a 4 drive NAS (network attached storage).

Netgear offer some nice features which include: one-touch backup to external drive, X-raid system which allows you to increase the size of the dirves installed very easily and NTI Shadow would cover all your scheduled/incremental backup needs.

Something to think about if your needs change, but your current setup covers the right amount of backup...in my personal opinion.
 
I think you need to consider a different type of back up device as well as your hard drives for the important stuff.
 
neil_g said:
even with such high speed lines youre often limited to 1 or 2 mb upload speeds so it will still take forever to upload. SDSL is another option, however again not cheap and youll only get 2mb through BT for example.
Click to expand...

Yep, Virgin's capped at 1.5Mb/s upload.

Having tried a few online storage services, including S3, they all seem to take about 2hr / GB to upload which is painfully slow for backups, and I'm on the 50Mb Virgin service at home.
 
JasonRS said:
Yep, Virgin's capped at 1.5Mb/s upload.

Having tried a few online storage services, including S3, they all seem to take about 2hr / GB to upload which is painfully slow for backups, and I'm on the 50Mb Virgin service at home.
Click to expand...

i know its probably not a problem on virgin but if your download usage is capped restoring the backups in the event of large loss could also take a painfully long time.
 
what make are your drives?

I've had 3 seagate ones fail on me over the years and only buy western digital from now on.

how do you intend on cataloging all the drives and search through so you don't have to plug in every drive to find a customers photographs?
 
joescrivens said:
what make are your drives?

I've had 3 seagate ones fail on me over the years and only buy western digital from now on.

how do you intend on cataloging all the drives and search through so you don't have to plug in every drive to find a customers photographs?
Click to expand...

WD Elements 1TB.

Each time a Hard Drive fills up, I will take it and it's sibling offline, and attach a directory print to each, before storing one in each location....

I will also label the drive, and store the label and associated clients in a purpose built database....I have been building a fairly cool .NET based studio management system, it's literally doing what I need and nowt else :D I'm thinking of adding functionality and making it all pretty and shiny and sticking it online for others to use on a beta basis to see if there could be any demand for such a system...

G.
 
Gary, do you have a link for this item?
When I was in PC World last week, I'm sure the WD 1TB was about £150.
 
Oooh LaCie have kept that software quiet, I've been using the Intego software they supply with their drive and not really getting on with it, this looks better, so I'll give it a go.
 
Thanks for pointing me to SilverKeeper, EdinburghGary - that's exactly the peice of software I've been looking for! I had something similar for the PC but struggled to find a Mac program that did the same job but you've now sold that!!!!! I've got a Netgear ReadyNAS Duo 2 with 2 x 500gb SATA drives configured for RAID1 but now use SilverKeeper to automatically backup the ReadyNAS to an external 1TB hard drive that is also used for my TimeMachine backups

Big thanks to you!!!!!

For Windows users, this program is worth checking out...

http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/sbpro.html
 
Sorry to hijack.

Any pc equivalent of this silverkeeper?

I use synctoy from Microsoft, which is ok for what I need it for. Anything better?
 
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