Where to go with Backup solution.

[ding76uk]

I currently have the following.

2TB internal drive in my iMac

1.5TB External Drive for Photos

1TB External for Backup of photos.


My photo drive is almost at 1TB so the backup is soon going to need replacing.

I currently do not have a time machine for the main drive, which I want to sort ASAP.


What kind of solution should I be looking at to backup everything?

I am worried I am going to have a mass of ext Hard Drives on my Desk.

I am thinking of looking at something such as Drobo which would allow me upgradeable storage which will grow as my needs do. Is that a good solution? Could there be a better solution

I have no idea what is the best way to streamline my storage needs.

I know I should be looking at an offsite in the long term too.

Hopefully that makes some kind of sense of what I am looking for.

Cheers as always.

 

[neil_g]

depends on your budget really..

personally ive got a 5 bay synology NAS currently filled with 2Tb drives in RAID5. however the model i have has an eSATA port allowing an additonal 5 bay expansion (the newer version has 2 eSATA allowing 2 additional expansions).

ive also got a 2 bay RAID0 unit with 2Tb drives as a backup for that connected to one of the synologys 4 USB ports and a nightly backup runs to that.

i also archive to Blu-Ray (none of the degridation issues of DVD) and take off site.

Even a Drobo will need to be backed up.

 

[ding76uk]

Budget wise I am thinking £500.

I am thinking of using externals for photos, then using drobo type device for all backup stuff.

I am looking at getting a GTECH 2TB Drive for my Next Photo Drive (heard they are very good) and running them as main photo drives, then using a drobo (i use this only as its a name I know, open to better/other suggestions) for the backup of everything. then a usb drive I update every few weeks stored offsite.

 

[neil_g]

i do it the other way around, my synology (DS1010+ by the way, superceeded by DS1511+ but thats a bit over your budget) is my working copy storage. RAWs loaded to Lightroom over 1Gbps LAN.

 

[Craikeybaby]

I'd also suggest doing it the other way around.

I have 2 back up streams, system back up (everything that is on my Mac, including all images) and image archive (everything that I have imported into Lightroom.

Both are network drives, a Time Capsule for system back up and a LaCie NAS for the archive.

However, NAS drives stay in my house, so that isn't really a safe backup, one a week a use CCCloner to create another system back up on an external hard drive and I sync my NAS to another external hard drive, these 2 drives are kept off site.

In your situation I'd go for something fairly fast, say FW800, for your photos, as this is what you would be working with, back up can be a slower connection. Possibly daisy chained?

As a minimum I would upgrade your photoback up drive and use the old one as a time machine backup.