Need to Backup 9TB+ of data

[Gessen]

Hi Guys,

I have 6 external harddrives totaling around 9TB of storage, most of which I have filled. My friends call me a digital hoarder haha. Anyway, if one ever died, I would cry. So I need to find a cost efficient way to back my data up. I was wondering if anyone had some good ideas/solutions?

Thanks,

Gessen

[GroundZero3]

lol how much are you willing to spend?

What kind of configuration do you have right now when it comes your space? I am assuming you have no raid configuration on these drives. 9 Tb+ space is past the the normal home user back up solution (and some businesses) and the reason im telling you this is because its not gonna be cheap to back up this amount of space.

[Gessen]

Is less a matter of how much I'm willing to spend and more just getting an idea of how much it will cost. I have no concept of how much it would cost, besides straight up purchasing an equivalent amt of storage in new harddrives. I'm just trying to figure out what my options are. But yeah, cheap is not the right word for it haha.

[GroundZero3]

Can you give us some information on how you have 9+ TB of space right now? IE. You have 9 TB drives (or 8 1 TB drives and 2 500 GB drives) or whatever your current configuration is.

How often does data get removed or added for this?

[Gessen]

Sure. It's just 7 external WD hard drives. A mix of 3 2TB hard drives, 3 1TB harddrives, and 1 500GB passport. I connect them to my laptop through a USB Hub and use them as straight up media storage. I don't use RAID and instead reformat to use the whole drive. I access/use them daily.

[nemowolf]

Sure. It's just 7 external WD hard drives. A mix of 3 2TB hard drives, 3 1TB harddrives, and 1 500GB passport. I connect them to my laptop through a USB Hub and use them as straight up media storage. I don't use RAID and instead reformat to use the whole drive. I access/use them daily.

i envision a NAS box setup. Sorry hit submit before i finished my thought...


One empty Full Tower case, spare parts and hopefully enough spots for a raid array that will meet and/or exceed your current drive space. I would recommend that you move away from the USB connections as they can be comparably slow to that of a network (This of course depends on if you have 10/100 or gig speeds). You will find that the USB connection will get bogged down when accessing data from more than one source as it has limitations on bandwidth internally (To your computer). By moving to a network share, you can open the limitations to the speed of your network and that becomes your bottleneck. You also gain redudancy and potential performance increases depending on which raid setup you go with.


Now thats just my 2 cents to kick start things.

[GroundZero3]

A NAS of some sort is gonna be needed with several large drives, I dont have any experience on the home consumer devices but I heard some good things about DROBOs devices. Most NAS devices dont come with hard drives so you are gonna have to purchase more for it.

[Steve R Jones]

My friends call me a digital hoarder haha.

There is medication you can take for that

Are the files still available to be downloaded?

Odds are you haven't stopped downloading.. Maybe a serious catalog app to keep trak of the files. If you loose a drive's worth - you re-download them.

[Gessen]

There is medication you can take for that

Are the files still available to be downloaded?

Odds are you haven't stopped downloading.. Maybe a serious catalog app to keep trak of the files. If you loose a drive's worth - you re-download them.

Hmm that's something I haven't thought of. And it is a good short term measure that can help me while I look into NAS devices. Thanks for the help guys, it gives me a good starting point. / Pshh meds, it's a disease I whole heartedly embrace haha

[J1mmy]

No need to purchase NAS, or spend more than a few dollars a month. You want an unlimited on-line data back solution .

I have 4TB backed up, and I've heard stories for people with 10TB backed up also. Having said that, I don't know what kind of material you are actually backing up.

I've been with them for about a year so any info, PM me.

[GroundZero3]

How long did it take you to upload that? And how long would it take for you to pull it down? According to this site:

Download Time Calculator | File Transfer Time | Data Transfer Speed

Uploading 9 TB of data with a 10 Mbps connection would take: 91 Days 15 Hours 1 Minute 23.72 Seconds Of course this is if the person has that kind of upload speed that is constant (and hopefully doesnt have a cap on their connection)

3 months to get a complete upload of your data?

The biggest issue people have with those kinds of backup solutions is security.

[J1mmy]

Yes, it will take months depending on your upload speed. But then again a backup like this isn't supposed to be used a primary source of retrieving information, and only used in cases of restoring data. Nevertheless, with any solution 9TB is going to be a massive amount of resources to shift about, not to mention the expense.

Recently, I was backing up some of my data on an 500GB drive. After the back the up I had to do a HDD test as it acting a little funny when booting. It failed the test which led me to believe that the 3 or 4 days that I was stressing it whilst I shifted 3TB of data.

As for security, as I asked then, it depends on what kind of files he's uploading. I know that some people encrypt their personal data.

On top of that, you shouldn't really be keeping your backups in the same house. Fire etc will take out everything. I just can't do with NAS or external drive backups anymore, they're just too fiddly, expensive and no longer feasible or necessary with online solutions like this.

[Gessen]

Thanks for that reference Jimmy, I'll check it out. I have a rather large media collection *understatement*, so the files are mostly .mkv and .avi files. There are some other more rare file extensions and then a mix of music, comics, ebooks, apps. But the lions share consists of .mkv files and .avi files. They aren't something I'm worried about other people seeing, so no security risks. They're just a source of enjoyment for me and I like collecting, so losing them would be rough and take a huge amount of time to re-download. I also don't have an updated list of what I have, which I probably need to do and keep somewhere online.

[GroundZero3]

Perhaps the online backup solution will be perfect for you, what kind of internet connection do you have Gessen? Mainly upload speed because that is what is gonna determine how long it will take to upload it and do you have a monthly cap?

[Gessen]

I'm actually in the process of moving into my own Studio, so I'm going to have to get my internet set up sometime next week. But I'm planing on shelling out a decent amount for a good connection. Probably one of the higher end comcast packages. Does anyone have any Boston recommendations for an internet package, while we're on the subject?

[GroundZero3]

That all depends on what is available in the area you are moving to, you will need to call comcast give them your address so they can tell you packages they have

[J1mmy]

I think this is exactly what made me sign up for this also.

I have a 15MB upload, it still takes time (esp if you don't leave your PC on 24) but this is just a downfall. If you are in no hurry to back it all up then this is the best solution for you. You can go ahead and backup all the other files while you're at it.

Also, if you have an android device, you can stream your video files through their app (and music)