UPDATE - GOT ONE. SEE QUESTIONS IN POSTS BELOW

I want something more dependable that the usb WD drive on my router. It’s slow and is error prone, especially with a lot transferring.

I’d prefer something connected with cat cable and maybe dual 4gb drives. I have 2 desktops and lower priority items like a laptop with minimal content.

Links to good hardware appreciated and recommendations for how to implement. I have a local Microcenter and can order online of course.

I am mostly backing up thousands of family photos and usual computer documents.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Oz_Shadow,

About 2 gb data total on the two desktops.

Synology or Qnap 2 disk NAS;

Two Western Digital Red 6TB Drives;

Set the drives to mirror each other for fault tolerance.

Purchase a copy of Acronis backup. Get a multi-license pack.

Set the software so that you always have two full backups deep.

Three copies of your data, on two separate media or devices, one in a separate location. The separate location thing needs to be addressed. Perhaps a cheap USB drive that can be shuttled and stored elsewhere, or a cloud subscription to an online backup.

Second the Synology NAS. That's what I use in the business with a RAID 5 structure.

Third the Synology system. Two drives in a RAID 1 mirroring system, works great! About every 2 months or so, I copy the important data to an external drive that goes to the safety deposit box.

I guess if we're throwing out votes for specific brands, I went with a Synology 4Disk NAS running Synology Hybrid Raid.

Whatever NAS unit you get (I prefer QNAP) the backup software you get is important.
Good FREE program is Veeam Backup Agent for Microsoft is an excellent one.
Of course you don't have to have a NAS as it works with USB devices too.
It has saved many of my IT client's desktop computers, simple easy to use.
There are some more advanced features if you pay for the paid version but may/may not suit your needs.
YMMV

I use a computer I built with an Intel motherboard, an i3 processor, a pair of mirrored 2 TB hard drives and a SSD for the operating system. Attached to the computer's USB 3 port, I have a 2 TB WD external drive. I actually have two that I rotate on a weekly basis. One gets taken off site when not attached to my computer.

The three other computers on my network are set to automatically back themselves to a drive I've mapped on the computer computer I built. The computer I built backs itself up to the external USB drive. That computer has been running 24/7 for 6 years. I tested the backups omce when I first set it up and it worked. I use iTunes to back up or iPads to one of our computers.

Is it easy to add a second drive at a later time and convert to RAID ?

Which version of Acronis? I'd prefer to buy once and not use any cloud based services.

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
Is it easy to add a second drive at a later time and convert to RAID ?

Which version of Acronis? I'd prefer to buy once and not use any cloud based services.

RAID is normally created once at the start and is generally not changeable.
Acronis True Image is what you want for our desktops.

I got a QNAP and two 6tb drives. Does it make more sense to do Raid 1 or use one drive for a full Acronis backup of the systems and the second drive for sync’d file folders like a Photo folder sync’d to the Photo folder on the computer?

OP: might want to read up on the 3 - 2 - 1 rules for backing up. One backup must be offsite in case of fire / flood / theft. I see someone else mentioned this above, but I'll repeat to stress the point.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
Whatever NAS unit you get (I prefer QNAP) the backup software you get is important.
Good FREE program is Veeam Backup Agent for Microsoft is an excellent one.
Of course you don't have to have a NAS as it works with USB devices too.
It has saved many of my IT client's desktop computers, simple easy to use.
There are some more advanced features if you pay for the paid version but may/may not suit your needs.
YMMV

Hey smschulz, do you know of anyone using AWS glacier for home backups? seems like a good cheap solution for the off-site backup. I'm just not sure how to do incrementatl backups to glacier.

Without RAID 1, isn’t your backup completely at the mercy of a single disk failure in your NAS? I’d hate to have that happen right when it’s needed for my PC.

quote:

Originally posted by tsmccull:
Without RAID 1, isn’t your backup completely at the mercy of a single disk failure in your NAS? I’d hate to have that happen right when it’s needed for my PC.

Well, the original copies would be on the pcs so still two copies.

Having had a number of hard drives either die or become obsolete (I have a 4TB Firewire 800 drive; no newer computer has a Firewire 800 port, and it takes two adapters to convert -- unreliably). So I have decided to take my backups online. Twice, in fact.

I upgraded my personal Dropbox account to 2TB, and I purchased an iDrive account (also 2TB). I have five computers, however, so my backup needs may be greater than yours. I did have some data loss earlier this year (before I bought my online backups) after taking one of my laptops in for service on its keyboard, and the repair resulted in my HD being reformatted (I still wonder why a keyboard repair necessitated a wipe of the hard drive, but what's done is done).

Anyway, you might want to consider an online back, either as a primary or as a secondary backup system. iDrive backs up my computers according to a schedule I set, and the only requirement is that my computer be online at that time.

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:

quote:

Originally posted by tsmccull:
Without RAID 1, isn’t your backup completely at the mercy of a single disk failure in your NAS? I’d hate to have that happen right when it’s needed for my PC.

Well, the original copies would be on the pcs so still two copies.

Well, sort of. You're usually looking towards your backup because your PC copy has already left the building. That's a bad time to find out your backup is also toast.

quote:

Originally posted by tsmccull:
Without RAID 1, isn’t your backup completely at the mercy of a single disk failure in your NAS? I’d hate to have that happen right when it’s needed for my PC.

I know it has been said before but RAID is not backup.
You can backup the NAS (which is backing up your main data or PC).
PC,SERVER or DATA > NAS > USB backup of NAS
I have had a NAS lose a RAID configuration and after repairing all I had to do is restore the backup of the NAS.
Now days with SSD's the need is less than spinners.
Not saying not to RAID SSD but the need is less.
YMMV

radioman, never used toe AWS glacier but sound like a good idea.
Lots of options for online backups.

Everyone should look up 3-2-1 backup strategy and that should tell you a lot.

I think you may want to also look at offsite back ups.

God forbid there’s a fire or such, you lose it all no matter how many backups.

I use Carbonite...but there are several out there.

I have two easy options for offsite.

1. Is the external USB hard drive I use now as the primary backup. I could copy the backup and take elsewhere.

2. I have a web hosting account. I just need to figure out how to make sure the area I save it in is secure from outside.

 
Get your large drive (4TB) in an external enclosure with a USB3 connection and attach it to your main computer. USB3 transfers much faster than the drive can write. Share the drive and back up your other PC to that same drive, over the network (the network in this case being from PC-->PC). You'll still get the same network transfer speeds you would with a network connected NAS, a bit slower than the directly connected drive but no slower than NAS. Get a second 4TB drive in a USB3 enclosure (or dock, I prefer a dock) and back up the first 4TB to the second 4TB, and that would be your offsite storage (I keep mine in my safe deposit box, use 2 4TB drives and rotate them monthly offsite).
 
The one thing I don't like about NAS products is that they use their own file system, so you cannot simply remove a drive and read it on your PC. I has to be in a NAS of the same brand. By backing up to DAS (directly attached storage), you are at least using your native file system and you can read the drive whenever you need to.
 
I use an external enclosure for the directly attached 4TB, and then also have a SATA dock for the second (off site) drive(s). The dock is handy as it will accept any SATA drive, 3.5", 2.5", and SSDs.