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by hullyjr on Tue Sep 07, 2021 9:50 am
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Despite having a relatively new iMac and an external SSD drive, I've not given as much thought to my primary back-up system. Currently, this is 2 x 6TB spindle drives connected by Thunderbolt 2. The fact that I needed a cable adapter tells you the age of this set-up! How often should you replace these types of drives? I was considering just upgrading the enclosure but I should probably retire the drivers too. Any brand recommendations? Does anyone use the cloud-based systems, and what are your thoughts about them?

Thanks,
Jim Hully
Grayslake, IL
Images now at https://www.flickr.com/photos/138068378@N06/
 

by Mark L on Tue Sep 07, 2021 10:52 am
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Personally, I don't consider clooud backup to be a replacement for on site backup.  The cloud is remote, but very slow and it can get expensive to hold.

I believe that a wired, local backup is an essential part of any backup strategy.  How you handle that local backup depends on what you require and want.  I like using a local RAID setup for my on site.  Currently I use a two disk RAID that is mirrored (100% overlap).  If I was to replace the current box I would buy a 4 or 5 disk box and use 3 or 4 GB drives to generate a substantial backup volume.  The RAID boxes monitor disk condition and I have just let the box "tell" me when it is necessary/desrirable to replace a drive.  My RAID is only used for backup, so I don't have it turned on all the time.  

Just my thoughts and practice...
 

by E.J. Peiker on Wed Sep 08, 2021 11:12 am
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I do something similar to Mark but my on-site bulk storage backup is two 5 drive NAS units. Each is in a RAID 5 configuration. The beauty of this is that since it is network attached, my images are available to me anywhere in the world as long as I can establish a WiFi or Cell phone connection.
 

by hullyjr on Wed Sep 08, 2021 3:02 pm
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Thanks for the information. This does bring up new question about RAID configurations. Stepping aside from my original back-up question, do I have my primary external drive configered optimally? All my images are here. Currently this consists of 4 x 1TB SSDs in a RAID 0 configuration. Should I be using RAID 5 for this? Are there any hardware/software requirements for such a set-up.
Jim Hully
Grayslake, IL
Images now at https://www.flickr.com/photos/138068378@N06/
 

by E.J. Peiker on Wed Sep 08, 2021 7:58 pm
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hullyjr wrote:Thanks for the information. This does bring up new question about RAID configurations. Stepping aside from my original back-up question, do I have my primary external drive configered optimally? All my images are here. Currently this consists of 4 x 1TB SSDs in a RAID 0 configuration. Should I be using RAID 5 for this? Are there any hardware/software requirements for such a set-up.
There's no right or wrong here, RAID 0 is less space efficient but faster.  As primary storage, RAID 0 is probably the way to go but as backup storage, RAID 5 is more efficient, especially if youa re doing incremental backups rather than echo backups.
 

by Mark L on Wed Sep 08, 2021 10:16 pm
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I have my NAS unit setup as RAID 1 (redundant storage).  I also have a 5 disk RAID box that connects by SATA setup as RAID 5 (something over 14TB capacity using 4TB disks).  If I was to buy a new NAS I would buy a 5 disk unit and run it in RAID 5.  The strategy that EJ suggests sounds really sound and very versatile. 
 

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