IT Guru's - Back up question - suggestions

westwind77

westwind77

New member
I need good suggestions from the IT Guru's that are here (well at lease I hope still are around as I have not been here in a while!)

In short....looking for the best way to back up video files for long term storage.

We have an external RAID drive and back up to Carbonite as well, but we have tripped our limit for storage (mostly due to videos). I would like to 'off-load' a good amount of the video files from the back up, but still have them preserved off site physically, what do you recommend?

I was thinking higher capacity USB drives. It seems DVD lifespans are all over the place, but USB seem to be longer and more stable?

I am open to any suggestions, looking to get this done sooner rather than later.

Thanks!
 
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How much storage are you looking for? I work in video production and we do a mix of online storage and SSD's. For archival purposes, every project we work on gets put onto its own SSD. You'll most likely move past the technology to access the info on them before the info ever gets lost.
 
westwind77 said:
I need good suggestions from the IT Guru's that are here (well at lease I hope still are around as I have not been here in a while!)

In short....looking for the best way to back up video files for long term storage.

We have an external RAID drive and back up to Carbonite as well, but we have tripped our limit for storage (mostly due to videos). I would like to 'off-load' a good amount of the video files from the back up, but still have them preserved off site physically, what do you recommend?

I was thinking higher capacity USB drives. It seems DVD lifespans are all over the place, but USB seem to be longer and more stable?

I am open to any suggestions, looking to get this done sooner rather than later.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I would say external HDDs. They've gotten considerably cheaper over the last couple of years - I've recently seen 4 & 5TB on sale for under $100.
 
The movies are all simple 'home clips', kids/vacation/family/GoPro. As for needed storage I would say 200-300GB or so. I am fine with multiple devices if needed. I know that kind of storage can get expensive, especially with SSD, where a 128 GB USB is a small fraction of that.

I still plan to keep the files on the external RAID drive, but would like an off-site back up of them.
 
westwind77 said:
The movies are all simple 'home clips', kids/vacation/family/GoPro. As for needed storage I would say 200-300GB or so. I am fine with multiple devices if needed. I know that kind of storage can get expensive, especially with SSD, where a 128 GB USB is a small fraction of that.

I still plan to keep the files on the external RAID drive, but would like an off-site back up of them.
Click to expand...

Budget?

I'm no IT guru, but I consider myself pretty saavy. I'm a fulltime photographer/videographer and I use a Synology at home. Really really enjoy it.
 
westwind77 said:
The movies are all simple 'home clips', kids/vacation/family/GoPro. As for needed storage I would say 200-300GB or so. I am fine with multiple devices if needed. I know that kind of storage can get expensive, especially with SSD, where a 128 GB USB is a small fraction of that.

I still plan to keep the files on the external RAID drive, but would like an off-site back up of them.
Click to expand...

Yeah, if it's only 200-300gb of stuff, you can totally get away with using small flash drives. Cheap enough that you can backup your backups if you wanted a bit more piece of mind.

Hard-core data preservation: The best media and methods for archiving your data | PCWorld
 
Hepar said:
Yeah, if it's only 200-300gb of stuff, you can totally get away with using small flash drives. Cheap enough that you can backup your backups if you wanted a bit more piece of mind.

Hard-core data preservation: The best media and methods for archiving your data | PCWorld
Click to expand...

That link was an interesting read, thank you! I'm half tempted to do both the flash and the BD-R LTH as well. Both would be either stored in a fire proof safe or the safe deposit box.

I'm surprised there was no mention of the usb drives given their capacity these days. I might start with those as the data transfer should be quick vs the BD-R's (from what I read).
 
westwind77 said:
That link was an interesting read, thank you! I'm half tempted to do both the flash and the BD-R LTH as well. Both would be either stored in a fire proof safe or the safe deposit box.

I'm surprised there was no mention of the usb drives given their capacity these days. I might start with those as the data transfer should be quick vs the BD-R's (from what I read).
Click to expand...

I think one reason is that USB drives are made more for data transfer and not storage, so most of the time they are made on the cheap. That would be my one hesitation with them. But overall, I think you'll be fine, especially if you have redundancy.
 
Hepar said:
I think one reason is that USB drives are made more for data transfer and not storage, so most of the time they are made on the cheap. That would be my one hesitation with them. But overall, I think you'll be fine, especially if you have redundancy.
Click to expand...

Exactly, that was my concern with the usb. I have not found much on the web that says 'don't do it' like they do with other media though....kind of why i asked here :)

Anything special i need to look for with the disks to make sure they are of higher quality (besides buying a well known quality brand)?
 
4Tb external HDD's

I've got about 4 Tb of data, mostly video.

Go with a HDD, not a SSD, as they have a longer "shelf life." Do not get a 3Tb model. Studies have been done showing a huge failure rate on HDD's of that size. The 4Tb are said to be much more stable.

If you have the tech skills and the discipline to backup manually on a regular basis, get an internal HDD and install it, backup your work, then remove it. Your files will copy over much more quickly than with an external.

Do not trust The Cloud. Keep your stuff local.
 
Last edited:
Bodie the Dog said:
I've got about 4 Tb of data, mostly video.

Go with a HDD, not a SSD, as they have a longer "shelf life." Do not get a 3Tb model. Studies have been done showing a huge failure rate on HDD's of that size. The 4Tb are said to be much more stable.

If you have the tech skills and the discipline to backup manually on a regular basis, get an internal HDD and install it, backup your work, then remove it. Your files will copy over much more quickly than with an external.

Do not trust The Cloud. Keep your stuff local.
Click to expand...

I have no problem with the local back up....just looking for something for Off-Site to keep the data safe without paying cloud services a small fortune. Data backed up 100x's locally does nothing if there is a fire/flood/storm that destroys the room it is in!
 
westwind77 said:
I need good suggestions from the IT Guru's that are here (well at lease I hope still are around as I have not been here in a while!)

In short....looking for the best way to back up video files for long term storage.

We have an external RAID drive and back up to Carbonite as well, but we have tripped our limit for storage (mostly due to videos). I would like to 'off-load' a good amount of the video files from the back up, but still have them preserved off site physically, what do you recommend?

I was thinking higher capacity USB drives. It seems DVD lifespans are all over the place, but USB seem to be longer and more stable?

I am open to any suggestions, looking to get this done sooner rather than later.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

My recommendation is to buy 2-layer or better Blu-Ray optical media and backup your video files to those for longer term archive.

Reasoning: Blu-ray media has a minimal lifetime of 50 years, so as long as you have a computer that the blu-ray burner/reader can connect to, you should be able to read or play the video files.

I use a USB3 blu-ray burner to backup/archive my raw master image files, for long term storage. Once I fill a disc, I put it in my fireproof safe (90 minute fire-rating).
 
MONTYMTB said:
I would say external HDDs. They've gotten considerably cheaper over the last couple of years - I've recently seen 4 & 5TB on sale for under $100.
Click to expand...

^^^^

Buy 2 HDDs and make both of them back ups.

I suggest 2 different drives from 2 different manufacturers because everything eventually fails / degrades.

Replace them every 3-5 years and back them up again.

DVDs and USB flash drives are not the way to go for long term storage.

Alternatively / additionally, cloud storage is about $10/mo for 1TB. @$110/yr it's a fairly inexpensive "insurance" policy against losing your data.

I hope this helps

~Mark (CIO)
 
Mom's safe

westwind77 said:
I have no problem with the local back up....just looking for something for Off-Site to keep the data safe without paying cloud services a small fortune. Data backed up 100x's locally does nothing if there is a fire/flood/storm that destroys the room it is in!
Click to expand...

True that. I keep my backups in my mother in law's fireproof safe. 20 years of videos of my kids.
 
I have been using two 2TB USB3 portable WD drives for a few years, one for Data backup and one for all my DVD and BluRay backups to MP4. The second video one also held all my GoPro and other videos.

Unfortunately last week we were showing videos out back on the projection screen when a sudden wind storm caused my laptop to go sailing off the stand onto the concrete patio along with the running video drive. The laptop survived but I lost hundreds of hours of work backing up my DVD and BR collection. The video drive was almost full so no crying, I just bought a 4TB Seagate USB3 drive and will start over.

I will get a protective case for the new drive and Velcro it to the stand.
 
If you want offsite storage for over 4TB, cloud is the way to go. The price is fair. Less work, same result. Many Cloud services out there for you to choose. IIRC you're already running Carbonite and have physical HDD Backups. Those 2 are honestly adequate for about 95% of people across all disciplines. If you are in the 5%, You have to pay way more for that. 3 Backups seem like overkill to me.
 
I use a 4 drive Synology NAS.

4 3TB Disks gives 9TB of storage with one drive redundancy.

I have it tucked up away in the loft with the 4G modem and routers, all backed up with its own UPS.
 
I use Google Drive for my offsite backup. ~$10/mo for 1 TB storage. I have a Google biz account which (theoretically) exempts it from some of the privacy concerns. High speed anytime/anywhere access. Allows file sizes up to 5 TB


I use WD RE drives (server grade) for my local backups
 
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