SliMat

I couldn't agree more - but what I do works for me... with 7Tb of "data" I would struggle to routinely backup all of that as I would need another server to accommodate it and to also backup offsite would mean having to have a 3rd server... then when I add an an 8Gb ISO to my main data store, the offsite backup that night would run for a month to upload it So, whilst I agree, for me its not really practical to backup everything - but I am sensible enough to realise that if I lose a film from my collection, to me, it wouldn't be the end of the world... but if I lose the only photo's of my daughters 1st birthday party I would be really upset!! So I guess its a balance of weighing up cost, time and resources against the importance of your data - the purpose of my post was just to give others an idea of what can be achieved for very little money (most of the software I use is open source / free for non-commercial use) giving a better level of redundancy than a lot of business have Nonetheless some really good information in the thread. Thanks.

Nice write up - some sound advice... I work in IT B2B sales and the number of clients who wince when I quote a solution for their business and then tell them that the backup solution + software and media is often as dear as the server I quoted... and often they reject the backup and rely on RAID5 to safeguard their business. To emphasise the importance of backups I often tell them to come in tomorrow and not turn their PC on and see how much work they can do - this makes them realise just how important their data is... However as a home user it isn't practical to spend £1000s on backup drives, Backup Exec etc... so this is what I do; I use UNRAID for my movies, documents, photographs, music, etc - so I pretty much have everything on it. From the data that's on there, I have some which I consider irreplaceable - my photographs and documents mainly... these total a little under 1Tb - even though my data on UNRAID is about 7Tb... yes, I would be upset to lose my video collection, or my music - but the way I look at is that I could replace this if I had to - my other data I would never be able to recreate So I have a USB3 1.5Tb host powered hard disk, which is encrypted using Trucrypt, which is connected to my main PC. I backup my "critical" data regularly (every night at 2am) to this USB drive using Cobian Backup 11 Gravity - this has a "pre-backup" script to decrypt & mount the USB drive - backup and then dismount the disk when the backup is complete - so it is encrypted again. Then... just when you thought it was all over - I have another PC sitting at my Dads house which also has a USB3 hard disk connected and encrypted as above - although this one is decrypted all the time the PC is on (always), so that I can get remote access to it, but it is still encrypted using Trucrypt when someone disconnects it. I use Syncrify Client to backup my "critical" data over a VPN connection to this USB disk on the remote PC - which actually takes very little time as it is bit level backup so a 2Gb PST file might only have a few bits changed and so the backup time is very short unlike other solutions which would upload the whole file again! So... by doing this I reckon I am covered against accidentally deleting files or multiple disk failures in PCs and UNRAID occurring together. By encrypting the backup disks, if some toe-rag breaks in and steals the conveniently light USB drives then my data is secure. The first time I backed up the "remote" USB disk I copied the data onto it locally and then took the disk over to my Dads - otherwise, yes this would have taken months to copy the whole lot over the first time OK, it might seem an elaborate backup but I don't have any photos of my family that are not digital, etc... so I don't want to lose these I reckon that if in one day I have all the disks in UNRAID fail, a USB disk fail and the USB drive at my Dads house being stolen and both houses burning down - then I guess someone really doesn't want me to keep my data!! I just thought I would mention my setup as it might give others an idea of how to built a resilient backup for very little as most of the software above is free for personal use... just Google it To any normal person I would say - decide what is irreplaceable to you - buy a couple of USB disks which can hold it all and once a week backup onto one and store the other at a relative or friends house so that if, god forbid, your house burns down - you will still have the majority of your data somewhere else. Just remember to swap the disks over every couple of weeks. There - I said it... sorry its so long - but might help someone