Storage Solutions Most reliable way of backing up data, Cost does not matter !

Status
Not open for further replies.
K

kudilkrishna

Contributor
Hi All,

I am confused in selecting a good way to backup some precious data. Since its very precious, i am ready to spend max of 1 Lakh for 5 TB of backup

Data to be backup around 4 to 5 tb.

Dont need external hard disk backup as i have already got one.

Dont want to go for RAID or NAS ( bcoz its not frequent backup, its just for long life preservation )

Dont want online backup ( coz its not reliable, may be its reliable for 10 or 25 years)

heard that Blue ray discs have got hard coating and hence could not be easily scratched.

also heard that there are discs which have golden coating, making it unscratchable ( atleast hard to scratch), and has a life gurantee of 300 years.

kindly awaiting your valuable suggestions

p.s : can extend the budget a little bit, if its really that worth

thanks in advance
 
OMG you have a huge budget. wow.

Well, would suggest to go with a NAS in RAID 1 mode + online backup @ 2 differant locations + Blu ray discs combination. Keep the discs in a safe location.

The main advantage of this is that the data is duplicated 3xlocations. Also you can access the data from where ever you want, home or thru net

Only you should wait for HDD prices to come down.
 
^^thanks for the input vivek.

online backup i dont like coz i feel they are unreliable after few years.

dont feel like goint for raid coz we dont backup frequently, we have got all the data in computer just back them up and preserve it ( may be it will be used once in 6 months )

the blu ray seems quite a good decision ( which is a good brand blu ray disc + player )

thanks again
 
Optical media is never 100% reliable. It also has extremely short lifespan. What is guaranteed is one thing, how it stands up to that guarantee or under what conditions is never really spoken about. I would not trust anything 'precious' to it, unless you have two copies and one is stored in a bank locker with humidity proofing.

Frankly nothing much is 100% reliable, but optical media has to be least reliable way of backing up. Specially if it stored.

Now.

5Tb is not much space for domestic users, and a lot for enterprise class solutions.

A NAS is the safest, cheapest and most reliable way to back up data and for the time you are not backing up, take the NAS offline (power down mode). A LaCie 5big is about 75k and offers 10TB, more than enough to keep you happy a long time. So though it may seem an extravagant solution, get it and rest assured. If you use 1:1 backup and use RAID 1 in your backup, that's three copies of every piece of data and your chances of permanent loss basically evaporate.

Put it this way.

If a single hard drive has a failure rate of 1 in ten thousand, a single copy of data on it has a .0001% chance of failure (recovery). Two copies have a one in a million chance of failure. Three copies have one in a billion.
 
Online backup is not actually preferred, but its just another place to backup your data. Also, i would suggest that you use Google or Amazon where once your data is in the cloud, they do not delete it even if you do not renew for the same capacity next year. So, do the backup once only if possible. Also, online also the data is usually backed up in RAID 5/10 mode, which means that you already have redundancy here too.

On to Blu Ray disks, if your data is playable on Blu ray media players, then only it makes sense to have one. Else you will be needing a computer with BD ROM to read them. The only advantage of BR is that its life is longer than CD/DVD but at higher expense too. Also dont forget, retrieving data of around 5TB from them is like you will need ~ 200 disc or so, each with 25GB capacity. Now imagine the time required to back to them up and retrieve them?

Coming to HDD/NAS solutions, these are the easiest and the best. A homegrown solution based on WHS + SNB Pentium/i3 should cost around 20K for the machine and 6K x 6 drives (current pricing in bulk, if you wait till next year, it should drop back to 4k each) for the HDD in RAID 1 mode. The advantages of such a system are already described by cranky, but the disadvantages are that usually all the HDD's since they come from the same batch, the chances of more than 1 drive failing is high usually.

So, if you want true redundancy, please ensure that the data is backed up in more than one location. As far as the discs are concerned, they need to be in a controlled environment for long life. For online backup, use a service such as that from either Google/Amazon as they have good pricing, plus there are tools to access/backup the data too. For the NAS, ensure you get a good cabinet with good cooling.
 
IT guys in my company suggested me to use (1) DVDs (Blue Rays in your case) since they found them to be the most reliable media for storing data for a longer period.

(2) In addition to BDs, I recommend you to go for Off-site backup as my friends have suggested in previous posts. It ensures that atleast one copy of your data survives natural calamity and/or theft. Backblaze offers unlimited space for a meager sum of $5 (approx) per month. There are more.

I will not recommend NAS system (or RAID for that matter) unless you have ready access to technician(s) who can help in you in case an HDD fails or something else goes wrong. (3) But surely you can use another external HDD just to half the chances of losing data if in case your present one goes out of service.

Data copies in triplicate could be a little difficult to manage but that is the cost one has to pay to safeguard the data. :)

I hope this helps.

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

A word of caution, when burning CDs/DVDs , never burn more than 3 or 4 at a stretch. There is a high possibility of the next being rendered useless. :)
 
rahuljawale said:
A word of caution, when burning CDs/DVDs , never burn more than 3 or 4 at a stretch. There is a high possibility of the next being rendered useless. :)
Click to expand...

Any validations for the same?
 
ronit said:
Any validations for the same?
Click to expand...

Experience of more than 10 years? :)

But that aside, it must be the (extra) heat that causes the harm.

The results have never changed for off-the-shelf burners of brands such as LG, ASUS, LiteOn and Sony. Never used Samsung so can not comment on those models. They do not vary even when media brand is changed. I have seen Moser Baer, Verbatim and Sony failing alike.
 
thanks rahul and vivek krishnan ,

from your suggestions, i have decided to buy a Blue Ray Writer ( costs 12,000 to 14,000 ) and buy around 200 to 225 Blu ray single layer discs ( i think rs 100 or 125 each ).

Regarding the NAS + RAID , need little time to think as rahul said

"I will not recommend NAS system (or RAID for that matter) unless you have ready access to technician(s) who can help in you in case an HDD fails or something else goes wrong. (3) But surely you can use another external HDD just to half the chances of losing data if in case your present one goes out of service. "
Click to expand...
 
rahuljawale said:
Experience of more than 10 years? :)

But that aside, it must be the (extra) heat that causes the harm.

The results have never changed for off-the-shelf burners of brands such as LG, ASUS, LiteOn and Sony. Never used Samsung so can not comment on those models. They do not vary even when media brand is changed. I have seen Moser Baer, Verbatim and Sony failing alike.
Click to expand...

Have been burning 40-45 discs in a lot nonstop one after the other but still 0% failure rate atleast for me. Touchwood. ;) Till now only 4-6 discs went bad that too due to bad media. Currently using moserbaer dvdrw bought in yr2008. I dont use it much; except for burning a lot of 120-150 discs once in 6months and for occasionally dumping disc data to hdd. Also i burn the discs at its full supported speeds. I still use Nero 7. :P
 
kudilkrishna said:
thanks rahul and vivek krishnan ,

from your suggestions, i have decided to buy a Blue Ray Writer ( costs 12,000 to 14,000 ) and buy around 200 to 225 Blu ray single layer discs ( i think rs 100 or 125 each ).

Regarding the NAS + RAID , need little time to think as rahul said
Click to expand...

A BD Writer does not cost 12~14K, you can get LG/Pioneer ones for as low as ~7K. Here is the link for the ASUS, but its 8.7k : Asus BW-12B1LT 3D Blu-ray Burner

Also, regarding the NAS, just have a look at WHS; Its basically a server OS from Microsoft for the SOHO market. Google for some info. Both v1 and v2 are upto the task, for v2 you might need an addon.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom