What's your 3-2-1 backup strategy?

M

meehatpa

Disciple
I having on the fence on deciding to sign up for cloud deep archive storage or/and backup using old fashioned dvd/bluray disks. I have close to ~1TB of data and growing that need archiving long term (atleast for 1+ human generation).
These include personal photos, videos, financial/legal documents, etc.
 
Local Machine -> NAS -> OneDrive

Onedrive has 1 TB, of which I'm currently using 130 GB. So it's sufficient for me. But might not be for you. You can check something like Backblaze.
 
I have over 15tb of data but only need to maintain backups for specific 7tb which is the dearest data of all- family/personal- photos/videos memories from last 2 decades and counting.
I only maintain and trust offline copies so have 3 hard drives maintaining individual copies and the best part is they only get plugged-in when I have to backup else they are resting outside my cabinet. So even if in worse case scenario the system catches fire, this top priority data will always be safe somewhere..

Cloud will be extremely painful to upload this much data in sorted directory structure so I'm and will always consider offline backup. Also, these days everything is getting hacked frequently rather easily and even MS, google etc. are also not spared so NO ways I will ever be opting for online /cloud thing.
 
nRiTeCh said:
I have over 15tb of data but only need to maintain backups for specific 7tb which is the dearest data of all- family/personal- photos/videos memories from last 2 decades and counting.
I only maintain and trust offline copies so have 3 hard drives maintaining individual copies and the best part is they only get plugged-in when I have to backup else they are resting outside my cabinet. So even if in worse case scenario the system catches fire, this top priority data will always be safe somewhere..

Cloud will be extremely painful to upload this much data in sorted directory structure so I'm and will always consider offline backup. Also, these days everything is getting hacked frequently rather easily and even MS, google etc. are also not spared so NO ways I will ever be opting for online /cloud thing.
Click to expand...
I understand you maintain 2 copies of 7 tb data?
Offline hdd and soother connected to your live workstation.

What hdd are you using?
 
Hard drives in general can suffer from bit rot over decades as per what I researched. However 3 copies of it may prevent you from losing any data and save you on energy bills if you connect only required.
I do have cloud backups but I encrypt them with my own keys in the event they get breached or the cloud providers themselves try to harvest my data. I also have zero trust that these cloud storage providers will last 50+ years even when I am a paid customer.

With all these, the options are limited for long term offsite cold storage and I am now inclined to optical disks for backups with some form of redundancy like parchive or even simply copies of the same data stored in different sites. With ever growing data accumulation year after year, I am looking for an option that's time tested and not very expensive too.

I don't know if I sound too paranoid but I lost half a decade worth of data before and I don't want to make the same mistake again.
 
Futureized said:
I understand you maintain 2 copies of 7 tb data?
Offline hdd and soother connected to your live workstation.

What hdd are you using?
Click to expand...
I do similar back-ups. 3 copies.
Personal: 1 live, and 2 offline.
For office dox, 1 live, 1 live-backup (every 24 hours, or manually initiated in case of imp work), and 2 offline copies.

I also back-up PC OS image monthly. Only 1 copy of that. Just for the sake of it.

And, I use consumer-grade (Seagate/Toshiba/WD) - regular drives for the backups. HDDs do get corrupted once in a while, keep checking health using HDTune or HDSentinel, etc. So HDDs get replaced periodically. Feels a bit bad considering not much usage, but then that's how paying for insurance feels :)
 
Futureized said:
I understand you maintain 2 copies of 7 tb data?
Offline hdd and soother connected to your live workstation.

What hdd are you using?
Click to expand...
Nothing fancy. An external WD, a wd blue and a seagate.
meehatpa said:
Hard drives in general can suffer from bit rot over decades as per what I researched. However 3 copies of it may prevent you from losing any data and save you on energy bills if you connect only required.
I do have cloud backups but I encrypt them with my own keys in the event they get breached or the cloud providers themselves try to harvest my data. I also have zero trust that these cloud storage providers will last 50+ years even when I am a paid customer.

With all these, the options are limited for long term offsite cold storage and I am now inclined to optical disks for backups with some form of redundancy like parchive or even simply copies of the same data stored in different sites. With ever growing data accumulation year after year, I am looking for an option that's time tested and not very expensive too.

I don't know if I sound too paranoid but I lost half a decade worth of data before and I don't want to make the same mistake again.
Click to expand...
Its all luck factor dude eod! Cloud or offline copies.
I'm even thinking of keeping one drive in bank locker too.;)
 
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Haha, funny.

BTW I read that dvd-r has longer lifespan than dual layer ones or even bluray.

1672479784483.png


Source: https://www.canada.ca/en/conservati...tute-notes/longevity-recordable-cds-dvds.html

I don't know how it fares with the ones available in the indian market.
 
singenaadam said:
My experience with Dual layer DVDs was not pleasant. Readability became quite an issue.
Click to expand...
CD/DVD are total worthless for long-term storage. Blame our climatic conditions. I still have as new like written dvds/cds more than a decade ago but they dont get read anymore. Glad the data is of no use! Will always trust ssds/hdds anyday no matter if have to maintain multiple copies.
 
nRiTeCh said:
CD/DVD are total worthless for long-term storage. Blame our climatic conditions. I still have as new like written dvds/cds more than a decade ago but they dont get read anymore. Glad the data is of no use! Will always trust ssds/hdds anyday no matter if have to maintain multiple copies.
Click to expand...
May I know the brands you already tried?

lockhrt999 said:
It's funny that people are still buying BDRs to add to their collection.
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Well, facebook considers bluray disks for cold storage.
 
Buy some M-Discs and use them, claimed life is 1000 years, even if it manages to hit 50% your descendants will remember you.
Assuming there is no nuclear armageddon.

www.tanotis.com

Verbatim M-Disc BDXL 100GB 4x Blu-ray Discs (Jewel Case, Single)

Archival-Grade Discs 100GB Data Capacity Up to 4x Write Speed Keep your memories safe for years to come with this M-Disc BDXL 100GB 4x Single-Sided Disc from Verbatim . This Blu-ray Disc has a capacity of 100GB, providing plenty of space for storing scientific images, video, and other data. With...
www.tanotis.com www.tanotis.com
 
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like @ibose i too have far too many discs (all stored in CD-bags or plastic cases or those tall plastic boxes of disc-bundles) from various makers (even the very cheap ones), dating back to as far as the very early 2000s! and most of them are readable (atleast as far as i have tried till recently). while you are thinking to backup your data on these discs, here i am, stuck on the idea of backing the relevant ones from my collections up to cloud & getting rid of the discs as far as i can (because i have accumulated a lot)! haven't yet really gotten down to do that regularly except for a very very few of them, is another thing...:rolleyes:

meehatpa said:
Haha, funny.

BTW I read that dvd-r has longer lifespan than dual layer ones or even bluray.

View attachment 156051

Source: https://www.canada.ca/en/conservati...tute-notes/longevity-recordable-cds-dvds.html

I don't know how it fares with the ones available in the indian market.
Click to expand...
 
ibose said:
I have a Moserbaer CDRW which is still going strong even after 10 years. I lost count of how many times its been rewritten.
I doubt they make it like that now. They, at least, CDs are on their way out.
Click to expand...
I also own one dated 2000s, used it to copy music and play on my car before usb sticks were common.

JMP said:
Buy some M-Discs and use them, claimed life is 1000 years, even if it manages to hit 50% your decedents will remember you.
Assuming there is no nuclear armageddon.

www.tanotis.com

Verbatim M-Disc BDXL 100GB 4x Blu-ray Discs (Jewel Case, Single)

Archival-Grade Discs 100GB Data Capacity Up to 4x Write Speed Keep your memories safe for years to come with this M-Disc BDXL 100GB 4x Single-Sided Disc from Verbatim . This Blu-ray Disc has a capacity of 100GB, providing plenty of space for storing scientific images, video, and other data. With...
www.tanotis.com www.tanotis.com
Click to expand...
Thanks for the link, I couldn't find anywhere online as cheap as this.

Kilroyquasar said:
like @ibose i too have far too many discs (all stored in CD-bags or plastic cases or those tall plastic boxes of disc-bundles) from various makers (even the very cheap ones), dating back to as far as the very early 2000s! and most of them are readable (atleast as far as i have tried till recently). while you are thinking to backup your data on these discs, here i am, stuck on the idea of backing the relevant ones from my collections up to cloud & getting rid of the discs as far as i can (because i have accumulated a lot)! haven't yet really gotten down to do that regularly except for a very very few of them, is another thing...:rolleyes:
Click to expand...
I already have 2 copies of cloud backups and one in an external hdd. I only want to maintain another copy of them somewhere else in some other media - atleast that's what 3-2-1 backup recommends.
I understand the pain of too many physical disks lying around and was looking to go for dvds vs blurays to reduce some space.
 
I think cloud for all your non 'personal' photos - things you wouldn't be embarrassed if it gets hacked eventually. Get a fingerprint enabled SSD for very personal stuff maybe - or just encrypt a drive. Good question though - I haven't enough insurance now that I think about it.
 
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