[ajitkumarlb]

Wow backups have come a long way from the time of taking backups on most unreliable 3.5" floppies, then RW CDs to external hard disks and the daily, weekly monthly backup workflows....

All that was consuming way too much time, I had enough of it.

So, about two years back, I just uploaded all my photos to Google Photos and deleted all local copies and setup Google Photos on both mine and my wife's phone with backup over WIFI. So if we lose any photos, only those that we have taken since we last connected to WIFI.

For Data, my wife was familiar with Google Drive, moved all her data there and she is set.

My Data, also started with Google Drive, but due to office laptop policies, Google Drive would not work well, so I moved to OneDrive for my personal data. And with company also on Office 365, my work data is on OneDrive for Business.

And contacts are all on Google Contacts and notes and lists on OneNote.


Now with all that done, I can now switch between my personal laptops or office laptop, or phones, all my data/photos/contacts/notes all the time is available any where.

Now, I can walk up to any system and have all my stuff available anywhere as far as I have access to Internet.


With this convenience, comes 2 main risks:
First: Security Breach - either individual account or at Google/Microsoft
Second: What if Google or Microsoft lost their data center(s)

First, my gut feel is, its a matter of time & luck, even with complex passwords and 2FA, I don't think 100% security is possible.

Second, Perhaps they have multiple backups and different data centers in different locations...
Past few months I am considering getting a NAS (Synology or WD or Seagate) with RAID - but have not made up mind yet...

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by DudeWithaFiat

Just curious, why do you think it does not qualify as a backup? Is it because it is equally vulnerable to 'going bad' as your computer hard-drive?

A BACKUP implies redundancy (ie. duplicates).

If one set of data gets ruined, you have a second copy (ie. a backup copy).


Simply moving data to an external drive is just relocating it. It is NOT a backup.

Some people feel like it's taking data from your laptop, and putting it on a harddisk that's locked in your cupboard is keeping your data safe because there's no harm that can come to it... but it's not going to save you from the fact that hard disks fail regularly.

You could say that 5% of HDDs fail within the first year, and 20% fail within 4 years (Source):


If that drive fails, you've lost everything, which is why you should have it backed up in MULTIPLE places.

Add to that, most decent laptops these days come with SSDs, which outlast HDDs. So you might even be moving your data to an external drive that's more prone to failure.


Also, for long-term back-ups, the Cloud is best, since they theyselves then backup your data at MULTIPLE places, and keep moving it between drives etc. (vs. if you had 3 HDDs in your cupboard for 5 years -- there's still a chance you could lose them all due to drive failure).

[Guite]

For back up to external HDD I use Syncback Free to sync the files from internal drive to external drive. It's one way. Nothing in source gets affected. Which means files deleted in internal drive still exist in external drive.

For cloud backup I use Google Drive. I first encrypt using VeraCrypt. However what I have noticed is that Google Drive gets full very fast. I have uploaded about 4gb. It says 12 gb occupied. How does this happen? How do I clean it up/ free it up?

[DudeWithaFiat]

Originally Posted by AtheK

failed to be detected after i plugged it in after few months. I am waiting for lockdown to get over to see if i can get data recovered, which will cost me quite a bit of money. If you have to keep an offline copy, i suggest to keep the backup in two hard disks atleast.

Originally Posted by Rehaan

hard disks fail regularly.

You could say that 5% of HDDs fail within the first year, and 20% fail within 4 years (Source):
Attachment 2015829

If that drive fails, you've lost everything, which is why you should have it backed up in MULTIPLE places.

Also, for long-term back-ups, the Cloud is best.

Makes sense. No denying the fact that backup has to be at multiple places and cloud is the best.

I keep my important documents backed up at Google Drive, Gmail inbox and and couple of external hard drives.

Large files (movies, videos, ISOs) go to two external drives.

However, HDDs aren't as as Backblaze says. If you are using your external HDDs once a month, it should last a few years fine. External hard-drives does not have as much wear-and-tear as the ones attached to your computer. That said, shelving your external HDD for many months unused may kill it too.

Backblaze I see is a Cloud storage provider, you cannot expect them to say good things about external HDDs

[DaptChatterjee]

I use both Google drive and Dropbox for important documents (encrypted). For everything else, two external hard drives act as redundant backup. Some important photos are also backed up in office Laptop. Thinking about buying a 256GB external SSD to clone my OS alongwith the essential data.

Originally Posted by Guite

However what I have noticed is that Google Drive gets full very fast. I have uploaded about 4gb. It says 12 gb occupied. How does this happen

Google drive space included mails (gmail), backup of whatsapp, contacts etc and photos that are synced to photos app. Open google drive and click on storage inside the sandwich button, you'll find the usage divided in three parts, drive, mail and photos.

[Storm2.0]

Guys just a noob question.
I've read that data can be extracted from hard drives/phone memory even if deleted, in that case what should be done to make sure data is deleted permanently.

I'm asking this considering I get a new external hard drive and don't need the older one, or I sell my laptop or phone to get a new one.

[GutsyGibbon]

Originally Posted by ajitkumarlb

Past few months I am considering getting a NAS (Synology or WD or Seagate) with RAID - but have not made up mind yet...

I had the Western Digital My Cloud for 2 years, it served me well. I decided to upgrade to QNAP. QNAP is awesome with all the apps for phones, media server, and a ton of features. I had been very happy with it for 3 years. Couple months back, I could not access it. I had enabled secure shell, so I logged in to debug. The hard drives are healthy, but the database used by QNAP has gotten corrupted. There are backup database files, even those seem to be messed up. I have been lurking around on the QNAP forums, for utilities to fix this database - it has been frustrating. I have terabytes of data stuck in it. Fortunately I am so paranoid that have a flat file structure saved on a SSD drive.

I was a big proponent of NAS, these days I say its awesome as long as it works. After that Raam Jaane - or Khuda Jaane!

[myavu]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

b. OneDrive - Microsoft's OneDrive is one of the most economical online backup services. For as low as Rs. 125 per month, you can get upto 1 TB of storage. It also comes bundled with an Office 365 subscription, which takes care of your Office documents in the same folder. While this is not an automatic backup service, you can download their desktop client and sync select folders across your PC for automatic backup.

I am using this since 2018 (now Microsoft 365 Business Basic - 1 TB space). Subscribed to Net4 since it charges Rs. 115/month. My own domain email with 50 GB and 50 MB attachments. My mobile, PC and Android TV Box is synced. It is super easy and can forget about the data. One more added advantage of the service is that the data residing at OneDrive is encrypted at rest.

My two 1 TB Seagate external drives are almost redundant.

Originally Posted by Storm2.0

Guys just a noob question.
in that case what should be done to make sure data is deleted permanently.

Either you Zero fill your HDD or use an Eraser tool. Just google it.

Cheers!

[OSH]

While we are at the topic of taking proper backups, can some experts please let me know how I can password protect and/or encrypt the external hard-drives ? I am aware of the Bitlocker function which is available for windows but have lots and lots of doubts regarding the same, some are;

1. If I 'turn on' the Bitlocker of a specific external hardrive on one laptop(lets call it PC-1), then can I access the same hardrive on another computer(PC-2) after entering the password/recovery code in the other ?

2. Will turning on the Bitlocker for only the external hardrive cause any issues to my operating system drive(C) or the other internal drives(D,E) ? Like, will it change/add things(encryption keys etc) in the other drives or will it make all the changes only on the one that is turned on.

3.If at all I forget the password and don't even have the recovery key with me, can i format the whole drive and use it as if Bitlocker was never enabled i.e. without encryption/password. I understand that the data is gone in this case but I'll get access to the hardrive again right ?

4. How secure is this whole Bitlocker encryption ? I saw many videos on youtube which showed how one can get access to the drive and even clone it by using something called 'dump/hibernate' files stored somewhere on the computer along with some software progams. Is it that easy to crack/hack into such encrypted drives ?

Please do let me know if there are other better tools to encrypt & password lock external hardrives. Thanks in advance.

[ads11]

So as part of my PhD I work with a lot of confidential industry data so I can't back those up anywhere other than the our own lab server or on encrypted hard drives provided for the purpose. I Did however learn the hard way to also back up my notes.
About 2 and a bit years ago I had my backpack stolen containing a whole bunch of stuff in it. Most of it was just nice stuff with a lot of sentimental value but ultimately replaceable. The thing that did hit me like a brick wall was the fact I lost two notebooks with about a years worth of miscellaneous research notes covering meetings with my supervisor, observations and specialist courses I'd attended. After that bitter pill I've gotten into the habit since of keeping a digital back up on a cloud server for my notebooks at the end of each month. The added bonus for me during the lockdown was that thanks to the fact my notes were available to me on the cloud, when I found myself having to spend the whole lockdown at my girlfriends flat, I was still able to check back on some things.

In terms of the external drives we use, they tend to be bulky shock proof things by ADATA, with big rubber bumpers because evidently folks think geologists are likely to drop the things off all kinds of sharp surfaces. I think I've also seen some folks in our research group with hard drives that have a finger print scanner built in, so that's an additional level of security baked into the product itself.

[buntee90]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

Few add-ons:

1) A lot of people move their data to an external drive an call it a "BACKUP"! This is NOT a backup.

2) Be careful of relying on "instant / live" backup solutions that don't allow you a roll-back functionality. Simply put, if you accidentally delete or change a file, the same will be reflected in your backup instantly, and you won't be able to recover the earlier version.

3) Watch out for extremely long folder names / filenames (ie. total path length), as some softwares have trouble with that.

4) For Android to Google Drive, I've been using this app called AutoSync and it's pretty good! Only complaint is that you can't select multiple directories in one shot.

I also agree, external drives are also hard drives like we get in PCs which fail all the time. I rely on Google Photos and two copies of important scanned documents on Google Drive and One drive each. Contacts sync automatically with iCloud and Gmail account.
And regarding Google selling our information which one member mentioned, it’s highly unlikely. Do they use their huge database of Google photos to improve their logarithms for photo processing, yes! But most of the data leak is due to unscrupulous third party apps to which we give access to our email contacts photos unknowingly.

[bharanidharang]

Originally Posted by myavu

I am using this since 2018 (now Microsoft 365 Business Basic - 1 TB space). Subscribed to Net4 since it charges Rs. 115/month. My own domain email with 50 GB and 50 MB attachments. My mobile, PC and Android TV Box is synced. It is super easy and can forget about the data. One more added advantage of the service is that the data residing at OneDrive is encrypted at rest.


Cheers!

Is net4 really having a 115/month plan. Can never choose the same online !

[myavu]

Originally Posted by bharanidharang

Is net4 really having a 115/month plan. Can never choose the same online !

Yes, it is there.

[Holyghost]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

b. OneDrive - Microsoft's OneDrive is one of the most economical online backup services. For as low as Rs. 125 per month, you can get upto 1 TB of storage.

Does OneDrive provide 1TB plan at Rs. 125? I am paying Rs. 5k/Yr for a 6 user 6x1TB plan.
For backups, I have a 8TB QNAP NAS at home sync'd to 4TB OneDrive using QNAP CloudSync App. The NAS Sync is setup to Sync only once in 2 weeks with the OneDrive cloud to give me just enough time to take it offline in case of ransomware attacks.

I find OneDrive 6 User pack to be very economical if you plan to share the accounts with friends/family. It turns out to be less than Rs1K/yr for 1TB along with the added benefit of MS Office apps for each of the 6 users. My initial plan was to use 2TB and share the remaining 4 accounts with friends but ended up using 4TB. I still have 2 Accounts left unused.

[blackwasp]

Originally Posted by Holyghost

Does OneDrive provide 1TB plan at Rs. 125? I am paying Rs. 5k/Yr for a 6 user 6x1TB plan.

Since you have multiple users, makes sense to go for the annual plan. But yes, if you go to the Microsoft site directly, it will show you Rs. 125 per month for Business essentials plan - that includes 1Tb storage and online Office apps and one email account (you can use a custom domain if you want). Do note there are no offline apps available.

If you need more than 10 accounts, you can enlist the services of a reseller like Techjockey who will give you a rate lower than that of the Microsoft website. At home we have around 12-14 Business essentials plans for family members and 1 of them is higher Rs. 550 plan that gives you offline app. So all devices needing offline apps have this registered while the individual email / storage accounts are the business essentials.

Added advantage is incase someone forgets their password (my grandmother, aunt, etc.) I can just reset it from my admin portal. No need for complicated email recovery etc. which they will not be able to do.