Skip to main content

Internal VS External Backup media and calculating size

Thread needs solution

Hi All,

I am looking for a means of calculating the size HD I would need for a 500 GB System Drive and 2 or 3TB Data drive. I can't imaging this has not come up for the different schemes. I just have not found it. I would use two other 2 TB drives just for working images and backup. The backups when I am not using them go in a fire safe. I would like to have an internal drive backing up weekly  and internal for convenience. I would then clone  to the USB and place the clone in the fire safe. Any thoughts?

Thanks

0 Users found this helpful

Tsquare...my personal recommendation for disk size is minimum 3X data to be backed up.  So if you have 1TB of data, then the backup disk should be 3TB...  Currently, I am backing up 1TB of data to a 4TB NAS.  This allows me to keep several months of backups.

Cloning or copying an existing backup from an internal drive to an external drive is a bad idea.  If the internal backup is corrupt, then the copied backup will also be corrupt.  I would recommend a separate backup task for each USB data disk, which are not scheduled.  Then, you could attach a disk and select "backup now".

If you have .tib files on an internal drive, then Active Protection/File Protection should always be on.

Keeping the USB drives in a fire safe is an excellent idea.

For external drives, I use the Kingwin EZ dock 3.

https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=ez+dock+3&tag=googhydr-20&in…

EZ dock 3 works with 3.5 inch and 2.5 inch drives.  4TB 3.5 inch drives are getting very inexpensive.

 

FtrPilot

FtrPilot Thanks for the heads up. I am going to follow your advice. Never gave the Active Protection/File Protection as that is a  feature I did know about what it was all about, how to turn it on. FtrPilot Thanks for the heads up. I am going to follow your advice. Never gave the Active Protection/File Protection as that is a  feature I did know about what it was all about, how to turn it on. I will give the 4 TB NAS another look although I was under the impression that USB 3.0 was faster. I do  have a 1 unused 10/100/1 GB network port if I thought I could use just might do so..

Tsquare

Tsquare,  I consider ransomware to be the primary threat.  I believe that a Linux based NAS offers an additional layer of protection, provided that the NAS shared folders are NOT mapped to a drive letter.  Mapping a NAS shared folder to a drive letter is the same as a connected USB drive as far as ransomware or malware is concerned.

A NAS also can be configured as a RAID, which adds protection against disk failure.  If budget is not an issue, then a NAS is far superior to a USB drive.  You should still have a USB drive for off-site storage or in-safe storage. But I strongly recommend a Linux based NAS.

Regards,

FtrPilot