Toby Atkin-Wright

How to back up data?

I use my iPad as my primary computer; I create and edit documents, manage photos, take notes, and otherwise fill it with important data. I rely on it backing itself up to iCloud, but also the photos, notes, and so on will sync to my Macs. Similarly for my iPhone; it backs up to the cloud, but the important data that I originate on the phone syncs to my other devices.

My main Mac Mini (called Haloumi) has a Drobo attached which I use for data storage, offering single-drive redundancy. Most of my documents are stored in a folder that is synchronised with Dropbox, so the content is available from all of my devices. The Drobo also contains my master store of photos (managed by Aperture), and media (managed by iTunes).

All of this content is backed up to an Apple Time Capsule in another room. The Drobo is also rsynced nightly to a local USB hard drive, and does a daily ZFS snapshot, retaining the last ninety snapshots. I also rsync my photos to a Strongspace account.

I log into the second Mac Mini (called Stilton) once a week or so, and make sure that it has synced down a copy of my Dropbox, so I always have a recent working copy should I need it.

And I still worry about my data being recoverable.

During the next year I have a plan to move to a RAIDZ2 instead of the Drobo, and to make backups of my data to similarly-specced storage along at qidane’s house by replicating incremental ZFS snapshots — it will be a lot more efficient than using rsync. We ought to be making more use of our wireless link down the street.

I bought a refurbished 2TB Time Capsule this week. It will add to my existing backup strategy, and Time Machine provides the most usable interface to backups that I’ve come across. We’ll have four Macs backing up to the Time Capsule; my ageing MacBook Pro, Kate’s MacBook Air, Beth’s Mac Mini, and Andrew’s MacBook Pro. It should have plenty of capacity for our data.

This will add to my existing backup strategy of storing my documents in Dropbox (and thereby syncing them to all the other computers I use), rsyncing to my Drobo, and occasional rsyncs to Strongspace (although the last time I did one was some time ago). I’ve tried a couple of online backup services, but gave up on them — Mozy kept resetting my backup and needed repeated full backups, and Carbonite seemed to suck the life out of my computer.

The Time Capsule also gives us 802.11n networking for the first time, which will be a welcome performance boost for Kate and Andrew.

I bought a refurbished 2TB Time Capsule this week. It will add to my existing backup strategy, and Time Machine provides the most usable interface to backups that I’ve come across. We’ll have four Macs backing up to the Time Capsule; my ageing MacBook Pro, Kate’s MacBook Air, Beth’s Mac Mini, and Andrew’s MacBook Pro. It should have plenty of capacity for our data.

This will add to my existing backup strategy of storing my documents in Dropbox (and thereby syncing them to all the other computers I use), rsyncing to my Drobo, and occasional rsyncs to Strongspace (although the last time I did one was some time ago). I’ve tried a couple of online backup services, but gave up on them — Mozy kept resetting my backup and needed repeated full backups, and Carbonite seemed to suck the life out of my computer.

The Time Capsule also gives us 802.11n networking for the first time, which will be a welcome performance boost for Kate and Andrew.

Thinking about buying a Drobo. Scan are doing a bundle with the DroboShare that looks reasonable.

I'd mostly be using it as an iTunes media server, and for Time Machine backups (for me, kateaw and qidane). Does anyone have any experience of Drobos, good or bad?

This entry was originally posted at http://tobyaw.dreamwidth.org/164307.html.

Thinking about buying a Drobo. Scan are doing a bundle with the DroboShare that looks reasonable.

I'd mostly be using it as an iTunes media server, and for Time Machine backups (for me, kateaw and qidane). Does anyone have any experience of Drobos, good or bad?