6
5
I want a failproof backup scheme for my home business. This is the scheme i have come up with so far:
Workstation:
C:\ SSD Drive 1: for OS D:\ SSD Drive 2: for Current Projects
NAS
L:\ HDD Drive 1: Libraries and components I:\ HDD Drive 1: Incremental backups (Of Working projects) R:\ HDD Drive 1: Archive (archived projects, data etc + Incremental) X:\ HDD Drive 2: Copy of Libraries and components Y:\ HDD Drive 2: Copy of Incremental backups Z:\ HDD Drive 2: Copy of Archive
So the second hard drive in the NAS is just a synced or RAIDED copy of the first drive. The whole idea is to have a THIRD NAS DRIVE, which is also a copy of the first NAS drive. This third drive is kept at a friends home. Every week, I'll take out the updated NAS drive, switch it with the old one my friend has, install the old one in the NAS, and update it again.
As far as I know, this will guard against every possible failure:
- Disk failure / accidental overwrite: Use inceremntal backups
- Theft / Fire : Use the Disk at friends home
Now my question :
I've never used a NAS or RAID. Is it even possible to switch the drives as described above ?? Also, should I manually sync the drive with special software, or use RAID to sync the 2 drives ?
EDIT: First of all, don't go NAS because its TOO SLOW (Network!?). Secondly, don't use RAID. http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/nas/nas-basics/30060-smart-sohos-dont-do-raid
Great answer. I'd avoid RAID 5 though if they are large disks with lots of TBs of data. – Datarecovery.com MK – 2015-07-01T21:55:53.090
yeah this answer hasn't aged well ! In this day and age, i'd definitely recommend RAID 10. – Sirex – 2015-07-02T02:15:57.150
1+10 for the offsite if I could – Cry Havok – 2010-11-03T13:01:32.547
What's the advantage of the RAID5 array ? – Run CMD – 2010-11-03T14:18:21.970
raid 5 (and 5 specifically) splits the data over several physcial drives. It does so in such a way that there is an excess of data stored, and that all parts of the data are avaliable on two drives. This means if a drive fails, you lose no data and can recover and continue working. One thing to allow for though is that rebuilding puts strain on disks, so may cause other drives to fail - and you lose 1 drive's worth of space (3 1TB drives gives 2TB usable space). This raid functionality is called striping – Sirex – 2010-11-03T15:17:46.913
And with raid 5 (which uses one parity disk, you can lose only one drive before data is lost. raid 6 uses two partiy drives, so you can lose 2 drives at the same time and be ok, but you lose 2 drive's of space, similar raid 5. – Sirex – 2010-11-03T15:19:27.337