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I'm looking to centralise my home data - pictures/videos/music and so I have ordered a synology ds214 and a couple of 2tb drives. Since I've been doing my research I've come to realise that mirroring is not backup. As a home user I've realised that I can live without this data for a week but I would be devastated if I lost some of my photos forever.
I understand that raid 1 is insufficient but is it even helpful for my needs?
Also in terms of an offsite backup. For the home user what practical alternatives are there to the cloud?
synlogy has its own custom raid levels which might be worth considering. The second part of your question though, is off topic being a product/service recommendation. – Journeyman Geek – 2015-06-13T23:33:58.333
RAID is certainly better than simple disc storage for the protection it gives against disc failure, but if it is kept on-line then it is vulnerable to a destructive virus which wipes any drives it finds, with any deletions faithfully copied to both drives. You therefore also need off-line storage, typically DVD or BluRay discs, or USB drives. Ideally these should be stored at a separate location, but you may wish to consider a fire safe (~£200 in UK) for ease of access when updating. You should also consider using M-Disc media if you're really concerned about the security of your data. – AFH – 2015-06-14T00:09:37.850
@JourneymanGeek - I was not looking for a specific recommendation as an alternative to say iCloud - rather I was wondering what offsite backup solutions such as portable hard discs can actually work for use cases such as mine. In the workplace offsite backup is very practical as people leave the office. However where would home users keep offsite backups? – Mr Wilde – 2015-06-14T01:05:01.303
@MrWilde Portable HDD is your only viable alternative to the cloud. "Where would home users keep offsite backups?" Wherever they want. I used to take my backup HDD to my parents house. Now I take it to my workplace. Whatever works. – misha256 – 2015-07-01T22:54:50.597