Stand alone backups. Who's doing it and how?

[ksquared]

I have actually been attacked by ransomware.  I always have suspected it was from an ad for an antique car, but I can't prove it.  And yes, I had almost everything backed up, but somewhat more by accident than brilliance.  I have several computers, so one is left disconnected from the Internet always.  A RAID setup, while excellent to prevent data loss from physical disk failure, won't guarantee protection from ransomware.  With the low price of thumb drives, that is a worthy alternative too, as you can get several and rotate them on a many week schedule.

 

The other problem with ransomware is that it doesn't necessarily immediately announce with banners that it is there and you can try to stop it.  It can slowly, over time, continue to encrypt a few files here, a few files there, until either you notice it or it has done enough and announces that you need to pay the ransom.  Tragically some people have lost all their photos to such lowlifes.

 

If I had been savvy enough I would have sent one cent worth of bitcoin to them, in the hopes that there is an account transaction fee greater than that.  

[Mallette]

I use two methods.  All documents, email, and other important files are mirrored in real time by a little know program called "Mirrorfolder" I've relied on for 10 years.  Nightly backups of lesser used folders as well.  

 

I use the aforementioned Easeus Todo software to clone my system drive as soon as programs, email, etc are all set up.  Back up and running in a matter of 5 minutes in the event of a system crash.  Of course, first thing I do in that situation is to re-clone the replacement system drive.  

 

Pretty simple system which is bullet proof except in the event of loss of the physical site.  

 

Dave

[Travis In Austin]

2 minutes ago, Mallette said:

I use two methods.  All documents, email, and other important files are mirrored in real time by a little know program called "Mirrorfolder" I've relied on for 10 years.  Nightly backups of lesser used folders as well.  

 

I use the aforementioned Easeus Todo software to clone my system drive as soon as programs, email, etc are all set up.  Back up and running in a matter of 5 minutes in the event of a system crash.  Of course, first thing I do in that situation is to re-clone the replacement system drive.  

 

Pretty simple system which is bullet proof except in the event of loss of the physical site.  

 

Dave

Which brand, size and speed of drives do you recommend? 

[Mallette]

1 hour ago, dwilawyer said:

Which brand, size and speed of drives do you recommend? 

I always purchase the lowest priced with the best reviews.  Rarely the same one twice.  WD and Seagate still dominate.  Don't worry about speed much as this is a background task and my actual work drives are SSDs.  

 

Dave

[Travis In Austin]

1 hour ago, Mallette said:

I always purchase the lowest priced with the best reviews.  Rarely the same one twice.  WD and Seagate still dominate.  Don't worry about speed much as this is a background task and my actual work drives are SSDs.  

 

Dave

Thanks.  Lowest price with best reviews, now there's a thought.

 

 

[tigerwoodKhorns]

15 hours ago, Thaddeus Smith said:

You basically need to create the raid mirror and then clone your data to it. In RAID activity, creating a new virtual disk of any variety will wipe the drives which you've added, so cloning beforehand and then adding to RAID will be pointless. Likewise, having a single disk in a RAID configuration and then mirroring it after the fact will essential force you to create a new RAID type, thereby forcing a wipe of the drives in the RAID configuration.

 

So you basically need to copy your data off to a single external drive with sufficient space, install the new drives, build the new RAID, and then copy your data back from the swap drive.

 

Thanks for the response. 

 

I thought that you can just do a sector by sector copy of the mirrored drives and then install in place of the raid discs with an empty disc as the spare and the raid would build the second disc. 

 

This is more work, but I can do it. 

 

   1.  Copy the entire drive to a spare disc.

 

   2.  Put the two new discs in the raid and set it up so that it will work properly

 

   3.  Transfer all of the data back to the new raid discs. 

 

I do remember replacing the discs before, but it was a swap from 1 TB drives to two new 1 TB drives.  I think that I just replaced the discs one at a time and the raid took care of it by itself.  No way to swap in an empty 2 tb drive and let the raid rebuild itself? 

 

 

 

 

 

[Thaddeus Smith]

Yeah, that might work. You won't see any space gains until both disks are replaced by the 2TB disks. From there, it will be entirely dependent on your RAID solution for how to expand the space and utilize the full disks, and whether or not that can be done without destroying the virtual disk and creating fresh.

[tigerwoodKhorns]

Sounds scary. Maybe I just just take the extra two (long) steps and make the backup and reload when the raid is set up.

 

Thanks for all your help. 

[Thaddeus Smith]

Sorry I can't be more certain. While raid protection schemes are fairly standard, there can be variances in how things like expansion and replacement are handled.

[gottajam]

I personally do not deal with the "cloud". Data could easily be attacked there.

 

Look into Western Digital Passport. It is a little bigger than a deck of cards and come in various data sizes. It can connect via USB and when you are done backing up, just unplug the usb. There would be some specific software needed to make the data bootable should you comply loose your computer. Software would need to be OS specific.

 

Easy peezy.

[Thaddeus Smith]

You live in a delusional world of false security. The only way to protect your data is to have a closed circuit network and never connect to the internet, otherwise you might as well leverage the data redundancy potential of offsite services (stop calling it the cloud like it's some mystical place that no one understands) and accept that your data security is always at risk in the connected world in which we find ourselves.

[tigerwoodKhorns]

Thad,

Is it better to work off of the offsite storage or keep data locally and have it backed up offsite? 

 

IO really like how fast everything is on a local server

[Pete H]

Bottom line, regardless of how you accomplish it, is that you have a backup plan in place.  I've run raid arrays but have had raid card failures and with the cheap cost of big hard drives (internal and external) I use a combination of Acronis and Vice Versa along with ss drives for operating systems, multiple internal drives (not in a raid configuration) but at the end of every day, there are duplicate drives in the tower, and the data is also pushed to an external that is swapped out weekly with one of the externals stored offsite.  I do a complete Acronis backup about every other month, or prior to installing any new software or major operating system updates.  To each their own, just back your sh%t up.  LOL  

[Thaddeus Smith]

4 hours ago, tigerwoodKhorns said:

Thad,

Is it better to work off of the offsite storage or keep data locally and have it backed up offsite? 

 

IO really like how fast everything is on a local server

 

work local and then backup offsite.

[Mallette]

Gotten way too complicated.  Goofproof backup is simple and straightforward.  The mention of simply plugging in an external drive and doing a copy of your most important stuff could not be simpler.  If you want it kept up to date then use Todo backup up or similar to do a nightly update.  If you want to backup in real time get Mirrorfolder and use a second external drive as a constant backup in addition to the periodic external.  If you want more security than that, add a RAID.  Chain is that simple.  Don't ever think you need be a nerd to have a spare tire.  

 

Dave

[Thaddeus Smith]

24 minutes ago, Mallette said:

Don't ever think you need be a nerd to have a spare tire.  

 

 

I think that's a compliment?

[jimjimbo]

9 minutes ago, Thaddeus Smith said:

 

I think that's a compliment?

Michael, it had nothing to do with goats, so, never mind......

[Mallette]

25 minutes ago, Thaddeus Smith said:

I think that's a compliment?

Of course, my friend...

Dave