HDD question and home pc backup solutions.

went to turn my computer on and recieved the not boot disk error. the bios does not see my primary hdd (I have 2 one for the os and one for files) so it looks like I need a new hdd and rebuild my computer.
so questions
1. any way to get this hdd up one more time to hopefully get stuff off of it? I don't think I lost anything I can't live with out, but it would be nice to be sure.

2. what do you guys use for a home back up solution. I want to back up pictures and a few files. I was thinking of getting a external hdd and backing up with that but how to I do the backup. I want a program to run once a week and backup folders or files automatically.

 

I use a cheap (in price) toshiba hard drive for my wife's PC. It was like $70 on sale from newegg and it's something like 2 terbytes (whatever the hell that is).
For my work PC I also use Carbonite online back up and I'm going to pick up another external hard drive next time I'm looking for something at newegg. I'm a bit paranoid about that shit and $70 ~ $100 is cheap peace of mind.

 

Forget the dead hard drive. If you aren't certain there is data on it you can't live without than it's not worth the tie spend on things that likely won't work. If the BIOS doesn't see it than it's electronics level problem.

You need a multi path approach. A full block level image of the drive is great for getting back to a running machine quickly. That's easily done to either and extra internal disk or a USB connected external drive in all flavors of Windows XP/Vista/7 and 8.

Secondly use something like Crashplan or Carbonite to do file level backups either to an external drive or even better to a location offsite.

Multiple copies and multiple locations are the keys to getting data back when it all goes pear shaped.

 

My backup process

1)crashplan for my offsite backup (for the price, you can't beat it)
2) flickr with a paid account for my photos
Next step
3)Synology DS212j NAS in RAID 0 with 2x 2TB drives. Will use for local backup and media server.

 

Never Raid 0 for backups. Raid 1/5/10/50/60. Never Raid 0.

 

Go RAID 1+0 (10) if you have enough drives.

 

Remember this is foe a home pc.....not a business. Got a new drive in and windows loaded. The pics were on the drive that failed. Hopefully i can get it up and running long enough to get the pics off of it.

 

Did you pickup something else to back that new drive up to or will you wait for it to fail again so you can come back and ask the same questions again.

 

Oh No! They killed Kenny!

Be nice.

-jim

 

I always try to be....at least once.

 

OK so I'm in the market for a NAS, any recommendations on make/model???

I don't need anything gigantic, only plan on backing up two desktops, photo's and vids.

But I do have what might be a silly question, on the units that have multiple bays, when they provide a size like 12TB.......is that a total of all HD's or ???

 

Yes

 

Depends on a number of factors. Yes if you shove 4x 3TB drive in one you have a raw total of 12GBs. Once you involve raid and a file system the total useable space will be less than the raw space. The space lost if lost to parity and file system overhead.

 

Build it for iracing enough said!

 

I built a home nas, was a good decision. mITX, rectangular Fractal Design case, Gold80+ PS, 6 WD 3GB Red drives. Runs Openmediavault, was easy enough to build and configure.

 

Why would you build one? Cheaper or building one to spec allowed you to get the important options easier?

 

I had a HDD take a crap on me. I recovered it using testdisk. Testdisk helps recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again.
https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

 

First, I pick the quality/longevity of the components.

Second, I can add/configure services: if I want it to transcode/upconvert media on the fly or host tvheadend for over-the-air television streaming (meaning, get NBC/ABC/FOX/CBS for football and let any Kodi client/Android device in the house watch it), it's a lot easier if I had built the system and installed a Debian fork/JeOS for NAS, than it would be rooting someone else's weird OS and figuring out how to add stuff.

Third, I can expand beyond a price-point-conscious case.

Fourth, it was a fun project for a few hours to build it, and it's been dead-stone-reliable for two+ years.

 

And because pretty much all the affordable mutli drive units sucks ass.

 

! RAID IS NOT A BACKUP !

Just keep it in mind. RAID is great for protecting against a hard drive failure, but not a true backup. If a file gets corrupted, accidentally deleted, or the computer/server fails, its probably gone for good.

My setup.
HP Microserver running Ubuntu Server + extra packages with 4x 3TB drives in RAID-5
4-bay USB external drive with old hard drives

I keep all of my files on the Microserver. I keep relatively few files on my local HD. Only files I need on the computer for speed purposes (video/image editing). Every month, I copy the server to the external, running a program called FreeSync (iirc), which is fantastic for reducing backup times. I run the microservers cause they were dirt cheap when they first came out (~$250, now ~$700), and are the perfect thing for using as a serious home server or small business server. I have one for the machine shop as well. Fantastic little boxes.

For the average home user, I see two options.
For one person on one computer. One storage drive in the computer, and one in an external case. You can leave it connected and either use FreeSync, or the built-in Windows Backup utility. Pretty sure the Windows utility will also do a recovery backup of the OS if the drive fails. Both backup softwares are really easy to use and work well.

For a household. Buy an external hard drive and a NAS (synology, QNAPS, mybook, buffalo, ect). Use the NAS as primary file storage. Have the NAS do regular backups to the external. I set up a QNAPS for my parents. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, and the performance is awful when you have encrypted drives/folders. But QNAPS might be a bit more 'professional' than some other options, and with it set up, it works like a champ, plus they can handle remote file access for you.

Call me paranoid, but I don't trust online backups.

Shoot a PM if you need help.