I had a, er, slight computer hardware problem last week, which ended up corrupting two of my internal hard drives, such that I couldn’t retrieve any of the files on them. One I corrected the problem that munged my drives, it took me exactly 60 seconds to make all my important files available, and, while I worked, one of the best gadgets I’ve ever bought restored my two primary drives in a couple hours. I never, ever lose any files, unless I try very, very hard. I get many questions about backup, so I’ve decided to share my system. It’s a bit extreme, but you can pick and choose and use parts of it to ensure that you will rarely lose files, too.
The only two components you must have will cost you a total of less than $100. They’re no-brainers to install, and easy to use. The two key pieces are a slide-out mobile rack for your computer’s SATA internal drive(s) ($19 each), and the incredible Aluratek drive duplicator (currently $77.) You can buy them here:
Connectland SATA Drive Mobile rack
Aluratek Hard Drive Duplicator
BACKUP TO CARBONITE?
Why not back up to an online service like Carbonite, instead? I get asked that a lot. Cloud storage is OK for data like Word or Excel documents, but totally worthless for photographers who may shoot 4GB of pictures on a slow day. Remember that most ISP’s intentionally throttle your upload speeds even if they give you speedy downloads. For example, my Roadrunner service offers 32Mbps downloads, but uploads are more than 30X slower at a paltry 0.98Mbps. If I were using Carbonite, an average day’s shots would take a week or more to upload. Each month I’d fall five months farther behind! And forget about the toll that full-time uploading would take on your internet connection. A recent PC Magazine article shows a steep annual cost of backing up 50GB of data. That’s a paltry amount of storage in an age when a photographer may go out on a shoot with a Nikon having two memory card slots and a 32GB card in each one. Online “backup” is like using a band-aid to fix a gaping wound.
BACKUP TO AN EXTERNAL OR INTERNAL HARD DRIVE?
I do that, too, using TrueImage Home, that’s not an ideal solution. Your backup files are in a cryptic state, must be restored, and subject to loss to theft, or in a fire or flood. I use software backups as an additional failsafe. I don’t depend on the ability to retrieve my images from backup files.
WHOLE DRIVE BACKUP
Each of the internal SATA hard drives in my computer is installed in a slide-out mobile rack, and has two identical counterparts of the same brand and capacity. That is, I have three “copies” of each of my hard drives. Until the recent flooding in Thailand, drives were incredibly cheap (I paid $100 each for the last three 3TB drives I purchased.) My trio of matching drives are labeled Primary, Backup 1 and Backup 2. Primary goes in my main PC. Backup 1 or 2 goes in an identical backup computer I can use if my main PC’s motherboard explodes (it’s happened only once.) The other Backup (1 or 2) is stored off-site.
At intervals (you choose how often; it can be weekly, monthly, or whatever), I pop Primary and either Backup 1 or Backup 2 into one of my Aluratek duplicators, and make a copy. The newest copy is stored off-site, the oldest copy goes in my backup computer. So I always have my current hard drive, a recent full backup, and a slightly less recent full backup available. I happen to have two of the Aluratek duplicators. That way, I have a backup for my backup device, plus I can duplicate two different drives at once. (I have four internal drives in my computer; typically, I just shut down the computer overnight, duplicate two of its drives in the Alurateks one night and the other two the following night.)
The Aluratek duplicators are stand-alone devices; they don’t need to be connected to your computers (I’ve installed mine on the other side of my office), but they are furnished with a USB cable so, if you want, you can pop in two SATA drives and access them from your computer. I do this when I need to fetch an old file. Since my duplicates are mirror images of my hard drives, rather than encrypted backup files, I can retrieve individual files by drilling down through the appropriate folders.
CONTEMPORANEOUS BACKUP
Of course, you might be at risk of losing some files between whole-drive backups. I’m not. The files I work with each day are stored on a pair of mirrored 32GB USB flash drives. I save my working files to one of the flash drives, and a synchronizing program called AllWay Sync checks that drive every few minutes and copies any changed files to the second 32GB flash drive. My most recent backup of working files is never more than a few minutes old, and it’s stored on non-volatile memory. You could do something similar with a solid state SATA drive (SSD), but thumb drives are a lot cheaper. Of course, I have my computer connected to an UPS, so I have at least 15 minutes to finish my work and save my files if power goes out. I’m seriously considering a whole-house generator, but that particular over-kill must wait for another day.
In a minor hardware emergency, I can remove my hard drives, slide them into the backup computer behind me, and continue working. In a major emergency, I can snatch the flash drives from their hub, run for my life, and know I can restore just about all my work from the flash drives and my most recent backup, even if my office burns to the ground.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!
I have two 6TB Drobo RAID-like backup hard drives that I formerly used as my primary backup before I went to the Aluratek system. Those drives still chug away, doing daily backups of my internal hard drives using TrueImage Home, which also mirrors my 32GB flash drives onto the Drobos. I liked my Data Robots, but, after all, they reside in my office and aren’t protected from theft, flood, or fire. They make a good tertiary backup.
COST?
I paid $77 for each Aluratek duplicator (you need only one), and $19 for each mobile rack. The Aluratek works with 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch drives, both magnetic and SSD. I need three drives for each drive position in my internal computer. Generally, I buy a fast 7200rpm for my primary, and slower drives as backups. When drive prices stabilize, figure perhaps $200 for your backup drives (you’ve already paid for your primary drive.) No special software is required. The 32GB flash drives, Drobos, and synchronizing/backup utilities are optional. Once you set up the system, it’s brainless to implement and maintain. Should you really be risking your data, or wasting time uploading it to the cloud?