Browse Forums Home Theatre & Automation 1 Aug 05, 2008 7:13 pm Hi everyone,
Perhaps heres one for the techies that frequent this side of the woods but I think its something we dont think about when setting up a home theater or centeralised server to share vidoes/pictures/music about the house. I've been floating around the HT forum a bit today because I'm starting to plan a very simple home network at first with the goal of moving that up to a proper distributed video/audio setup at some stage. Anyhow, what got me thinking was a fellow I work with recently did the same and moved all his pictures and music onto a server that he used in a distributed HT setup much like it seems many of us are thinking of doing. The down side of this was felt by this poor bloke when he recently lost just about all his prescious picys when his computer failed on him. So have people thought beyond a centeralised server for all their goodies and thought about how they'll back up all of it? I personally was looking at installing a rather crude RAID5 Array using native windowsXP or purchasing a mid level hardware equevelant, for the non techies think 'auto-backup'. But I'm interested to hear what people plan to do to keep their precious data safe. Re: Keeping Data (Pictures/Music/etc.) safe on a HT Server 2Aug 06, 2008 7:29 am My philosophy is actually very simple, as I CBF doing anything complicated when it comes to PCs (I've been in the IT industry for 14 years and used PCs for 27 (do the math then try to figure out what type of PC I was playing with in 1981, when I was 10), so I get enough tinkering with PCs at work...).
I have 2 main PCs - my HTPC and my office PC which is more of a server. Each have at least 2 Hard Disk Drives (HDD) in them. The Operating System (OS - in this case 1 x Windows XP and 1 x Windows Vista) and installed applications all get installed on the primary (C:\) drives in each, whereas the data all goes on the secondary drives. Separating the drives like this is the first layer of protection. You see, if the OS becomes corrupt etc. (virus infection, Windows screw up...) and it ends up I need to 'rebuild' the PC (which is IT speak for format and reinstall everything), I have all of the software I need to do a full and proper rebuild and I haven't had to backup and restore any data (with the exception of Internet Favourites - I don't use Outlook at home). And I'm aware of Ghost and Acronis TrueImage etc., but I'm still a bit old school when it comes to rebuilds - call me an old dog. Of the data on the secondary drives - this consists of my CD collection (of which I have all of the original CDs) and mostly movies and TV episodes and the like which, if I lost I could live without (I also have an extensive DVD collection - the actual discs - the HDD stored movies are never meant to be permanent). I do store other data that is important on the secondary drives, but I regularly burn this data off onto DVDs (PS2 and PSP ISOs I want to keep, my personal business data, artwork, etc.). Basically, anything you can't afford to lose you need to think about how to keep good backups of and how regularly these need to be taken. If it's stuff you don't mind losing then how important it is to back that up is a matter of personal taste. Re: Keeping Data (Pictures/Music/etc.) safe on a HT Server 4Aug 06, 2008 8:39 am Woof woof....here as well.....primary drive OS and software....secondary drive all data and selective backup of that of things we must keep.
Although this is not a HT setup just the home PC.....couple of times when my machine became corrupted it was time for a PC upgrade anyway... mmm....donuts Homer Simpson 1956- Links: Site Costs Ready Reckoner | H1 Addiction Medical Advice | Château TDL: The Backyard Re: Keeping Data (Pictures/Music/etc.) safe on a HT Server 5Aug 06, 2008 9:17 am One thing you have missed is the offsite backup ... to me this is very critical (actually more important than an on-site back up) as this is the only way you'll recover your files if the house caught fire! (or if somebody steal your PC, harddisk or whatever media that has the onsite backups).
Here's how I do it ... Working Files On HTPC/ Home PC - OS & programs on primary drive; all data, music, photos, home videos, recorded tv shows & movies on secodary drive First Backup - Onsite On a separate external hard drive - data, music, photos & home videos On a DVD-Rs - some of the recorded tv shows & movies (don't care if I loose the others) Second Backup - Offsite (currently stored at my work place) On a USB flash drive - data On a DVD-Rs - music, photos & home videos, some of the recorded tv shows & movies All data & photos are backed up in password protected archives, so even if someone steal the media, they still won't be able to gain access to the files. Re: Keeping Data (Pictures/Music/etc.) safe on a HT Server 6Aug 06, 2008 2:08 pm Excellent responses from everyone here...
I'd just like to add the following to the above comments not in any particular order: - Raid5 is wayyyyy wayyyy overkill and its not a backup solution its more of a failover solution ie. if you require uptime then raid5 becomes important otherwise you are wasting your hard drive b/c for raid 5 you need 3 hard drives but you only get the benefits of 2 hard drives. - Another option is to use secure online services...obviously paid ones provide more space but many are free that are good. One draw back in Oz is the bandwidth to upload. - As for me i get into the habit of backing up at least quarterly on an external drive and store it at my brothers place. Photos and personal videos are really the only things you cannot afford to lose so you should back them up via DVDs. (remember dvds are only good for about 5-10 years so reburn them on to new dvds) - Also look into synchronisation on Vista and XP they offer good backup functions so u can just plug in a 1TB (bargain at $185 bucks) and backup to your content. - You should also look into truecrypt a free encryption software that will protect your private data. This program is awesome and i think only the CIA would be able to crack the encryption. One drawback is once u forget the password i hope you know someone from the CIA b/c you got piddly chance of gettng your data back. smeags. Re: Keeping Data (Pictures/Music/etc.) safe on a HT Server 7Aug 06, 2008 3:01 pm Just to add my 2 cents...
I have two hard drives in my PC. I store data on primary disk (same as OS and applications). When my PC boots, it copys the data to the second disk using robocopy. For offsite backup i use a paid online backup solution (idrive.com). Files are encrypted as they're uploaded, and with iDrive you also get the benefit of having version control, so you can go back to a file if you screw it up or delete it accidentally. A lot easier than messing around with DVDs to my mind. That said, I will do DVD backups from time to time and send them to my parents place. C&G -------------------------------- A new building chapter begins.. Re: Keeping Data (Pictures/Music/etc.) safe on a HT Server 8Aug 06, 2008 3:38 pm Plenty of options there.
Off site storage is something I hadn't thought about but I do have large ftp accounts that I could use for ftp'ing smaller items like pictures, not something for the DVD ISO's and the like but I can always get that stuff again, family pictures are like gold. I think RAID5 isn't as over the top, when it comes to storing OS on one drive and other data on a second hard drive there's little security in that. Having OS and data on separate drives really isn't offering much other than peace of mind and portability to some degree. And storage is cheap these days 500gb < $90. Appreciate that Chippy. I won’t do sand under pavers and will connect all up under pavers, however I was going to do: 1) Roadbase compacted with manual hand tamper 2)… 10 18551 Block of two storey townhouses requires painting on the roof. A brick parapet wall separates each unit and extends above the tiled roof. The parapet walls require sealing… 0 3497 Scientists have used random matrix theory to demonstrate theoretically that the neutrino mass hierarchy can be explained mathematically. When a substance is fragmented… 21 20639 |