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Forum Discussion
Definition: "A Backup Plan"
Disclaimer: I have had a ReadyNAS (of one sort or another) for 7 years now. The main reason I purchased mine? I wanted to ensure my data could survive a DRIVE FAILURE. **** I am very tired o...
Very good posts! I guess I mean that, to me, the next safter thing is off-site.
I've had drives die over the years, sometimes taking some data with it (fortunately, they were also sometimes just the OS drive, not data - so an inconvenience).
Thus, a RAID protects one against the horrible scenario where a drive failure robs you of photos, etc. The chances of dual-drive-failures (before I can replace the first) are less than my house burning down.
When people talk about backup - it is backing up the files to another device... generally in the same place (not offsite)... meaning the data is at about the same risk because a meteor or fire or robbery would probably lose both.
I keep all my photos on my PC, my NAS, and I put a 2nd drive in my wife's 17" Dell (since it nicely had 2 drive bays!). Both her drives are encrypted with TrueCrypt - and if we are out of town, it is usually with us.
Perhaps "backup" is too generic of a term because there are different levels. RAID is a backup against a drive failure, just like copying files to a USB hard drive, but "offsite backup" is a different level entirely. But I'd trust my data more to a RAID array than to my PC with a copy on a USB drive -- because the ReadyNAS is far more self-monitoring and alerts (when it can) when it perceives a drive might be starting to show signs of failure.
It is those alerts that are important. When it started warning me about my 1.5TB's, and I replaced them and tested the drives in my PC, it got me to start looking at my own PC drives... and, sure enough, my OS drive fails DST. There's no reason Win7 shouldn't be nicely informing me of this.
Thus, I stand a higher chance of 2 drives in my PC dying than 2 drives in my ReadyNAS. It is in this way that a RAID is a better backup than 2 drives in a PC, which everyone would agree is "backing up your data".
I've had drives die over the years, sometimes taking some data with it (fortunately, they were also sometimes just the OS drive, not data - so an inconvenience).
Thus, a RAID protects one against the horrible scenario where a drive failure robs you of photos, etc. The chances of dual-drive-failures (before I can replace the first) are less than my house burning down.
When people talk about backup - it is backing up the files to another device... generally in the same place (not offsite)... meaning the data is at about the same risk because a meteor or fire or robbery would probably lose both.
I keep all my photos on my PC, my NAS, and I put a 2nd drive in my wife's 17" Dell (since it nicely had 2 drive bays!). Both her drives are encrypted with TrueCrypt - and if we are out of town, it is usually with us.
Perhaps "backup" is too generic of a term because there are different levels. RAID is a backup against a drive failure, just like copying files to a USB hard drive, but "offsite backup" is a different level entirely. But I'd trust my data more to a RAID array than to my PC with a copy on a USB drive -- because the ReadyNAS is far more self-monitoring and alerts (when it can) when it perceives a drive might be starting to show signs of failure.
It is those alerts that are important. When it started warning me about my 1.5TB's, and I replaced them and tested the drives in my PC, it got me to start looking at my own PC drives... and, sure enough, my OS drive fails DST. There's no reason Win7 shouldn't be nicely informing me of this.
Thus, I stand a higher chance of 2 drives in my PC dying than 2 drives in my ReadyNAS. It is in this way that a RAID is a better backup than 2 drives in a PC, which everyone would agree is "backing up your data".
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