Backup Hardware Suggestions

[maflynn]

I actually recommend a mirrored RAID for a backup but only with a NAS. The array can be rebuilt automatically and initiated with anything (smartphone for example). Plus a NAS from Qnap or Synology will fault check the HDD's on a schedule and a lot of times give you advanced warning to failure.

I'm rocking with my old QNAP NAS now. I was running on a DAS unit that had RAID setup (four drive arrangement), but for some reason TimeMachine was failing, as was it seemed the unit itself. I bought (used), a Drobo mini setup and it was fast, don't get me wrong, but for some reason its been giving me headaches. The NAS is like a workhorse, slow, methodical but dependable. My first backup took overnight to complete but now its there and I'm happy.

 

[cynics]

I'm rocking with my old QNAP NAS now. I was running on a DAS unit that had RAID setup (four drive arrangement), but for some reason TimeMachine was failing, as was it seemed the unit itself. I bought (used), a Drobo mini setup and it was fast, don't get me wrong, but for some reason its been giving me headaches. The NAS is like a workhorse, slow, methodical but dependable. My first backup took overnight to complete but now its there and I'm happy.

TM can be finicky with anything in my experience. I can’t get it auto backups to work well with anything. Manually it’s fine though (which is why I recommend backing up raw files as a last means of backup).

Speed wise my network can nearly max out my NAS HDD. A lot of caveats there though.

 

[maflynn]

TM can be finicky with anything in my experience. I can’t get it auto backups to work well with anything. Manually it’s fine though (which is why I recommend backing up raw files as a last means of backup).

My DAS is a DROBO and that doesn't have a good reputation. I wished I looked before I lept on that purchase. The issue is more hardware then TM related it seems. Now that I have a clean full backup, I may shutdown my DAS and wipe my Drobo and see if that fixes things. If memory servers me, the TM was prepping the drive for backup and never stopped

 

[cynics]

My DAS is a DROBO and that doesn't have a good reputation. I wished I looked before I lept on that purchase. The issue is more hardware then TM related it seems. Now that I have a clean full backup, I may shutdown my DAS and wipe my Drobo and see if that fixes things. If memory servers me, the TM was prepping the drive for backup and never stopped

Depending on the back up size TM may take awhile. I seem to remember hours but that was with a 1tb back up.

If you verify it’s hanging with no disk activity or CPU usage then just find the “in progress” file, delete it, reboot (smc & nvram) then restart it.

After the first back up it should be fairly quick.