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Backup Large amounts of Data

R

Rmafive

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 25, 2008
296
1
Richmond, Virginia
Hey guys,

I currently do some work in videography and I have about 10TB of non-replicable stock footage that I am looking to backup. Currently I have it stored on a Drobo Pro Raid, but I have begun to worry about losing the data in the event of a natural disaster. I have spent quite a while searching for a practical solution, but I am having a hard time finding one. I looked at Amazon's S3, but it would cost over $1000 a month. I also have been looking into Crashplan, but it would take 3 years to backup all of my data! Is there a solution that is more reasonably priced for people in my situation?
 
yeah buy 10 2tb hdds

20 tb in all. make 2 copies put one copy in a different location.

A bank safety box etc. put the other copy in a fireproof box at you home or office and keep the drobo with the third copy.

copy of a 2 tb hdd is about 10 to 14 hours.
 
I failed to mention that I am adding about 100-300 gb per month so I am looking for a solution that can constantly update my backup.
 
When you say, "worry about losing the data in the event of a natural disaster", this to me means offsite storage of backups in a different geographic area (especially since this is non-replicable stock). Yes, this will cost some money. Look into the storage space, upload/download speeds and pricing offered by a few different sites.

A few cloud storage services: Amazon S3, Box, DropBox, Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive.
 
Have Iron Mountain stop by. Tape library+monthly IM hand offs. The cloud is not going to be for you unless you get yourself an insane pipe @50Mb/s+ uploads. Might be cheaper to just get a safe deposit box at a bank and make regular visits to drop off cloned HDD's. Interesting dilemma though.
 
1st: I would not at all rely on the drobo pro for your sole backup, you need a better plan and fast.

2nd: if this is archival footage that is not being updated, then versioning is not important and actually then if you can get your initial backup done locally, a cloud option would be doable if you have a fast internet connection.

You could consider putting a raid-5 box attached externally to a simple computer stored physically elsewhere. relatives, friends, it doesn't matter. Then you can use Crashplan to backup in the "cloud" to that machine which is under your control. If you do the initial backup locally, then you're only on the 100GB monthly, which can be done running 24/7 on a fast pipe.

That is 1 backup, off site. Keep your drobo pro locally for a second backup and then your original hard drives I assume still on your computer.

If family/friends are in local geographic location subject to same risks (for example hurricaines) then if you want to be super careful you make single drive backups and store them in local safe deposit box as well.

Other option is to get into tape system which is probably the best but requires discipline in running backups and getting them offsite. personally I struggle with maintaining any backup that requires me to intervene, hence I like the automated and cloud options personally.
 
karl878 said:
When you say, "worry about losing the data in the event of a natural disaster", this to me means offsite storage of backups in a different geographic area (especially since this is non-replicable stock). Yes, this will cost some money. Look into the storage space, upload/download speeds and pricing offered by a few different sites.

A few cloud storage services: Amazon S3, Box, DropBox, Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive.
Click to expand...

I did mention that I needed offsite backup and that Amazon S3 was too expensive for just me. I will look into Iron Mountain as another option. I have spent the past year contacting different backup companies and hoping there could be a simple way to get an expedited initial backup, yet none of them have provided one! I am surprised that others have not had this problem
 
what derbothaus said- for that much data, and that much being added constantly, you're going to need a HUGE pipe to get that up to the cloud (any cloud) in a reasonable timeframe.
A service like iron mountain where they'll pick up backup media from your location and store it securely for you offsite is the best way to go.
The only other thing i could suggest would be a cloud backup service like crashplan or backblaze that lets you seed your backup by sending them hard drives for the initial upload- as long as your upload pipe can handle pushing out 100-300 GB per month, that would work too.
Info on crashplan's seed service is here:
http://support.crashplan.com/doku.p...seed_your_initial_backup_to_crashplan_central
 
elvisizer said:
what derbothaus said- for that much data, and that much being added constantly, you're going to need a HUGE pipe to get that up to the cloud (any cloud) in a reasonable timeframe.
A service like iron mountain where they'll pick up backup media from your location and store it securely for you offsite is the best way to go.
The only other thing i could suggest would be a cloud backup service like crashplan or backblaze that lets you seed your backup by sending them hard drives for the initial upload- as long as your upload pipe can handle pushing out 100-300 GB per month, that would work too.
Info on crashplan's seed service is here:
http://support.crashplan.com/doku.p...seed_your_initial_backup_to_crashplan_central
Click to expand...

I get about 20 mbps up, so my upload speed is pretty good. I have contacted Crashplan in hopes that they will allow me to seed more than just 1 TB initially. I will update on this thread if I hear any good news from them!
 
Rmafive said:
I get about 20 mbps up, so my upload speed is pretty good. I have contacted Crashplan in hopes that they will allow me to seed more than just 1 TB initially. I will update on this thread if I hear any good news from them!
Click to expand...
Yep, 20 mbps should probably do it if you can do an initial seed.
Please let us know what Crashplan says about seeding more than 1 TB- their site makes it sound like more than 1 TB is just not an option, which is disappointing.
 
elvisizer said:
Yep, 20 mbps should probably do it if you can do an initial seed.
Please let us know what Crashplan says about seeding more than 1 TB- their site makes it sound like more than 1 TB is just not an option, which is disappointing.
Click to expand...

I talked to crashplan and they do not seem willing to even let me seed at all! I have been letting it run for a few days and I get on average about 5 mbps up, so it will take about 5-6 months to back up all of my data. I am still looking into alternatives and I will be sure to post them here!
 
Don't forget the option of seeding your own drive locally and then taking it to an offsite but personally arranged/managed computer. I.e. stick an external array at grandma's house and attach it to your crashplan backup as an external source.

Yes it's not in a data center, but it's physically removed from your original site, and so long as the person has high speed and unlimited downloads, can be very inexpensive and at least would get you up and running while you consider other options.
 
Rmafive said:
I talked to crashplan and they do not seem willing to even let me seed at all! I have been letting it run for a few days and I get on average about 5 mbps up, so it will take about 5-6 months to back up all of my data. I am still looking into alternatives and I will be sure to post them here!
Click to expand...

weird- after we talked about it in this thread, i went into their online store and bought the 1 tb seed drive, no problems.

it shipped yesterday, should be here tomorrow.
nick
 
elvisizer said:
weird- after we talked about it in this thread, i went into their online store and bought the 1 tb seed drive, no problems.

it shipped yesterday, should be here tomorrow.
nick
Click to expand...

They suggested that I not waste my money on the seed drive. I could still buy it, but it would make a very small dent in the amount of time my backup will take. It is still going and at the end of the 30 day trial I will decide whether or not to purchase it.
 
Rmafive said:
They suggested that I not waste my money on the seed drive. I could still buy it, but it would make a very small dent in the amount of time my backup will take. It is still going and at the end of the 30 day trial I will decide whether or not to purchase it.
Click to expand...

i do photo with some video. Blu ray works pretty good, and is 1/4 the price of hdd's. I keep the discs in a dark cabinet (daylights kills them). I have some cds ans dvds that are 10+ years old. They are making 100 gb discs now, going to pick up the drive - next upgrade
 
You also have to consider security. I assume this footage is valuable in a professional nature, and probably proprietary. Do you want to trust your data to a cloud service that is hackable? Also, none of the cloud services offer 100% data integrity guarantee. There is always a chance, albeit small, of data loss.

I would put my vote in for a local service like Iron Mountain. Big corps use IM for offsite, secure storage. Sometimes shipping a physical drive off to cold storage just makes more sense.
 
d-m-a-x said:
i do photo with some video. Blu ray works pretty good, and is 1/4 the price of hdd's. I keep the discs in a dark cabinet (daylights kills them). I have some cds ans dvds that are 10+ years old. They are making 100 gb discs now, going to pick up the drive - next upgrade
Click to expand...

Maybe these things are cheaper in the US, but over here

Panasonic LM-BRS2MWE10 / Write Once Blu-ray Disc 10 Pack Spindle - £17

These are 25 GB each
25 * 17 = 425 GB for £17

therefore 1 GB = £0.04

2000 GB 7200 RPM HDD = £80

1 GB = £0.04

A HDD is faster is faster and more convenient as well. (Ok, ok, you would need an enclosure for them as well).
 
theSeb said:
Maybe these things are cheaper in the US, but over here

Panasonic LM-BRS2MWE10 / Write Once Blu-ray Disc 10 Pack Spindle - £17

These are 25 GB eache
25 * 17 = 425 GB for £17

therefore 1 GB = £0.04

2000 GB 7200 RPM HDD = £80

1 GB = £0.04

A HDD is faster is faster and more convenient as well. (Ok, ok, you would need an enclosure for them as well).
Click to expand...

they are around $1.00 a disc now, sometimes cheaper. i find 50 spindles for $50.00. I like bd-r, feels like a hard copy. Cant accidantalally erase the data, unless you stp on it
 
Rmafive said:
Hey guys,

I currently do some work in videography and I have about 10TB of non-replicable stock footage that I am looking to backup. Currently I have it stored on a Drobo Pro Raid,
Click to expand...

If you static footprint and incrementals you may want to consider tape. It is a bit more expensive that just hard drives but backing up to another drobo-like device purelly disk based locally really isn't going to cut it.

You'll need a SAS interface case to a LTO-4 ( or LTO-5 ) tape device. Then the tape drive.

Some vendors sell them as bundle with the back-up software. For example, Bru PE (producers edition ) is one of the hardware options that Tolis group sells.

http://www.tolisgroup.com/products/hardware/


You would have to factor in the tape infrastructure costs ( for the rotation ) and the off-site storage costs. But at the rate you are going it may pay off. I'd separate out the raw footage arching storage rates from the increment derivative product. The raw footage could just be incrementally streamed to two tapes for storage. You really wouldn't need monthly backups of that.
Just periodically copy to a new set of tapes ( every couple of years or so or at least keep up with tape format changes. ).
 
I am thinking about buying another drobo and placing it at a friends house for my backup. I will do the initial backup at home, so my incremental backups should not interrupt his network much at all. I can probably set backups to run at night since we are in the same time zone. I know Crashplan offers a free software for specifically this.
 
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