Backup solution advice requested

[charlien]

I know that backups have been discussed but I would like to get some opinions on my storage and backup strategy as well as get some advice on software to help me.

I currently have all my aTV data on an external 750 gig firewire drive. I ordered a firewire enclosure that will allow me to put two 1-terabyte drives in for a "2-terabyte" drive. I will be copying all my data that is on the current drive to this new storage drive. That will be where my data will be stored going forward.

Now I want to be able to back it up by having a copy of the data. I was thinking of getting another empty firewire enclosure that has a door in the front to hot swap SATA drives. I would use this enclosure and several drives to back up the 2-terabyte drive.

I would like software (either Max Osx or Vista) that will allow me to copy files to these drives and allow me to have a catalog of what movies/music are backed up on which removable drive. I'd prefer the software to not make any changes to the files as it copies it so in the event the software manufacturer goes out of business I can still access all my backed up data.

I figure one initial 500 gig drive will make a complete backup of all my aTV data so that I will start with a complete copy of everything I have. I'll label it and store it in a safe area. After that, I will back up monthly only the new data I have added since the last back up. I don't add a lot of data monthly.

As drives continue to get cheaper and cheaper I'll probably buy another set of drives so I can have two complete backups.

What do you think and can you recommend a software package that will assist me?

 

[d21mike]

I have started to use RAID 1 (Mirror) for all my drives. That way if one fails the other will continue until I can replace the first drive. Actually I lost one of my 1TB Drives this week and had it replaced.

As far as backup software that will maintain a duplicate, I use "Second Copy" ($29.95). I have not used it for this application but I do use it at work.

http://www.centered.com/

 

[gadabout]

i would just set up your dual-drive thing to do a mirrored raid, giving 1 TB of space, and everything is automatically copied to the other drive. unless you will have more than 1tb of media, which is entirely possible. i have a1 tb raid right now, but have just filled it, so i'm hoping they make 2TB hd's soon...

 

[charlien]

i would just set up your dual-drive thing to do a mirrored raid, giving 1 TB of space, and everything is automatically copied to the other drive. unless you will have more than 1tb of media, which is entirely possible. i have a1 tb raid right now, but have just filled it, so i'm hoping they make 2TB hd's soon...

I was thinking of doing the same thing but decided I'd rather have one huge drive (2TB) and back it up to removable drives. That way a power failure won't have a chance to take out both raid drives.