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Backup strategy - what do people recommend?

J

jclin10

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 1, 2009
149
17
Hi all

I’m looking to update my backup strategy in preparation for getting a new desktop (probably a Mac Studio).

What do folks typically recommend for a thorough strategy? I’m not a professional photographer or anything, but I do have a lot of very meaningful photo files from our family. Or is there a website that describes a good strategy?

Thanks!
 
jclin10 said:
Hi all

I’m looking to update my backup strategy in preparation for getting a new desktop (probably a Mac Studio).

What do folks typically recommend for a thorough strategy? I’m not a professional photographer or anything, but I do have a lot of very meaningful photo files from our family. Or is there a website that describes a good strategy?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
maybe start reading here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ion-dies.2380600/?post=32038456#post-32038456
3 backups is the common recommendation, me, having ~ 80k photo library and not a professional, do a daily backup on an external SSD and then weekly or more frequent onto 3 different external HDDs, incl a portable one that I keep at work. I use CCC vs TM as the one time I need to recover TM didn't do it for me.
 
It's not an easy question to answer because ultimately it depends on the value you place on your photos and how much you are willing to invest to protect them

Pretty much every photo I have taken in the last 23 years is digital and it would be absolutely devastating for me to lose them, so I take an approach that many would consider over the top:

My photo library (Lightroom) and DNG images are included in my hourly backup to a Synology NAS using ActiveBackup for Business which (finally!) supports MacOS.

I also sync the photos separately to the NAS and OneDrive using GoodSync and the NAS is backed up to 3 different cloud providers (Synology, Wasabi and IDrive E2) using HyperBackup

I also have a separate NAS in my office which mirrors the photos and library from my home NAS

So, I have 7 backups in total across multiple locations

I fully appreciate this would be considered massive overkill for most people but it gives me peace of mind!

I used to use time machine but it failed on me far too often (forcing me into having to redo the backup from scratch) when using anything except a local drive (ie my NAS)
 
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This is all super helpful, thanks

I’m assuming that iCloud or Dropbox files are not included as part of the 321 strategy?

Right now, I have

1. Backblaze
2. SuperDuper to clone every night - drive is attached to my calendar
3. TimeMachine on the default TimeMachine schedule - drive is attached to my computer

Both 2 and 3 are located in my home, but of course, 1 is not

Is this an adequate plan? Would anyone recommend something different? This doesn’t include the other computers in our home (my wife and kids)

I’m willing to pay a decent amount for backup, just for peace of mind. Though at some point, I’m not sure if it makes sense to have multiple backups in the same physical location (my home), since if there were to be a fire, I’d basically be in big trouble no matter what, right? Unless I could back up to my own disk in another physical location, or rotate clones offsite, or get a fireproof box or something in my home.
 
jclin10 said:
I’m assuming that iCloud or Dropbox files are not included as part of the 321 strategy?

Right now, I have

1. Backblaze
2. SuperDuper to clone every night - drive is attached to my calendar
3. TimeMachine on the default TimeMachine schedule - drive is attached to my computer
Click to expand...
iCloud and Dropbox do synchronisation, not backup. So should not be part of any backup strategy.

1. Backblaze has its deficiencies (particularly for a Mac). I prefer Arq Backup which I store on both OneDrive (free with Office) and Backblaze B2. But if you are happy with Backblaze, keep with it.
2. Not sure of the value of clones these days. Cause more complications than they are worth.
3. I use TM for my system disk, but use CCC to backup other disks because it is more flexible (but otherwise little different to TM). All to direct attached storage.
 
orionquest said:
I just use Time machine to my NAS. No offsite or anything like that.
Click to expand...

If that is your only backup that is extremely risky due to 1) the tendency of TM backups to fail 2) NAS TM backups are even more prone to failure.

jclin10 said:
I could back up to my own disk in another physical location, or rotate clones offsite, or get a fireproof box or something in my home.
Click to expand...

Often the 1 in a 3-2-1 is a bank vault.

gilby101 said:
Backblaze has its deficiencies
Click to expand...

Can you elaborate?
 
HDFan said:
Can you elaborate?
Click to expand...
My opinion re Backblaze Personal Backup:
1) Doesn't backup Finder tags and other Mac extended attributes.
2) Difficult to configure backup outside default includes and excludes.
3) Restore requires browser interface, sending your encryption password to Backblaze and getting restoration back as zip files. Apart from breaking e2e encryption, this is very cumbersome.
4) Deleted files are only kept for 30 days (unless you pay more). So that accidental deletion you didn't realise you had done is gone. And old versions of documents are gone.
5) Reportedly issues if you start pushing the 'unlimited'.

Nevertheless, many people like it.
 
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I do a Time Machine backup set to 1x/day, plus a monthly clone (encrypted!) using Carbon Copy Cloner to a portable HDD I keep in my desk at work. I also keep the majority of my stuff in iCloud Drive.

One thing that's really imporant if you use iCloud Drive, Dropbox, etc: if you don't have everything set to download to your computer, you cannot make a true backup. If you select "Optimize Storage" then many of your files saved locally are only placeholders. Same goes for the Photos app. Backing up little placeholder files is pointness, and will do you no good if you truly need to recover everything. Ask yourself what would happen if you lost access to your iCloud account. Would you have a hard drive full of sad little pointers to files you can't download, or a Photos app full of low-res previews?

I make sure on my primary Mac to have it all set to download everything. For me, that means I need my iMac to have 1TB SSD internal becuase iCloud Drive doesn't work with external storage. I am able to use an external SSD for my Photos archive and all my other media -- but again, everything in Photos is set to download and it all gets truly backed up to those methods I mentioned up top. If I was one of those unfortunate people who got locked out of my iCloud account somehow, I would be able to recover because I have local copies of the actual files I own.

Now, since I have all this redundancy on my iMac, that frees up my laptop to have a much skimpier storage setup. There, I am free to use Optimize Storage and keep the bare minimum downloaded, knowing the actual files are being synced and backed up on the iMac.

There's nothing wrong with using the cloud, but you need to be cognizant of how you're using it.
 
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HDFan said:
If that is your only backup that is extremely risky due to 1) the tendency of TM backups to fail 2) NAS TM backups are even more prone to failure.
Click to expand...
I'm aware. I'm not running some enterprise at home like a lot of the advice or recommendations from users seem to think you must have for backups. At least I have some sort of backup and I am good with that.
 
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My apologies. I saw them as different questions, but if it is best for me to remove either or both of my posts, please let me know.
 
jclin10 said:
My apologies. I saw them as different questions, but if it is best for me to remove either or both of my posts, please let me know.
Click to expand...
doesn't matter much; just was confused about which mac you were asking about.

it's generally good to post in one place, so all responses happen... in the same place, and there's one coherent thread.

this is, of course, the macrumors community, so 'coherent' is a generous word... 🤣
 
I thought they were different enough, but maybe I was mistaken. Happy to remove any old posts if that's the best thing to do.
 
jclin10 said:
I’m assuming that iCloud or Dropbox files are not included as part of the 321 strategy?
Click to expand...
My Synology backs Dropbox up. The Synology backs itself up to Amazon Glacier (I know, I know, I need to replace that destination, no need to tell me.).
 
Let me suggest a slightly different strategy.

But first, I'll remark that I've twice had TM backups fail, so I no longer use TM.

I separate my work projects into their own folders, specific to the project. These individual folders I backup several times a day when I'm working on them by using "rsync" to differentially synchronize any modifications to two other computers. On one of these other computers I daily "rsync" these folders to two very large HDDs that includes everything I want backed up. I also "rsync" my work to several 400GB micro-SDXC cards (yes, the first time it takes awhile to write ~350GB to an SDXC card, but after the first time the "rsync"s do only differential backups and so are fast); one SDXC card I store in my vehicle, another I store in my wife's vehicle, one I carry with me at all times -- they are easily hidden as well as being easily swapped out for new SDXC cards. I also have three large HDDs, one on the west coast, one on the east coast, and one on the gulf coast. Every three to six months, or whenever I need to, I make new 400GB SDXC card differential backups and send them to the three coasts -- these SDXC cards include a bash script that "rsync"s the data on the card with the large HDDs at each location, making it a trivial job to keep the HDD backups on the three coasts up-to-date. Also I can readily snail mail the differential backup SDXC cards to the coasts in first class letters.

For truly personal and private information (which in today's world even includes photos) such as insurance, banking, financial, etc. data, I've written a bash script that encrypts each personal folder, splits it into manageably sized files, and "rsync"s these encrypted backups to the same computers, SSDs, HDDs, and SDXCs as before. The same bash script will verify the hash codes of the splits, merge the splits, decrypt the backup, and regenerate the personal folders, whenever I need them -- just a single Terminal command both backs up and encrypts as well as decrypts and restores. Since these encrypted backups are protected by 4096 bit RSA keys, I never worry about the personal information backups or computers being stolen as nobody has the computer resources to decrypt them.

I don't backup any applications, unless I wrote the code myself, as I figure I can always retrieve any third party applications if I need to. I also don't use the iCloud since nearly every cloud service has been hacked in the past -- I've even gotten away from storing photos in the cloud.

Now the above strategy may seem complicated and time consuming, but once set up it is quite quick and easy to maintain as everything is backed up using "rsync" in a differential manner. Since I don't use cloud services my personal information is not open to being hacked. And since my personal information is encrypted with strong encryption (4096 bit RSA) I don't worry about it being stolen. In addition, I always have a copy of encrypted personal information with me at all times, and in our vehicles, and I have copies of all backups at three external locations. In addition, I have backups under both Linux and the macOS. I feel this backup strategy is both robust and secure.

Perhaps the most important backup is to have a second computer that mirrors (via rsync) my laptop and all of its contents -- just in case either computer fails or is stolen.

Solouki
 
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This is a good question and I always pitch it from the perspective of what is the value of the data you are trying to protect. If it is a bunch of video game saved games that's probably not as important as a bunch of tax return files from previous years or one's life's work. Depending on this value and the frequency the data changes you measure the impact of the loss of the most recent data. For instance, tax returns are very valuable but don't change after submitted so they can be backed up very infrequently but should be backed up to multiple very stable media. Any backup that does differencing backups mitigates this calculation from the frequency perspective as only things that change get backed up. The final thing to consider is where your backups are stored in the physical world and how much you trust the people managing that location. It's your data, no one should be looking at it without your permission and it should be as accident resistant as possible.

This thought process is how you design your backup solution.

Once you have designed your backup solution the next thing to consider is how to secure it. Most complete solutions will give you some sort of means to secure your backup but if you roll your own via rsync, dd or other tools you may have to consider this. My preference is to store my backups on encrypted disks rather than to use a solution's built in encryption as this makes the encryption transparent to any tool and easier to manage but both ways work.

A quick walk through my thought process and design:

Considerations:
1) Three computers need to be backed up: my server, my home-brewed raspberry pi router, and my laptop.
2) The three are usually colocated so destruction of the location (my house burns down) would mean loss of all of them
3) The laptop has frequent changes, the server has changes maybe once a day, and the router almost never changes
4) The laptop has critical data, the router has a lot of config that would be time consuming to reproduce, the server has low and moderately critical data only

Here's where I landed:
1) In my house I have a NAS that is just for backups. (It's a custom built linux box with a couple of disks in a RAID) this machine backs up weekly to Amazon S3 via rsync. Its backup is non-differencing and a new full backup created each time. Just the data is backed up here, the system and config is not.

2) My router (critical but unchanging data) is backed up every month when I make changes to the config. I take it offline completely and run 'dd' to get a full disk image which is stored on the backup NAS.

3) My server (non-critical, low change data) is backed up via windows server backup (it is a custom built Server 2016 box with a couple disks in a RAID) to the NAS. It uses the SMB protocol.

4) My laptop (Critical, high change data) is backed up via Time Machine (it is a 2023 MBP) to the NAS. It also uses the SMB protocol.

This gives me an on site (in my house) backup of everything that is up to date to the day and a backup of everything in the cloud that is up to date to the week should something happen to my house. Since I can't have a RAID in my laptop I do use iCloud to sync the most critical data.
 
As you can see there are lots of strategies. You may want to consider what you have first -
​
  • Volume of data
  • types of data
  • degree of risk
  • restoration of data
  • speed of restoration desired
This is a very general list that can be broken down further. I would imagine most home users would be happy with an external drive whether directly attached to their computer or free standing on a network (NAS). Additionally some cloud location as well. In the past, people would often use items such as tape backups and rotate them to locations off site.

Perhaps an easy option to start -

The original data location - your computer
Duplicate 1 - external drive
Duplicate 2 - Cloud location

If you are only duplicating data such as your photos, then you can use items like CCC, any specific synching tool that works between your target drive and your local directory full of your data or of course TM for Duplicate 1

For Duplicate 2 - depending on your volume, you may consider Apple iCloud if your total volume is not overly high. 50 gigs is a buck or two a month. It has the advantage of some options to customize and may be available to your other devices.

One method that didn't quite get the recognition it deserves is the use of archival discs. These are items such as CD, DVD, Blu Ray type of discs that are of archival quality. Some last a decade and some are rated for several decades before deterioration. The advantage of discs is not only can they remain local but easy to get to other locations for "off site." The three drawbacks are - proper RW disc drive, obtaining the archival discs and time to both burn and if needed, retrieve the data upon a "restore."

As for me - my needs are simple so is my solution. NAS, external drive, and iCoud. I don't need terabytes of space for photos, music and sensitive material. I pay out for the iCloud and in turn have easy access in my eco system. There are of course superior options than iCloud but I am lazy in my somewhat old age.
​
​
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PhoenixDown said:
I've been out of the loop, whats wrong with Amazon Glacier?
Click to expand...
Why would someone use Glacier (Amazon's Business "cold storage") for home usage? Unless one have vast terabytes to consider and isn't interested in retrieving often the stored data...lots better options out there. AWS really is not a typical solution for home users.
 
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jclin10 said:
Hi all

I’m looking to update my backup strategy in preparation for getting a new desktop (probably a Mac Studio).

What do folks typically recommend for a thorough strategy? I’m not a professional photographer or anything, but I do have a lot of very meaningful photo files from our family. Or is there a website that describes a good strategy?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
If you're ok with downloading every software, iCloud backups will work for you. This is the one that I do.

Time Machine is also an option, but it requires an external Hard Drive (Flash Drives don't work that well with Time Machine)

The best option if you don't have access to any of these is to use Migration Assistant when getting your Mac Studio.
 
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