Backup Sync Software suggestions

[acemics]

I have been wondering what others are doing for their personal backup strategy’s. I currently have 4 Windows PC’s and 2 Mac’s that are used between myself, my kids and my wife. We all back up to a LaCie 2 Big device that consists of 1TB of mirrored storage. Everyone has their own directories for our personal files. I personally have over 10,000 digital photos and over 30,000 mp3 files so the loss of the information on these disks would be pretty bad to say the least.

I have thought about replicating everything on the LaCie to some sort of online cloud storage like Carbonite or Backblaze, but I do not like the thought of having all of my personal information out there out of my personal possession, so this is not an option for me personally. I recently purchased a portable 1TB UBS drive, which is small and portable to replicate everything that is on my LaCie to. This would allow me to travel with this drive and still have access to everything I need.

I am not clear on is if there is some sort of syncing software that anyone could recommend that would allow any changes made on either the Portable USB drive or the LaCie drive to sync with each other. So if a file changes on the LaCie drive those changes sync automatically to the Portable USB drive and if for example I delete a file on the portable USB drive that file is then deleted on the LaCie drive.

If you have a better suggestion I am open to those as well. Thanks in advance for your feedback and input.

 

[1911]

Backup Sync Software suggestions

First thing, it looks like you have everything being backed up to one single point of failure, if you lose the LaCie hard drive, you lost everything.

Have you looked at Super Flexible File Synchronizer (SFFS)?
There is a version for both Mac and Windows.

For Windows backup, look at Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery. This application will create an exact image of your drive with the flexibility to do granular file restore. A big advantage of this product is that you can do a bare metal restore to new hardware, great if your PC dies and can't find a replacement. Another advantage is you can convert the backup image to a VM.

For the Mac there are some excellent backup apps you should look at before making a purchase decision.
Carbon Copy Cloner will create a bootable backup to another drive, great for recovering from a hard drive failure.
Time Machine is simple and easy.
SFFS is a great tool to sync files/folder to another location.
DropBox is a great tool for file backup to the cloud, includes sharing.

As far as cloud storage, do a test first, some are convoluted and difficult to navigate on a restore. And if you don't test a restore several time to learn the app, you'll be disappointed when you really need to recover/restore any data.

No matter what you end up doing, test a restore to verify you are getting what you expect, a reliable restore.
And last but not least, if it's important, store a copy off-site.

 

[jdechko]

And last but not least, if it's important, store a copy off-site.

I tend to subscribe to Patrick Rhone's 3-2-1 Backup Plan for my personal stuff. If I had a business, I'd probably be a bit more robust.
http://patrickrhone.com/2010/02/22/back-that-thang-up/

I'd recommend Time Machine, Dropbox, SuperDuper!/CarbonCopyCloner, and Carbonite or some other offsite.

I'm not worried about the data in the cloud because it's encrypted before it leaves my computer.

 

[acemics]

Thanks for the input. I may not have been too clear in my initial post as it was done after a long day yesterday...The Lacie drive i currently have is 2 mirrored drives so there is a bit of redundancy there. I want to add a USB portable drive that will be an exact replicate of the Lacie drive. I am looking for software that will replicate any changes made on either of those devices to one another. We do not keep any files on our local machines. Most of the solutions I have seen are for syncing are for between a PC/Mac to an external drive and not necessarily between 2 external drives. Do any of these solutions mentioned allow for that type of syncing capability? Thanks

 

[Boston007]

Thanks for the input. I may not have been too clear in my initial post as it was done after a long day yesterday...The Lacie drive i currently have is 2 mirrored drives so there is a bit of redundancy there. I want to add a USB portable drive that will be an exact replicate of the Lacie drive. I am looking for software that will replicate any changes made on either of those devices to one another. We do not keep any files on our local machines. Most of the solutions I have seen are for syncing are for between a PC/Mac to an external drive and not necessarily between 2 external drives. Do any of these solutions mentioned allow for that type of syncing capability? Thanks

SuperDuper