Rob wrote:
> I'm looking for a home backup option. The amount of data I have is ~100Gb
Do you try to categorise the data, i.e. what is most important to you
(certain photographs and videos (birthdays, first day at school or
weddings) or household accounts if you do them that way) and would hurt
the most if you lost the data?
> What I need the list's advice on is the method of making the backup. For
> example, I'd be happy to buy a portable HDD and keep it at work (or at
> home in a fireproof safe). Trouble is - how do I prevent someone at work
> plugging this (the HDD not the fireproof safe!) into a laptop and getting
> at my files? I have nothing to hide - but by the same token I don't want
> my accounts etc being made public knowledge.
If you are familiar with Bacula then you could create encrypted/compressed
volumes. If you use different backup software are you familiar enough with
it to make encrypted/compressed archives do this. Even tar and gzip are
fine as well as combined with rsync or scp.
> I realise I could just compress the lot into one archive with a strong
> password and copy that file over but is that really secure enough?
The security is as secure as the encryption algorithm you use and strength
of the key.
> The same applies with online backup services - you upload the file/files
> but how sure are you that a bored online backup sysadmin is going to find
> it impossible to get in?
Use your own server located with a friend or at work, if you can afford a
small VPS use that and create a regular dump of your most important
archives, see my first comment.
> I presume (showing my ignorance) that I could create an encrypted FS on
> the USB HDD but I've no experience here.
You can but how depends on the file system you use.
> Am I on the right lines or are there better / simpler solutions? Being a
> home user, I obviously favour the one-off USB HDD to the monthly contract
> of an online backup.
>
In general off-site backup is good for the _most_ important files. Be
careful with USB HDD's as they are like any hard drive and will eventually
fail.
The general point I'm trying to get across is that for a long term
(talking years) affordable home backup strategy consider categorising your
archive data then use more than one system/method to archive.
For more on this philosophy see my website
http://www.diap.org.uk. This is
geared at the SME but for a home user planning a long term strategy you
might find something useful here.
DVD's are not a proven long term storage option but may be good for the
less important data you are _likely_, (but not necessarily) to have more
of.
I'm sure other list members have their own valid and working strategies:)
Damian
--
Damian L Brasher
http://www.diap.org.uk
