Re: [Hampshire] Big home backups

lug@??? wrote:
> Hi all
>
> [Webmail message so hope it looks ok for you] I'm looking for a
> home backup option. The amount of data I have is ~100Gb - quite a
> bit for a home user I know

The size produces problems of sheer time taken to backup.
I back up about 50 GB on a data machine and about 100 GB on a daily
use machine in a home environment. The practical problems have been
more significant for me rather than security issues to date.

I found that usb external drives were a bit slow for this size of
data, not impossible, but it is a major event to do it with USB,
particularly daily. I have not investigated firewire for this.

Also I find that the file system has to be taken account of - I am
sometimes backing up files with filenames names happily existing in
ext3 (kubuntu) to FAT32 in the external USB drive. It is not always
easy to predict which will filename give a problem, and in a large
data backup it is a monumental task to identify after the event. I now
use a USB drive reformatted to ext3, but it is a significant factor.
Some methods of backup may not declare errors of problem filenames and
maybe skipped (missing) files.

I also have a external attached (wired ethernet) storage which is only
intended to be used as FAT32, I think it says it will only work as
that, I have not bothered to experiment. It also has USB and I find
the USB more convenient anyway here anyway.

My practical solution has been to put a second similar hard drive in
each machine containing data which needs backing up. This gives at
least another physical hard drive. It also allows the fastest backup
likely I think - between drives in the same machine.

For this first level backup - to a second physical hard drive - I now
use rsync, which is fast in these circumstances, it is mostly handing
differential changes.

--
alan cocks
Kubuntu user#10391
Linux user #360648