Just had an external hard drive go slightly bad. I’ve got a mac and Time Machine uses a 1TB External drive. I also use it to store all those massive GoPro video files before editing. A small boy switched off the power at the plug the other day and its been screwed ever since. I can get files off it, but not write to it. I’ve also got a NAS drive which I occasionally manually copy files to which is real slow, Time Machine can’t use NAS drives, very annoying. And my mac hard drive is 3/4 full.
So having been close to losing all my TM backups and several event videos, I’ve proved that I do not have a very good backup plan.

Does anyone?
TimeCapsule, NAS, RAID, Online – does anyone have a good setup for typical 500GB home use ie. opsystem, photos, videos, docs, music..

I have a very simple setup but it seems to work well. Two external drives, think one is eSata and one is USB3 but it doesn’t matter too much. One is the prime and the other gets a backup every evening using SecondCopy. This is just data files (images, videos etc) that are too large for cloud storage and too important to risk losing. I then keep meaning to take a DVD of new stuff monthly and leave it in a drawer at work.

Cheap, fairly quick and reasonable redundancy without getting too complicated.

Have you tried using the disc utility to fix the drive? Mine occasionally says it can’t write to the drive. Disc Utility fixes it.

May be worth a go if you haven’t already

I just use Time Machine and a 1TB external drive. That drive is only used for backups.

This guy

Clicky
goes to town, but is obviously skewed to a media pro. Strange how there’s very little advice for the average home user who wants to protect from theft or failure. CrashPlan looks like it could be an option..

Yes. Disk Utility whirred away for an hour, then told me it had succeeded in getting files readable but failed to make the drive writable. Then helpfully told me to back it all up while I still can! But no way can I backup the TM backup, too big.

But no way can I backup the TM backup, too big.

I assume you can go into TM and access files.

I had my old external drive partially die last year. Disc Utility said it was readable but when I tried to copy the TM file to the new drive it said it would take 17 days.

Storing the external drive out of the way sounds like a good idea. My old one got knocked

The first few times I lost everything, it annoyed me.
After that I grew to deal with it.
Now. I realy dont give a. Cos I lost it alreadys.
I allocate others to take control and save.
My get out clause.

I only keep current files (about a months worth) on my laptop, everything else is on a USB drive which I keep with the laptop.

I use SecondCopy to backup laptop and USB drive to a NAS at home and another USB drive which I keep at work. So I’ve got 3 copies of everything on 3 different drives in 2 locations.

All my work is done from Dropbox. That way I can’t lose any work if a drive goes pop and I can access it from my laptop or main PC and know I am using the up to date copy etc.

All my program’s on my main PC are on a hard drive that is mirrored onto a spare drive.

Music is duplicated onto an external drive as are photographs but this only happens when I make it, a weak point.

Not bothered about the rest of the crap that usually manifest on computers.

I feel fairly robust in my backing up of stuff but would like a better solution for photos and music than me.

Did have time machine but then the disc failed, could probably fix it bit lifes too short for all that IT tom foolery.

So now-not keep anything on a computer(or drive) that would be too upsetting to lose is my new setup, works well so far.

My computer is hooked up to a RAID 1 ReadyNAS.

My PC files are mirrored to one partition on the NAS and backed up to a second.

The PC is also backed up to the cloud using CrashPlan.

iThings are all backed up to the PC, and then gain the above protection.