Following on from my rant about hard disk and file issues I had the idea to set about laying out what my ideal setup would be like. The way I see it, I guess this comes in approximately 3 varieties, how I would set things up without spending any money, spending some money within reason, and money no limit.
Spending No Money
Networking: I have a Draft-N ADSL router, an 8 port gigabit switch, and as many cables as I would need.
Storage: 2TB NAS, 500GB drive in new laptop, 120GB drive in old laptop, 1TB sata disk in external enclosure and an IDE enclosure with a 500GB drive.
Files:
Music: on 1TB SATA Disk and first line back up on 2TB NAS. Burnt to DVDs left with friends as second line backup giving physical disaster protection at my own house. Purchases from eMusic and iTunes burnt to audio CDs to be played on normal CD players and eMusic provides 4th line protection in form of a multiple download allowance.
iPhone apps: All purchased apps are of course on the iPhone itself (because I only buy apps I’ll actually use, and if I don’t use it I don’t need it), and I can maintain duplicates across my laptop, the 1TB disk and my old laptop. 4 copies! DVD copies left with friends gives distance in case of physical disaster.
Photos: on NAS and backed up onto IDE disk through enclosure, all produced content also uploaded to Flickr and Youtube. DVDs again provide disaster protection. Uploaded to Webhost.
Audio (recorded by me): NAS/IDE/Webhost
In use docs: stored via Dropbox and synced to both old and new laptops automatically.
Older out of use docs: manually synced between old laptop and new laptop, also uploaded to FTP backup server provided through webhosting.
Software/Drivers: Single copy on NAS, steam content and drivers can be re-downloaded, and most applications already installed so can be seen as backup.
Other Media (DVD Backups/MP4s etc): stored as necessary on off-line hard disks. If time were abundant all media to be backed up onto dvds, and recorded in a database for easy disc identification and knowing what things I actually have.
Potential Failings:
Music & Apps: If the iTunes Store TOS change and I can’t download my purchased apps, it means that if both my iPhone and the 1TB disk fail I stand to loose some money, and the time required to re encode my CD collection. My emusic account allows me to download my mp3s a certain number of times, and as I’ve only downloaded things once, there isn’t an issue there. Podcasts and other things I can’t recover, well I keep them out of nostalgia and kleptomania so a loss there is sad, but by no means significant.
Photos & Home Movies: For me to loose data 2 hard disks have to fail and simultaneously flickr and youtube decide that my accounts violates their TOS in some way and delete my data. The chance of this happening is slim, however I have an account with Dreamhost, which gives me unlimited space and bandwidth for use on the websites I host with them, this would allow me to upload all my videos and photos to them, putting them in galleries, and make it another backup, as this doesn’t violate their TOS and is a service I’m paying for, there’s no danger of it being deleted, and if it was, then it’d have to happen within a set of circumstances that are seemingly highly unlikely. Even if there were a fire at home I’d have them 2 places on the web and access to downloading them again. Snapfish would give 3rd online version which gives possibility of printed versions. Audio: 2 disks failing and the webhost deleting my files. Unlikely. Possibility of a fire at home when I’m not there, still got them online, but should investigate podcast providers, saving them as a youtube video an alternative, but not ideal given 10min limit and the conversion process of turning them into videos.
In use docs: Dropbox automatically distributes most recent version of documents across 2 hard disks, and online. If said account were deleted due to perceived TOS violations or whatever reason on there end, still have copies on disk. I assume that if my house burnt down, chances are I’d still have the copy of the docs on my laptop, being that it’d be one of things that I’d take out the house with me. However there’s a danger here that if the local client software malfunctions and deletes all my files, then I don’t have much recourse to recovering them short of playing around with hard disk utilities, which is never fun. I should therefore possibly maintain copies on my FTP backup server, and probably the best way to achieve that is through backup software running locally that runs a check on date stamps and overwrites any changed files. Or alternatively use a competing service with similar space constraints, either LiveMesh, Mozy or something else. I don’t really want to have to pay, but MobileMe would probably be my first choice, given it’s integration with the iPhone and push email.
Older Out of use docs: 2 Disks, FTP backup is probably fine for this, with the addition of Google Docs, I’d have 2 points of local failure and 2 points of remote failure to result in complete loss.
Software and Drivers: Manufacturer’s usually keep drivers around for a while, and while steam provides no assurance that I can download software again, I believe that it would let me.
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