cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/6846019
I should really start doing regular backups again, do the 3-2-1 backup strategy again, and organize my backups but there's so many files and stuff on my devices and external drives that it's overwhelming and I don't know how to properly sort it. ADHD kicks my ass too and I know that it takes a while to backup and that means my computer needs to idle so it can get done faster and doesn't slow my computer down.
Also, I'm struggling with cloud backups too. Google Drive and OneDrive often had errors in the middle of uploading and I'm hesitant to spend money on a cloud service. And doesn't Backblaze need you to have your device connected at least once every 30 days or your data will be deleted or something? I have ADHD and I can't guarantee I'll be on top of that. And do I upload image backups to these servers? Is that even possible? What about video game backups and other large files? Or all the videos I have? Aren't these cloud services really slow as well? I feel like I'll end up having the same problem...I could use zip files, but I keep worrying something will get removed in the middle of it.
And how do I check backups? I can't reasonably check every single file I've ever made.
I don't know how to handle all of this. I mainly use FreeFileSync for copying drives over with anything being overwritten just being moved to a Revisions folder. I also sometimes use Macrium Reflect for image backups, but the free version is being retired... I tried Veeam once but it didn't backup the AppData folder when I tried doing a file level backup about a year ago.
I have a Mac and a Windows computer by the way. I do want to check out Linux someday though.
I don't know if I can do a NAS either. I don't think I have an extra computer lying around and I'm a college student who needs to travel from home to my college campus. And I don't have a lot of room on my bedroom desk...And I hate how backups often prevent me from using one of my computers.
The first thing I would consider is just buy 3 large USB3 drives. Make certain you plug them into a USB3 port so it is fast as possible. I would get spinning drives not SSDs.
Then I would just rotate the backups to get 3 copies of various ages. Keep one off site at all times either one of the 3 or add a fourth drive. I would encrypt the media too.
The above works pretty well if you total backup set can fit in one USB drive. Not sure the latest drives now. I think I have seen at least 6TB drives.
One can do the same thing too with hot mount SATA drives too which is even higher bandwidth and storage if your using a workstation with hot mount slots.