My new backup strategy

sdtag · Feb 8, 2025

I have a few computers on a small home network. I have 4 desktops, a couple of laptops, an Asustor NAS, multiple tablets and cell phones, IP cameras and POE switches and an NVR, and a bunch of IOT devices. I average about 50 devices on my little home network. I segmented out the IOT devices and IP cameras using VLAN’s. Netgear all the way baby! No TP Link here lol

I have always backed up my 4 desktops to the NAS. I just read somewhere best common practice is to not use a NAS as your only backup device. I read that a NAS is a storage device not a backup device. I did have a backup to the backup, but I just changed my backup strategy. Obviously, I am self taught networking so bear with me please.

My NAS has been acting a little inconsistently lately and I have been thinking about this for a while now. It will start beeping and flashing red LED’s and not be available on the network. I pull the plug to reboot it and it comes back to life every time so far. But what if it doesn’t come back to life one time?

Now I created a backup mini pc on my home network sharing an external drive. I use Free File sync batch files and I scheduled them to run using Windows Task Scheduler on each computer every night. Comparing 2 folders then syncing them. One folder in the pc to be backed up comparing to a folder in the backup pc.

I am not concerned with disk imaging or making a Windows backup. I figure if something catastrophic happens I will reinstall Windows anyway. So I am only backing up my data.

I really like that I am just copying files. I can see each individual file for myself in the backup pc. That gives me some comfort for some reason. Old School.

Am I safe more or less? I think this is a good backup strategy but what do I know. I wanted to bounce this off you guys and get your opinion. Flame on!

Ghot · Feb 8, 2025

@sdtag

Quick, watch this X-Files episode before it's too late. ^^

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43m | TV-14

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Tester · Feb 8, 2025

sdtag said:
It will start beeping and flashing red LED’s and not be available on the network. I pull the plug to reboot it and it comes back to life every time so far. But what if it doesn’t come back to life one time?

Please post the log files why this is happening, perhaps there is a solution to solve this issue.

About backup, i also backup(file sync) all machines to my storage nas. And then i have 2 backup usb disk, one for even and one for uneven weeks that i rotate to backup the entire storage to. So basicly i consider the backups on the nas as data & backup them as well. I don't backup the OS the same as you, i rather reinstall it.

antspants · Feb 8, 2025

In my opinion

FreeFileSync is great, I love it, I rave about it in here encouraging members to use it and I go as far as to give detailed instructions and screenshots in threads

BUT…

You have to be imaging your PC with something like Hasleo (forum tutorial link) or Macrium (In my opinion)
It just makes life so much simpler. FreeFileSync is complimentary to imaging your PC, in case of catastrophic failure of your OS and you have to fresh install, or have changed files since the imaging process.
Having your user folders (and whatever else) mirrored using FreeFileSync and RealTimeSync is a great asset if having to fresh install Windows.
But, beware if using RealTimeSync after restoring an image, because the newer files will be overwritten with the older files from the image (If your user folders are on C)
In this case, a manual backup with FreeFileSync is advised as apposed to a RealTimeSync setup.

sdtag · Feb 9, 2025

Thanks for the advice. I don't like Real Time Sync. I don't use it. I would rather schedule batch files to run. I have a whole schedule printed out lol. I try to leave 10 minutes between tasks, just in case.

My main reason for the post though was questioning if I will be ok or if it is a standard best practice to back up to a shared external hdd on a mini pc on a network as opposed to a NAS. The pc seems more robust and more reliable to me but again what do I know lol.

In my mind if I'm home when a fire breaks out or if we have an earthquake I just grab the external drive(s) and run for the door. But yeah I have to be home to do that. I back up my work accounting files to Google drive but right now everything else is just being backed up to the external drive.

I have pretty much moved on from the NAS. It is still running on the network but I only have one pc looking at it right now. Then it started beeping and flashing again. It is happening more frequently. Probably a hdd starting to fail. I'll look for the logs.

antspants · Feb 9, 2025

sdtag said:
or if it is a standard best practice to back up to a shared external hdd

Yes, it is.

kelper · Feb 9, 2025

Making or restoring a full disk image with Hasleo (free) or Macrium (paid) is so quick that whenever I have Windows problems, I just do a restore. It takes less time than making a cup of tea.

If your NAS ever fails you could probably open it up, remove the drive(s) and access them locally. The problem could be with the NAS's own software. I backup ono an external SSD but that got corrupted somehow. So most stuff is backed up to two or three places. Storage is so cheaptoday it is worth having a few external devices. A modern USB SSD is tiny and fast.

cereberus · Feb 9, 2025

sdtag said:
I have a few computers on a small home network. I have 4 desktops, a couple of laptops, an Asustor NAS, multiple tablets and cell phones, IP cameras and POE switches and an NVR, and a bunch of IOT devices. I average about 50 devices on my little home network. I segmented out the IOT devices and IP cameras using VLAN’s. Netgear all the way baby! No TP Link here lol

I have always backed up my 4 desktops to the NAS. I just read somewhere best common practice is to not use a NAS as your only backup device. I read that a NAS is a storage device not a backup device. I did have a backup to the backup, but I just changed my backup strategy. Obviously, I am self taught networking so bear with me please.

My NAS has been acting a little inconsistently lately and I have been thinking about this for a while now. It will start beeping and flashing red LED’s and not be available on the network. I pull the plug to reboot it and it comes back to life every time so far. But what if it doesn’t come back to life one time?

Now I created a backup mini pc on my home network sharing an external drive. I use Free File sync batch files and I scheduled them to run using Windows Task Scheduler on each computer every night. Comparing 2 folders then syncing them. One folder in the pc to be backed up comparing to a folder in the backup pc.

I am not concerned with disk imaging or making a Windows backup. I figure if something catastrophic happens I will reinstall Windows anyway. So I am only backing up my data.

I really like that I am just copying files. I can see each individual file for myself in the backup pc. That gives me some comfort for some reason. Old School.

Am I safe more or less? I think this is a good backup strategy but what do I know. I wanted to bounce this off you guys and get your opinion. Flame on!

Everybody's backup strategy has to be devised to suit them but the most important thing is data redundancy.

Critical data should be backed up to at least two separate places, preferably with one of the places being offsite.

I backup up critical data to a second internal hard drive, to a usb external drive, and also to onedrive.

Bear in mind, a lot of data is not that critical.

In the end, you need to categorise you data accordingly.

My own categories are:

1) critical (data I cannot lose - would be a disaster) - backed up (frequently) to 3 locations as above

2) important (data that would be a pain to lose but not a disaster) - backed up (fairly frequently - daily) to usb external drive and internal hard drive (sometimes to onedrive)
3) routine (data that I could lose without any serious impact) - backed up (less frequently - maybe weekly to monthly) to internal hard drive only

Actually, over 80% of my data falls into the routine category (mostly pdf files, videos etc) so I only back that up periodically (say two or three monthly)

Of course one could just backup everything to multiple places but is really data hoarding, and needs lots of storage space.

The crucial point is everbody's needs differ and each person should work a strategy that suits them. For example, a lawyer may have lots of confidential data that is critical.

So to really answer your question "Am I safe more or less? I think this is a good backup strategy but what do I know?" is actually ONLY you know what suits you. You have to decide if you have adequate redundancy bearing in mind critical data should be backed up to two (or more) separate locations.

However, if you are backing up critical data to only one location, then (in my opinion) that is a weak strategy as backups can fail but the odds of two backup locations failing simultaneously is much lower.

sdtag · Feb 11, 2025

Thank you. You made me think.
I am not backing up to two places.
yet.
Critical data being the key word
I don't like One but I do like Google Drive so I will probably do that.

callisto · Feb 23, 2025

I backup the OS and programs almost daily, so incremental backups are usually under a minute. My important data is never kept on my computer, firstly to keep backups reasonably small interms of volume, and secondly for security.

I use 3 USB SSDs to store my important data, 3 USB SSDs to store my images of the OS and 2 large capacity HDD to store important and less important data. Reinstalling the OS is not practical IMO, too time consuming, a restore of my system would take on average about 5 minutes at the most.

Recently I started using two programs for images of the system, just in case, although I think it is overkill, Windows11 is incredibly stable, and I haven’t experienced any malware detection in the last 15 years...

neves · Feb 23, 2025

antspants said:
You have to be imaging your PC with something like Hasleo (forum tutorial link) or Macrium (In my opinion)

There's still a Beta vibe - to the free version of both Apps. Also, witnessed "their destructive behavior along the years (fortunately, not personally)." Which i find scary for a "back-up app (meant to protect your data - in case something goes wrong... not ending up as the tool who destroys it). Not sure if it was meant to work like that (probably was) - but there's a really risky step in Haselo's design - and the way it makes a back-up - where "an accidental click" could delete the other partitions (back-ing up C:/Windows partition and deleting D:/Warehouse partition (possible even with last version - tested it). For the sake of long term reliability (earned reputation) - would recommend something like Veeam Agent - which btw, it's slower (yet solid) - and limited to one back-up job. But that's enough for a system image (+ their bootable recovery media). While paired with FreeFileSync - as you recomended (to cover all the other back-up needs). FreeFileSync is pretty solid for what it's meant (or at least - i'm not familiar with things go wrong).

kelper · Feb 23, 2025

Neither Macrium nor Hasleo will delete any partitions during a backup. You must mean during a restore. That can only happen if you ignore the warnings!
It is up to you to take a bit of time and learn how to use these apps without clicking away with no thought. Neither Hasleo nor Macrium Reflect is in beta unless you search out a special download. Macrium free has beenn around since 2006 (version 2.1). It is regularly updated. Beta versions were not widely available and you had to be using a then-current version and had to apply. So, I refute what you say.

ShamrockRig · Feb 23, 2025

I'd hate to use most of you're pc's . Are they all covered in tin foil and held in a vault at a secret off grid location, Be a nightmare to use these pc', More but less security than a government black site its so ott

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