I used to have a NAS, but because other applications that were the reason for getting it in the first place have become obsolete I went back to local infrastructure. However, the principle behing my backup is still pretty much similar, following the 321 rule:
3 rotating (sets of) backup media
2 at home (with one being "online")
1 stored in a remote location.
The computer (DELL mobile workstation) has 4 physical drives (all SSD, data drives are encrypted):
- System and application software
- Job data
- Private data (other than photography-related
- Private data (photography-related only)
System and application software backup is done via OS functionality (regular creation of Windows system images for HDD1 only)
Backup media are two older and smaller external HDD's, because these backups are not so big, do not require version management on file level and are not done so often (usually only prior to major OS updates and after major application software installation changes). The third backup media is a little M.2-SSD in a case (just a little bigger than a USB stick) and is always sitting in my ofice backpack. This allows me to recover the last state of the system drive even when travelling.
Data drive backup (HDD 2 to 4) is done using a USB3-dock for SATA-HDD's that is connected to one of the fast ports of the docking station of the PC.
Backup media are three SATA-HDD's with 4TB each providing about 1,5 times the spaces of the data drives to have the space for keeping older file versions and thus allow emergency rollback on file level. The three HDD's rotate on a weekly to bi-weekly basis:
+---> USB-Dock @ PC ----> Remote storage @ girlfriend ----> Local storage @ desk drawer ---->
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The software I use is a very flexible and powerful open source software called
FreeFileSync. It is set up wih one backup task per data drive, so that I can do a partial backup of just one of them if needed, but normally I run them all three as required. I do not use scheduled tasks, because the PC is not running all the time and regular changing its workplace (docking station @ home office, docking station @ girlfriend home, mobile use @ client or travelling).
The main reasons for going away from NAS were flexibility and speed.
With the NAS I was dependent on a second system with different OS, file system and using a backup software to create the external backups that is only working on this system.
The external backups of the NAS could not be accessed directly from my PC.
Because my older NAS could only work with a single 1 GBit network connection and I am working with encrypted volumes in the PC as well as in the NAS the backup was pretty time consuming and thus tempted me to leave it aside from time to time if I were in a hurry.
With a fast SATA-HDD sitting in a USB3 dock the backup works 4 to 5 times faster making it a breeze to do spontaneous backup runs during working if I find it necessary.
Considering that you just need three HDD's and this USB dock the overall cost is about 450€ here plus some donation to the people behing FreeFileSync, which is cheap compared with the level of safety it can give you.
However, I must admit that part of the importance of backup for me is that I am a freelancing engineer and need a good backup for my work as well. But after positive experience over the years I would probably continue going this way even if I used a computer purely for private things. Even here you have more and more valuable data these days and life can get pretty complicated if you loose (part of) it.
