Good partition scheme for home network with 1 TB NAS

[loinyui]

Hi guys,

to get to the point, I have a home network in which I have the following drives to be backed-up:

Desktop

- 256 GB SSD/95% max used​

- 1 TB Data Drive/50% max used/20% of that to be backed-up​

Notebook

- 200 GB SATA 2 Drive/70 % max used​

Android Phone

- 16 GB SD Card/95% max used​

NAS Drive (just a router's NAS funtionality that has no stand-alone backup solution)

- 500 GB/80% max used​

So that makes a total of 498 GB of data that has to be backed-up. My Backup Drive is a WD Elements Portable 1 TB External HDD. Is there any good backup strategy here or is it free-for-all? I mean, should I just do ISO's of my drives to the backup-hdd or should I follow a full/incremental/differential pattern? What would you suggest? I don't really want to invest $$$ for a stand-alone NAS system so I have to stick to my routers (FritzBox 7390 btw) built-in functionality.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I wouldn't use ISO or images to backup data. I'd just use ordinary file by file backup.

Images would be OK for operating system partitions.

I wouldn't use incrementals or differentials unless forced to because of lack of space on the backup drive.

I'd have more than one backup target regardless and use them on some type of rotating basis.

 

[MilesAhead]

I never messed around with incremental backup. But I'm told on some software it's faster and/or saves space. This article may be of interest:
(Solved) - Macrium Reflect « How-To Geek Forums

Edit: I agree don't put all your eggs in one basket. I used to have docking stations as well and a couple of external drives. I'd try to have 2 copies of the latest backup. Then a few individual older ones in case there was something bad about both the new backup copies.

 

[loinyui]

So basically you would do a normal full backup every x-days? I think that if I would do a full backup, then I would always keep 2 backups/drive. That almost adds up to the total capacity of the backup drive.

 

[MilesAhead]

I would not rely on one drive. At least not for the system backup image. With Macrium Reflect you can copy the image to another drive. So for example you could buy a docking station and get a WD black bare drive and stick it in the dock. Do your backup. Then make a copy of the NAS drive onto the WD bare drive. Last time I looked WD black 1 TB were less than $100 and the docks around $30 or less for USB 3.0 or you could get USB 2.0 or eSata depending on what hw you have.

I had a plastic stack of drawers I got from Walmart. 6 drawers for about $8. I got some anti-static bags to wrap the bare drive in before putting it in the drawer. That way you can rotate the drive in the dock. Also you can use them for non-critical data like video files or whatnot.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

So basically you would do a normal full backup every x-days? I think that if I would do a full backup, then I would always keep 2 backups/drive. That almost adds up to the total capacity of the backup drive.

I'd backup data daily or maybe more often. But each new run of the backup software adds files created, changed, or deleted since the last time it was run. So data backup is just a mirror of data.

I'd backup operating system partitions less often--depending on how much they change over time. I use monthly, but I don't change my system much. If you were constantly changing stuff, you might make a new image daily or weekly. Each image file occupies perhaps 40 percent of the occupied space on the partition, using Macrium. (80 gig system partition with 32 occupied: the image file takes up about 14 gigs; and takes about 6 minutes to make on my PC).

I back up data to an internal several times a day; to a separate external through a dock every month or so. And I backup my most critical files to a USB thumb drive periodically. So I have a total of 2 hard drives devoted to backup.

 

[loinyui]

OK I guess I will think of a good schedule when a device is consistently turned on and just go with a full backup.