Have you suddenly had external hard drive(s) crash with loss of data

[Bazza]

Hi all

This was an experience i had whilst on early Covid watch, when two external hard drive suddenly stopped working, both about three years old. Three year warranties were with WD who said sadly they are over the period by month (no surprise there) but then remembered i have been paying a monthly subscription of about £1.50 to outfit in USA called "Backblaze" who have been backing up my data on the web (RAW files) for many years and unlike Amazon, Google and Dropbox they have no limits on file size or quantity.

Checked back online and found the missing files which i arranged to have downloaded (but would take months using broadband upload speeds) so they suggested i arrange to have the data transferred onto a max. 7 TB disc and they would ship over to me in UK. Option to either keep disc or use return plan.

I was sceptical about costs and import/export costs but figured i had to take a chance as local UK repairs / getting retrieved data (about 4TB) would cost in excess of £200.00 with no guarantees

The shipment arrived by Fedex - they suggested if i download the data from their disc onto my own i could return hard drive and obtain a full refund (too good to be true)

I took the chance and today found the refund in my bank equalling £180.00 which was cost of shipment from US with 4tb HD that's now been returned, with only import duties to be reclaimed from Fedex.

Total cost of reclaiming the £26.00 for shipment by Fedex back to USA assuming i can claim the import charge of £27.00.

Thought this was something everyone should be of interest unless you have already purchased a Raid or similar backup systems.

Please contact me if any info needed

Cheers
Barrie

[Chris Sawyer]

It all sounds pretty horrendous Barrie.  I remember you mentioning the "Backblaze" backup that came to your rescue.

I am currently having fun (or otherwise) with my backups.  I haven't lost anything but I am trying to set up a reliable backup workflow.  I thought everything was running smoothly until last week when I checked my free AOMEI software and the backups packed-up in 11/2019 and I couldn't find my earlier backups on the software. I have now backed up my files again and am talking to AOMEI about the earlier backups.  I don't need them, but I want to find out what went wrong.

Just to let you know that you are not alone with back-up angst!

[Bazza]

Yep real stressful - I have time machine Backup but that’s focused on main hard drive and not external which are too large anyway.

Other than Raw files their were thousands of jpgs with family photos which were more valuable.

4tb of data is a lot and can’t be downloaded via any remote means, forgot to mention one other cost was the new 4tb HD costing a competitive £92.00 From Amazon

[Richard W]

Bazza

As a Mac user I strongly suggest you download and instal Carbon Copy Cloner. It is so easy to set up and once done just leave it run. I back-up all external drives using it. You can actually go as far as just selecting individual folders within folders if you wish.
Once set up it only backs up new files/folders etc, very quick and runs in the background.

The guy who wrote it is so helpful if you have any problems, try it mate, peace of mind and all that.

It is not avail to Windows users

[Bazza]

I will investigate further, does it actually back up the original file and hold on cloud ?

Sent from my iPad

On 6 Jun 2020, at 13:41, Richard W [via Orpington Photographic Society Forum] <ml+[hidden email]> wrote:

Bazza

As a Mac user I strongly suggest you download and instal Carbon Copy Cloner. It is so easy to set up and once done just leave it run. I back-up all external drives using it. You can actually go as far as just selecting individual folders within folders if you wish.
Once set up it only backs up new files/folders etc, very quick and runs in the background.

The guy who wrote it is so helpful if you have any problems, try it mate, peace of mind and all that.

It is not avail to Windows users

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[Richard W]

No matey, it is not a cloud based thing. I have several external HDDs storing photos and data etc. Two of this are used as Time Machine back-ups of the iMac. The others are then configured to backup each other AND one of the time machines. Mine is so configured that the total loss of any drive is covered by the others.
At £33 it is well worth it or you can have 30 free trial

[Bazza]

Sounds like your own mini Raid setup, will try for 30 days but at mo Backblaze has done its job

[Fay]

Barry, which of your  services do you use of Backblaze?

How do you keep personal information, passwords, account numbers etc etc safe?

Fay

[Bazza]

Hi ya Fay, my choice of back up is called Backblaze for which I have been using for five years + and very satisfied with service and support.

Like most services it’s a little complex to set up but once done it just keeps rolling and saving all original files ( raw and jpg plus tiff every day) have a view of website then contact me to discuss further

https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup.html#af3249

Speak later