Trixology
WeatherCat => WeatherCat General Discussion => Topic started by: elagache on January 13, 2016, 12:59:49 AM
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Dear WeatherCat users,
It occurred to me that I've just assumed that most WeatherCat users were running Time Machine since it is relatively simple to use. Well, that is an assumption and perhaps isn't so obvious for people with Macs dedicated to running WeatherCat. I'm curious to know how many WeatherCat users have some sort of backup for the Mac that WeatherCat runs on and if so what sort of backup.
Please add any additional comments in this thread . . . .
Curious minds want to know! . . . . (http://www.canebas.org/WeatherCat/Forum_support_documents/Custom_emoticons/thinking_idea.gif)
Cheers, Edouard [cheers1]
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No choices for me.
I have a Mac Mini 2011 running OS X El Capitan server which handles my WeatherCat, iTunes, Apple TV and Xcode. I use an Apple Time Capsule for backup in which I replaced the drive with a mirrored setup and used the original drive in my NewerTech ministack as my home folder. I then have a 6TB RAID 5 system which holds my iTunes and Movie library.
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Running the Cat on a dedicated 2008 iMac, modified with a 256GB SSD, newly installed. Actually it is the same HD as was in a 2011 iMac that I was previously using WeatherCat with as a non-dedicated system.
The backup is Time Machine to an external Firewire drive. Unit is also protected from power outages by a TrippLite UPS.
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WeatherCat is running on a MacMini that I also use for TV and audio, i.e. my TV is my computer screen, a huge surround amplifier takes care of the audio and a comfy sofa is my office chair. [tup]
I use Time Machine to take backup to a Synology NAS, that host all TMs and storage for my, all in total, three Macs.
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I have a dedicated iMac and use Time Machine with Time Capsule, but I also use SuperDuper! to clone my entire drive several times a week to an external SSD. It offers a bit more peace of mind and being able to boot from the clone drive makes it so much quicker and easier should the need arise.
Alan
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"Back up the Mac?!" I know how to rotate he screen image, but I didn't know they could back up! :o I did move the dedicated mini back a bit the other day. I just pushed gently on the front of it. [goofy]
Seriously, I got a nice check for Christmas that will cover the cost of a dedicated drive for a TM backup. I may partition it to provide space for a CarbonCopyCloner back up, also. I've used those methods as well as SD and have yet to ever use the clones. TM, OTOH, has saved my rear too many times to count! With WC changing files so rapidly, I don't want to take a chance on losing all the data between the cloning type backups. With TM, I'd only lose an hours worth.
Question for Stu (and "senior" WC users): Is it safe to assume that the ~/Library/WeatherCatData/Location/2014(as an example) could be deleted without problems? I'm a long way from having two year old data, but I'm wondering if most folks use data that old in their PWS's.
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I use a retired iMac (Early 2009) running 24/7 for WeatherCat and for my well-monitoring software. The iMac uses an external hard drive for Time Machine backup. The iMac is also my WeatherCat server for iOS and tvOS clients. It's connected to a Tripp Lite G1000U UPS which will keep it running during brief outages.
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Dedicated Mac mini, backup on external HD with TimeMachine. In addition to that all 10 to 14 days a (handmade, not automated) SuperDuper backup on an external HD, too.
Cheers,
Reinhard
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Saving my pounds sterling for a dedicated Mac mini, but in the meantime, running WC on my main iMac, backing up with Time Machine onto a Time Capsule.
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Mine is running on a 2011 iMac backed up with time machine to a external 1 trig HD
cheers
[cheers1]
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I run WC on an aging Mac Pro (2009). I have an internal 256gb SSD and a 1tb internal HD - both are backed up to an internal 2tb drive by Time machine.
I am probably going to purchase a new computer this fiscal (2016) for my photography business, and at that point the Mac Pro would become used for my weather/telescope (i.e."non-business") stuff and it would also serve as a networked backup.
Bill
http://www.billcurry.ca/weather
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There isn't a poll option for me.
My iMac is my general use machine.
I have a 3 TB Time Capsule which houses my Time Machine backup
I have a 3 TB external drive that I use for a full bootable daily Carbon Copy Cloner backup
I have a 3 TB external drive that I use for a full bootable weekly Carbon Copy Cloner backup
I have an online Cubby account that I use to backup most of my files except apps, movies, music, and photos
I have an online Microsoft OneDrive account that I use to backup photos
I have an online SmugMug account that I use to backup photos.
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Dear WeatherCat conservative sys-admins,
Have you noticed that thus far nobody is running a WeatherCat installation without a backup - I like that! [tup]
Cheers, Edouard [cheers1]
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+1 Edouard. In this day in age, with terabytes so cheap per gig, there is no reason to lose wedding, child birth, birthday photos because of hard drive failure. Losing Wx data is one thing, losing the pictures of your child's 3rd birthday is catastrophic.
I'm with Steve, I don't fit the mold of the poll.
All my data sits on an external ThunderBolt Raid (http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Thunderbolt/External-Drive/OWC/ThunderBay-4?_ga=1.25088510.577226610.1447867218), which also holds my Time Machine volume.
The Raid and iMac are cloned each night via Carbon Copy Cloner to an external drive (a cheap bare drive (http://eshop.macsales.com/Search/Search.cfm?N=100444+4294933117&Ntk=Primary&Ns=P_Price%7C0&Ne=5000&Ntt=toshiba) sitting in a Voyager Dock (http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/NewerTech/Voyager/Hard_Drive_Dock)).
Once a week, I rotate out the Voyager backup drive to an offsite location (my mom's safe a few miles away), and every few months, rotate another one to my mailbox half a world away in Hong Kong (EMP protection. Ha!). I have five backup drives that fit in the Voyager dock, and rotate them through about one drive per week. You never want just one backup drive because a glitch could kill both the source and the clone at once.
Also each night, via Carbon Copy Cloner (I love that program) I SFTP a clone of all data changes to a drive connected to my Mom's iMac, just in case there is a flood/fire/theft at my house before I can rotate out my backup drive.
The best approach is a multi-pronged one:
Time Machine for incremental backups | Clone for quick, full data replacement | Off-site backup when the house burns down
Too much reliance on any one single prong will leave you in a world of hurt. Example: Cloud only backup is fine until you have to restore at 5 MB/s second, or a Time Machine drive that died in the flood next to your iMac.
Do you have a buddy or relative that lives nearby? Use their guest room closet to rotate out a backup drive (encrypted if they aren't that good a friend). Better yet, use CCC to FTP data to a volume connected to a family or friend's computer, and offer the same for them. Cloud backup companies are fine, but these are much cheap options.
Remember:
*Time Machine is great for finding a mistakenly deleted file, but for full hard drive replacement, it's a real pain.
*For full hard drive replacement due to failure/theft/fire nothing beats having a full bootable clone.
*Time Machine and full clones sitting by the computer are not a good backup.
*Always have off-site backups, or the next theft/fire/flood will leave you with a trail of tears.
*Raid is not a backup
*Raid is not a backup
*Raid is not a backup
(Raid is for fault tolerance)
Folks, drives are cheap, your data is priceless.
All the best,
dfw
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Steve and DFW:
Thanks for the detailed information and comments about going beyond Time Machine.
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I happened onto a Seagate FireWire "dock/adaptor" for their Flex (I think) series. It's really nothing more than a base unit (housing the FireWire chip set) and the SATA female plugs. There are some tabs that hold the Flex drives a bit, but any 3.5" SATA drive fits vertically on the adaptor. I have some Basswood shims and some duct tape (to match the room d?cor) and a metal piece out of an old enclosure fastened to the drive to help with heat dissipation. I got the "design" from <Red Green (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8WnKkJI3sM)>. May have to find some more duct tape, I don't think Seegate makes this adaptor any more...
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Steve, DFW and all BackerUppers:
I am interested in how you backup other computers in your home? We've got two iMacs and a MacBook Air. Obviously they are all backed up with Time Machine onto the same drive external drive, but those of you that are using Carbon Copy Cloner (or something similar), are you sharing a networked external drive with other machines or are you using separate drives for each computer so it is bootable for that specific machine?
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Steve, DFW and all BackerUppers:
I am interested in how you backup other computers in your home? We've got two iMacs and a MacBook Air. Obviously they are all backed up with Time Machine onto the same drive external drive, but those of you that are using Carbon Copy Cloner (or something similar), are you sharing a networked external drive with other machines or are you using separate drives for each computer so it is bootable for that specific machine?
I do a separate monthly backup in addition to the automatic Time Machine backup. I use SuperDuper to make a bootable backup of my computer onto a pocket-sized external hard drive like the WD My Passport. I have three of these drives that I only use for the SuperDuper backup and rotate them monthly.
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Steve, DFW and all BackerUppers:
I am interested in how you backup other computers in your home? We've got two iMacs and a MacBook Air. Obviously they are all backed up with Time Machine onto the same drive external drive, but those of you that are using Carbon Copy Cloner (or something similar), are you sharing a networked external drive with other machines or are you using separate drives for each computer so it is bootable for that specific machine?
Our two MBPs get backed up to the same 3 TB Time Capsule, and when our daughter is home from college, hers is too. The same two MBPs get backed up to CCC daily, sharing two partitions on a 2 TB external drive. These are not bootable, just copied files. Also, my MBP sorta clones itself with much of my iMac's files via Cubby. Whichever device writes to a file last becomes the Cubby backup. Usually, that's the iMac.
While at college, my daughter's MacBook gets backed up to four 64 GB USB sticks we bought before she went. Once a week, she copies her latest documents folders over to one of the sticks and rotates through three of them. The fourth has most of the rest of the files. She really should be rotating through them every day, but ya can't tell a kid anything. Just wait until she loses a big assignment... ;)
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ya can't tell a kid anything
Sometimes it's the 'old goats' that won't listen! [lol]
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Combination of Time Machine backing up multiple networked Macs (including the Mini which runs WeatherCat) to a single large RAID 1 drive coupled with SuperDuper making a once/night bootable backup of the most critical computer in the house (a Pro -- financials, business, photos, etc.) to a separate drive.
Then once a month or so to provide some measure of protection against the house burning down or other catastrophic loss, I copy all the applicable User files from each computer onto a set of three rotating portable drives which are stored offsite in my bank lockbox.
I'll be performing that task today based upon the following WeatherUnderground advisory: "A Winter storm is increasingly likely to develop into a major snowstorm across parts of the East later this week and weekend. In addition to snow, ice and strong winds may lead to power outages and treacherous travel, while coastal flooding could impact some of the shoreline. If that wasn?t enough, some or all of the largest cities in the Northeast - Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston - could be significantly impacted by this storm with heavy snow and strong winds, bringing travel to a grinding halt, between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning."
The day of reckoning is nearly upon us...months ago the Farmer's Almanac pontificated that our region would see one of the five largest recorded snowstorms on record this winter while the local "professional" meteorologists pooh-poohed that forecast and said it wouldn't be cold enough for snow; rather, we'd see rain. Well, we had single digit temps yesterday morning and the daytime highs through the weekend are not expected to climb above freezing. Now if I didn't have to clear snow from the sidewalks and a long driveway, I'd be rooting for the Farmer's Almanac prediction.
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Steve, DFW and all BackerUppers:
Are you sharing a networked external drive with other machines or are you using separate drives for each computer so it is bootable for that specific machine?
The answer is neither. Multiple backup drives, i.e. one for each Mac gets messy, hard to determine the most recent backup, hard to rotate out new drives, and gets to be enough of a chore to stay on top of, that they never get rotated or managed properly. My motto is "automatic and easy" or it won't get accomplished regularly and long term. Secondly, networked drives, when used with any backup software, including CCC, are not bootable. OS X requires a direct attached storage for a backup to be bootable. This is the major Achilles heel in using Time Machine as the only backup. When a hard drive or ssd fails, I don't want to be back up and running 15 hours after a Time Machine restore, I want to boot from the good backup and be back up and running in 2 minutes. In the next two minutes I'll be looking to install the cold spare drive I have in my desk drawer (one for the computer and one for the RAID).
So the answer is explained in the CCC article here (https://bombich.com/kb/ccc4/using-carbon-copy-cloner-back-up-another-macintosh-on-your-network). It looks daunting, but takes just a few minutes to set up if you are familiar with networking. Essentially, you CAN get a bootable backup via a networked Mac by using remote login instead of a "networked" shared volume. CCC is smart enough to log into the remote Mac, make its backup (bootable) and then log out. This is the best way I've seen to properly backup multiple Macs, and, get offsite backups, all done automatically. When things are easy and automatically done, they are out of sight, out of mind, and most importantly, they get done. An e-mail will alert you if a backup ever fails.
One other distinction: Volume vs Drive. A drive is the physical disk. A volume is a partition. Bootable backups need to be on a single volume whereas data backups can simply be in folders. A best practice is to keep your system files on one volume (OS X) and your data on a second volume. That way, when you install a new version of OS X and it all goes pear-shaped, you haven't a worry about your data being corrupted. An example from my own system is to have a small, internal 120gig SSD that OS X is installed on, and my 16 terabyte Thunderbolt Raid holds all my data. The two never come in contact, and for good reason: updates, installs, and reinstalls are done without worry of OS X trying to mess up my data files (photos, documents, etc).
To back up a family of Macs, for example, two iMacs and two MacBooks, grab a $35 Voyager dock (http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/NewerTech/Voyager/Hard_Drive_Dock) and plug it into one of the Macs, preferably your "master" or server station in your office. After assessing how much data you have on all the Macs, buy a suitably large bare hard drive (http://eshop.macsales.com/Search/Search.cfm?N=100444+4294933117&Ntk=Primary&Ns=P_Price%7C0&Ne=5000&Ntt=toshiba), remembering to size your data, not your hard drive total capacity. If, for example, you have a terabyte of data between all the Macs in the house, buy three(3) two-terabyte drives. Three because you need to rotate and or have one off-site. For rotating backups, it's very wise for the drives and volumes on them to be identical so swapping out doesn't cause problems.
Maybe your main workstation iMac has the OS and data separated and the other three computers are for homework and play, meaning you would need five backup volumes (Main iMac: one volume for the OS and one volume for the data; iMac two, and MacBook three and four each getting one volume for backup). Therefore, take all three backup disks and create five volumes on them: iMac1OS | iMac1Data | iMac2 | MacBook1 | MacBook2, in sizes you think are best. Use the steps in the linked CCC article above to setup CCC on each computer to backup to the Volumes you just created. I set my machines to wake at 2:00 am and run each night. Once all three 2-terabyte drives are the same, with backups on each, put one in your desk drawer, leave one in the Voyager, and take one off-site, to a safe-deposit box, or a friend or neighbor's place. For extra credit, you can get a second Voyager and connect it and your third drive to a Mac at your friend or relative's house and the remote backup will happen over the internet, saving you the hassle of needing to rotate the drive to their location. I envision a situation where Steve's daughter could easily backup to his home backup disk even when she is at school. You could send your backups anywhere on the internet . . .
Finally (whew!) once a week, take the drive out of your desk and plug it in, and put the hot backup into your desk. That way, incase of drive failure, you aren't too far out of backup. This whole process sounds complicated, but really, in less than the thirty minutes it took me to type this (I type so slowly I have to speed up to stop) you could have setup CCC to do all of this. I used to be a SuperDuper! fan until I realized CCC would do all the remote login stuff that just blows SuperDuper! away. I hope this helps!
All the best,
dfw
P.S. For even more extra credit, read everything Lloyd Chambers has to say on the subject of CCC, Raid, backup strategies, and overall best practices (http://macperformanceguide.com/index_topics.html).
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For some dang reason, this forum only alerts me of new replies about 50% of the time, even though "Notify me of replies" is always checked.
Oh well. Sorry I'm late in my response. Or, depending on how one looks at it: sorry, I saw there was a new post here and had to make a looong post :)
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Wow @DFW_pilot That was extremely useful and helpful information. Thank you so much! I'm going to read through the articles and re-read your post and see what I can do to improve my backup options.
I've long read to just put the OS on one volume and data on another, but have never put this into practice. With your setup, all of your data is on external drives. I have USB2 and Firewire 800 external drives, and always assumed they would be slow to respond compared to the internal drive.
And being able have my daughter log in to remotely backup is something I'll set up soon!
Thanks again,
Steve
[EDIT] Just a quick scan, and I see a problem for remote access; I don't have a fixed IP address... I know there are methods for getting around this, but my limited understanding of networking doesn't allow this to sink into my addled head.
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For some dang reason, this forum only alerts me of new replies about 50% of the time, even though "Notify me of replies" is always checked.
I think that's because it doesn't use CCC. :P
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Just a quick scan, and I see a problem for remote access; I don't have a fixed IP address... I know there are methods for getting around this, but my limited understanding of networking doesn't allow this to sink into my addled head.
Remote access to non-static IP addresses is another topic, but is very simple.
Most IP's don't really change that often; either on cable modem restart (mine doesn't) or every few weeks, however there are always exceptions. The easiest solution is to use a service for a few bucks a year. I use NoIP (http://www.noip.com/remote-access) because it's cheaper than Dyn (http://dyn.com/remote-access/), but either way, there are lots of affordable and even free options for services. Once you have an account, install their daemon that runs in the background and updates the DNS servers with your IP changes. I own my own domain name for this so I pay a bit more, but there are free options, like weather-geek.noip.com as an example. Once the dynamic updater and daemon are installed on your mac and the remote mac and they are both signed into your account, setup is finished.
Now, your home router address is the domain you chose, for screen sharing, viewing your IP cameras remotely, web hosting (careful!), logging into your DVR, access to your smart sprinkler controller, SFTP'ing into your WXCat web files with Transmit (https://panic.com/transmit/), hosting your own "cloud" file sharing, and using a home server, is all now a piece of cake. Now that I think about it, because I travel so much, I'd be lost if I couldn't connect to my home computer while away. I view my toddlers with LiveCamsPro (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/live-cams-pro/id428145132?mt=8) with our IP Cameras (http://foscam.us/products.html/) while I travel and couldn't think of ever being without remote access again. Here's the thing: many of these services are available at a cost, like "gotomypc" or web cams that can be viewed remotely. However, if you add up all the costs of all those services, it will be way more than the costs of getting a static IP name and having access to all your various services.
Port forwarding is necessary too, but that's probably something you all are familiar with. Just one word of caution/advice: don't use the standard ports. There isn't much security though obscurity, but every little bit helps. To remote login, the port is 22. I don't remote into my computers via port 22 because all sorts of evil is trolling the internet looking for open port 22's to try an hack into. (Everyone is using Diceware (http://world.std.com/~reinhold/diceware.html) | 1Password (https://agilebits.com/onepassword) style passwords for all your accounts, right?) Forward a random port to port 22 via Port Forwarding to limit the amount of external login attempts. Ex: mydomain.com:2552 forwards to port 22. I don't use 5900 for screen sharing, I forward a higher port like 5999 down to 5900 so my screensharing would look like: vnc.mydomain.com:5999 and my router points that to 5900. You can easily tell CCC to use a different port than 22 if you have forwarded a higher port like I have.
Finally, with your computer and a remote computer, they need different addresses. For example, when my dad died, I setup screen sharing with my mom's computer. With her computer using the same NoIP account, it can't also be accessed via: www.mydomain.com:5999 because that's my computer's address. So for the remote, you add an A Record in your updating service, like NoIP. I called mine: mom. I screen share with her computer with: mom.mydomain.com:5999 because the www is my house. So, to sum all this up, to send my backups to her remote computer where I have a backup drive connected, CCC uses: mom.mydomain.com:2555 with her router set to forward port 2555 to port 22 on her network. Just make sure every device on the network has a static LAN IP, done via the router, so that each device has its own, unchanging internal IP address, otherwise your port forwarding won't work. I'm so pedantic, even our iPhones receive static IP's when on our home network!
Again, this all sounds so complex, but it doesn't take long to get setup and if you mess up, you can usually figure out your mistake pretty quickly. DNS changes do take a while though. WeatherCat is moving up the list, fast, but the apps I just can't I just can't live without while traveling are: LiveCamsPro, Transmit, Transmit iOS, and OS X Screen Sharing.
P.S. Back on the backup topic, I have an amateur tip: I keep all my custom web files on my Dropbox folder and point WXCat there. That way, I have a very robust backup of those files, plus Time Machine and CCC, plus Dropbox's 30 day file retrieval, plus even easier remote access to them anywhere in the world.
All the best,
dfw
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I've long read to just put the OS on one volume and data on another, but have never put this into practice. With your setup, all of your data is on external drives. I have USB2 and Firewire 800 external drives, and always assumed they would be slow to respond compared to the internal drive.
With the OS on an internal SSD, most of the lag of having data externally connected via FW 800 isn't too noticeable. I used to have a FW800 Raid that had some lag, but it wasn't so bad that I wished all my data was internal. I don't recommend USB2 for external data storage, but once you go to USB3 or TB, it will be so fast you won't be able to tell.
BTW, you can always get a 1 TB SSD (http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Mercury_6G/) and partition it into two volumes, a 100 gb volume for the OS and an 900 gb volume for your data and you'd be in a really good place. The only difference is that your risk of drive failure isn't spread over multiple drives, like with an external raid.
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Thanks again, @DFW_Pilot
I have a mid-2011 iMac, so USB2 and FW800 is as fast as I have available. And there's no way I'm gonna try to open it up to swap in an SSB. That would guarantee something would break! :)
I do have a no-ip account that is attached to my two networked web cameras. Each have their own managed host connecting directly to them per the very detailed camera instructions for using them via an Apple Airport. That's why I got this particular camera, because I certainly didn't understand most of what I was doing. :)
So I'll read and re-read your above post and see what I can glean from it. Thank you very much for the very detailed information and instructions!
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That's strange ... I have a mid-2011 iMac and it has Thunderbolt. I also watched a few of these videos (http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/) and made the change to SSD in about an hour. I agree that its not for the faint of heart by any stretch. I was nervous! Save the SSD PCIe stuff for the next Mac and you'll be all set.
Sorry for all the MacSales links. I don't work there, I promise! It's just that as a Mac owner, they are one of the few I trust completely. Go off the reservation on "cheaper" stuff and you are on your own.
With a NoIP account, you are 90% on your way!
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That's strange ... I have a mid-2011 iMac and it has Thunderbolt. I also watched a few of these videos (http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/) and made the change to SSD in about an hour. I agree that its not for the faint of heart by any stretch. I was nervous! Save the SSD PCIe stuff for the next Mac and you'll be all set.
Sorry for all the MacSales links. I don't work there, I promise! It's just that as a Mac owner, they are one of the few I trust completely. Go off the reservation on "cheaper" stuff and you are on your own.
With a NoIP account, you are 90% on your way!
Well, whadda ya know!
(http://www.morrisgarage.com/skitch/IMG_2163.JPG-20160123-151708.jpg)
The mind's a terrible thing to waste. In the five years since I bought it, I guess I forgot what was back there. Seeing as all I had in the way of external drives at the time were FW 400 and FW 800, I conveniently forgot I had anything faster. I haven't needed to buy a new drive since. Sorry for the confusion. Thanks to X-air for the link to the Apple data page. Mine is a 27", so it has two of those ports I thought I didn't have...
And no problem on the MacSales link. When we find good reliable vendors, we like to share.
Maybe if I try to fix mine, I can break it and get a 27" 5K Retina machine! ::evilgrin::
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I'd also recommend some more colorful cables. The mice and/or cats get pretty bored with all black! Believe me, you do not want a bored cat! It only encourages more 'investigations'! :o
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The day of reckoning is nearly upon us...months ago the Farmer's Almanac pontificated that our region would see one of the five largest recorded snowstorms on record this winter while the local "professional" meteorologists pooh-poohed that forecast and said it wouldn't be cold enough for snow; rather, we'd see rain. Well, we had single digit temps yesterday morning and the daytime highs through the weekend are not expected to climb above freezing. Now if I didn't have to clear snow from the sidewalks and a long driveway, I'd be rooting for the Farmer's Almanac prediction.
Well, looks like the old Farmer's Almanac had the last say. Today from the Washington Post, "A blizzard that will be remembered for generations as one of the biggest storms in the region?s history closed its 36-hour reign in a wind-whipped fury that caused whiteouts deep into Saturday night."
I ended up with 27.3 inches of snow (2.46 inches of melted precip) over two days. This will be one I won't forget for a long time. I don't know what people without snow blowers will do...they'll be shoveling out for the next week. Even my Honda two-stage blower had all it could handle with the deep drifts. The blade on the front of my Kubota was ineffective, there simply was no place to push the snow to.
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I just want to report that after reading this thread, I started working towards an improved backup strategy. I saved my pennies and then basically followed the guidelines outlined here by dfw_pilot. In addition to Time Machine I am now cloning the entire HD from each of my three Macs to an external HD daily and rotating the external drive weekly. Once a month, one of my three external HDs makes the trip off the mountain to a fire proof safe at my daughter's house. The hardware didn't cost too much (~US$330) and the software (Carbon Copy Cloner) is extremely easy to use.
Thanks to all of you who contributed to the thread. A special thanks to dfw_pilot who graciously provided great tech support and encouragement from Hong Kong and various other places.
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I have my data saved to an external drive and using Crashplan. yeah it is over kill, but it backs up my data as well. The wife is a writer and I have it on her computer as well. Used to use Mozy, but eh.. save your data. Burn it on CDS one it is gone, it bye bye cmu:-)
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Same method for both my main Mac and the mini (running WC): A weekly rotatable, daily CCC backup and an hourly Time Machine backup. The mini's externals are 2TB drives, the iMac uses a 2TB for CCC and a 4TB for TM. All drives are Western Digital Blacks. All six 2TB drives bought at the same time. One (for my iMac, of course) crashed, WD replaced it (under warranty) with the 4TB. The rotatable drives 'live' in OWC Voyager 'enclosures' for easy of swapping. The TM drives are in OWC fan cooled miniStacks. All enclosures use FW. The mini and its externals run 24/7/365. The iMac runs from 7am till 10:30pm. The iMacs externals are turned off when the machine shuts down and back on when it wakes up, their power is controlled by the Mac via the UPS.
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Glad it worked out, Blicj11!!
dfw
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Just a note to say that the excellent Carbon Copy Cloner (https://bombich.com) version 5 beta has been released, and it is sweet. It will be paid upgrade from version four, and I think it's worth every penny, even after the 30-day free trial.
Make sure to make backups of all your data!
dfw
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Thanks for the heads up. I will be upgrading.
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"RAID is not a backup"
I disagree with that. My RAID system has served me well over the years. My iTunes is over 1.9TB, yes terabytes. I run 4 2TB mirrors under RAID 5, which gives me 6TB of total storage. Over the years, I have gone through several drive failures, power jabs, lightning, etc. and I have not lost one 'bit' of data and I always have a fresh 2TB mirror standing by. I have an offsite 4TB RAID 0 backup of my Primary RAID, but the problem with that is updating and maintenance. I'm probably a couple years behind.
And "Fault Tolerance". Isn't that what backups are really all about?
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TechnoMonkey,
RAID is not a backup. It is for fault tolerance.
RAID is used to protect data from drive and system failure, but think of it like this: If all your data was on RAID boxes, and all those boxes were in one room, and the room burned to the ground, did you have a good backup? An other example is a RAID mirror. Deleting something off one mirror, removes it from the other mirror. That isn't backup either, it is just for fault tolerance.
Yes, I keep my backups on RAID, but it isn't a good backup strategy, it's a fault tolerance strategy to keep things running in the event of failures. That might sound semantic, but you can do much more reading about it from Lloyd Chambers here (https://macperformanceguide.com/Storage-RAID-compared.html). Or read his entire RAID info here (https://macperformanceguide.com/topics/topic-RAID.html). It's fantastic reading.
dfw
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And "Fault Tolerance". Isn't that what backups are really all about?
I would encourage you and others to read those links I posted. They really are cool, lol! RAID was developed to help prevent data loss during drive failure, and it works really well for that purpose. Many people sleep with false security, however, thinking that they are backed up because they have a RAID enclosure or two. Off-site backup is important. Having a "history" of backup is even more important. Example: I upgrade my software to the newest version of macOS. Then I update all the copies on my RAID "backups" to what I have on my computer. Am I backed up? No way. What if there is a problem with the software and I need to revert to a backup? If all my RAID enclosures have the same update on them, I can't get back to what I had before.
Time machine is a backup with history. Time Machine on a RAID is a backup with history, that will tolerate a drive failure (or two). RAID itself isn't a backup, it's a tool to be used in a backup strategy, that includes multiple backups, and off-site backup. Cheers,
dfw
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I use the time machine for backing up my OS and Home folder. My system is broken into four parts. OS on the Mac Mini primary drive, Home folder on a firewire drive, time machine on the ethernet port and the RAID is on the USB port. As I only use the RAID to deliver my music and video, USB is fast enough.
The Mac is connected to the network via Airport, but since upgrading to macOS Sierra, I may have to re-evaluate my setup or return to Snow Leopard again. For some reason, Sierra is unable to maintain an Airport connection for more than a couple of hours. My Weathercat uploads suffer because of that. Never had a problem with 10.6-7-8-9-10 or 11.
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getting off-topic...
How is your Airport connected to the web?
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Netgear WNDR4500 running DD-WRT is connected to the internet and hardwired to a (2nd) Time Capsule. The Mac is wirelessly (sometimes) connected to the (2nd) Timec Capsule.
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OK, how is the Netgear WNDR4500 connected to the web?
What I'm trying to determine is if the Airport is getting just a WIFI connection and to exactly what. It sounds like the Airport is connected to the Netgear box only by WIFI. Is that correct?
I'm assuming the Netgear box is connected to the web via Ethernet to whatever your web service provider rents to you. Does the Netgear box have an Ethernet output that he Airport could use?
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I just use the NetGear as a router (as WiFi goes, netgear, d-link and linksys have all shown themselves to be short-lived as WiFi points.). It is connected to the web via Ethernet and connected to the (2nd) Time capsule via Ethernet. The (2nd) Time capsule serves the household and the Mac Mini. Only the Mac drops out. 2-3 times a day, at least.
Web ->Ethernet-> NetGear ->Ethernet-> (2nd) Time capsule ->WiFi-> Mac and everything else.
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Web ->Ethernet-> NetGear ->Ethernet-> (2nd) Time capsule ->WiFi-> Mac and everything else.
And exactly where is the Airport in that chain? And how is it connected upstream?
The Airport never had a great antenna setup, IMHO. Of course, even Apple "products" wear out. How old is the Airport?
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Mac Mini 2011 built in Airport
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Mac Mini 2011 built in Airport
OK, a slight semantic issue. Thanks to Apple, the "Airport" I am referring to is the hardware/WIFI router that Apple sells, not the WIFI capabilities that is in their computers. The built-in hardware is better referred to simply as WIFI (or wifi), it's pretty generic, not much different than in any other computer. In earlier hardware, it actually was a separate plug-in card, thus it picked up the "Airport" name; just marketing, IMHO.
So, the only Wifi modem/router is the one from Netgear and it is wired directly to your cable (or satellite/DSL) modem. Since you probably don't have another wifi router sitting around it will be fairly hard to determine the exact cause of the drop outs.
Wifi is not the most stable of communications protocols, being affected by radio interference from everything from microwave ovens to black helicopters flying by! :o Pity the owner of a plaster walled home; all that metal mesh makes a good Faraday cage! [banghead]
I don't suppose there is another Ethernet out from the Netgear or the Time Capsule that could connect the Mac? On the other hand, even Ethernet switches are inexpensive and they can provide at least 4 or 5 outputs for the smallest ones. Wires are still faster than wifi (unless you have the latest) and don't have the radio interference problems. Of course, it's sometimes hard to find an invisible path for the wire from one room to another.