Need advice on doing a back up through old school methods

[WonderWoman]

Hello,


I have a laptop with a physical 2nd internal HD of 1TB and an old Seagate USB 3TB HD (did I say it was old?) that I am working on a data archiving project for. The drives are getting pretty full especially the 3TB because it is really old and I have been using it over the years to back up info dating back possibly to 2015. I have an online back up account through a company called Degoo where I got a deal through the MUOD (Make Use Of Deals) website that enabled me to get 10TB of storage for a one time (not 1x year - I verified it before signing up) fee of $99 for a lifetime (99 years - yes, I will be long dead by then). I found out after the fact that people have reported that Degoo is notorious for finding a way to detect "copyright" materials that get uploaded and just flat out suddenly cutting people off from their data without warning. I am already knee deep in my project and have been with them for approximately 1 year without issue. That does not mean I am guaranteed to be crystal in the future.

The above being said, I am a tech and well aware that no person or company should ever have ONLY ONE back up source. I don't have money to buy anything right now but my laptop happens to be a 10 yr old machine with a built in optical DVD drive that still works and I also have a ton and a half of discs both DVD and CD that have been gathering mothballs for years so I figure that I might as well go old school and use them.

Here's the parameters size wise of my data.

I have one folder I call "2020 BU" that is 209 GB with 24 sub folders and files in it of various sizes and types
I have another folder called "Google Partition BU May 2019 that is 319 GB (156,585 files and 14,101 folders according to the folder properties) that consists mainly of my music collection. This collection has been amassed over a span of probably 7-10 years from numerous sources some of which cannot be used to recreate the content. I am dubious of putting that content onto the online storage account for fear of tripping off what ever bogus detection software they have. I do however want to get it up there as an emergency BU source but I know I will have to figure a way to encrypt it and such knowledge is not something I know a whole lot about.

My questions are:

What is the sanest way to manage a project like this knowing I cannot afford to purchase any new hardware?
What software might there be that can help me do this archiving? I have the most current Acronis software, can that be used to BU to DVD & CD?
How do I encrypt the folder to upload to my Degoo so they cannot sniff around on it?

All suggestions are appreciated.


Sincerely,

Wonder Woman

 

[Father_of_Dragons]

Too much data to burn onto discs
though I might recommend a new free service that could provide you with 1TB cloud storage for free.
visit https://www.dubox.com

 

[WonderWoman]

Thanks for the suggestion but I already have the 10TB online account and Google offers 15GB free with every free Google/Gmail account........I already have a bunch of those and I'm not looking to scatter my data across multiple small accounts. I got the 10TB account because I already had a paid for Google Drive with 2TB storage but it is costing $9.99 per month which is not giving me what I need and with that being the case it is not worth it to me. In fact going forward I am cleaning that account out to drop the paid account and go only with the free 15GB.

 

[DVDR_Dog]

That may be true but you still need a drive to "keep" projects not in process. My rule of thumb is my "C" drive is fast SSD and it only holds the O/S, cache of current programs, and files in process whatever work may be done on them at a time. It's too easy to junk up a work drive with just finished stuff and interim files. Archiving files off-line is fine but there are stories of accounts being shut down for DMCA content so keep in mind those online clouds aren't always private. 7 zip with a strong p/w is a good insurance policy. When working with video honestly 15 GB isn't really much at all BTW.
I always seem to have some videos that need attention be it TS to mp4 and adding a whole bunch more key frames or messing with audio sync on so-so group releases. But enough of that.

 

[DVDR_Dog]

Hello,


I have a laptop with a physical 2nd internal HD of 1TB and an old Seagate USB 3TB HD (did I say it was old?) that I am working on a data archiving project for. The drives are getting pretty full especially the 3TB because it is really old and I have been using it over the years to back up info dating back possibly to 2015. I have an online back up account through a company called Degoo where I got a deal through the MUOD (Make Use Of Deals) website that enabled me to get 10TB of storage for a one time (not 1x year - I verified it before signing up) fee of $99 for a lifetime (99 years - yes, I will be long dead by then). I found out after the fact that people have reported that Degoo is notorious for finding a way to detect "copyright" materials that get uploaded and just flat out suddenly cutting people off from their data without warning. I am already knee deep in my project and have been with them for approximately 1 year without issue. That does not mean I am guaranteed to be crystal in the future.

The above being said, I am a tech and well aware that no person or company should ever have ONLY ONE back up source. I don't have money to buy anything right now but my laptop happens to be a 10 yr old machine with a built in optical DVD drive that still works and I also have a ton and a half of discs both DVD and CD that have been gathering mothballs for years so I figure that I might as well go old school and use them.

Here's the parameters size wise of my data.

I have one folder I call "2020 BU" that is 209 GB with 24 sub folders and files in it of various sizes and types
I have another folder called "Google Partition BU May 2019 that is 319 GB (156,585 files and 14,101 folders according to the folder properties) that consists mainly of my music collection. This collection has been amassed over a span of probably 7-10 years from numerous sources some of which cannot be used to recreate the content. I am dubious of putting that content onto the online storage account for fear of tripping off what ever bogus detection software they have. I do however want to get it up there as an emergency BU source but I know I will have to figure a way to encrypt it and such knowledge is not something I know a whole lot about.

My questions are:

What is the sanest way to manage a project like this knowing I cannot afford to purchase any new hardware?
What software might there be that can help me do this archiving? I have the most current Acronis software, can that be used to BU to DVD & CD?
How do I encrypt the folder to upload to my Degoo so they cannot sniff around on it?

All suggestions are appreciated.


Sincerely,

Wonder Woman

Burned optical media is not really an option for archiving. The dye is fairly unstable, sensitive to both light and heat. I have been in many debates on large scale archiving. Online is probably the best if you can trust the provider. They usually have beaucoup redundancy and many times in multiple locations. I did mention encoding your data, it's none of anyone else's business what you have uploaded unless they have a subpoena. Personally I have a bunch and I do mean a bunch of USB mag HDs for keeping stuff usually a couple of copies if it's that important. Stay away from SSD. It's been reported that over time unless the memory is refreshed it begins to lose it's charge. I dunno to me a good old conventional HD is the most trustworthy. There are some bad drives out there, since you have been around, who can forget the IBM "deathstar" drives? It seems that some size drives have more problems. I have seen a butt load of 640 and 750 GB drive failures on customers systems for some reason.
Check these stats out:

Hard Drive Test Data

Hard Drive test data from the Backblaze data center. Backblaze is affordable, easy-to-use cloud storage.

www.backblaze.com

Here's something I always warn people, do not trust your laptop drive period. You drop that system or the drive gets too hot or who knows what else, those little 2.5 inchers die and take everything with them.
I have been messing around with NAS with remote access. Unless you want to go thru a huge learning phase get one of those systems already put together. I have some WD cloud systems because they were free for me. There are better systems but the WD stuff works great for me. I went the Ubuntu server route and it's a pain, more like a hobby. I do really make use of the cloud systems and like them a whole bunch. You do more than likely have to figure out port forwarding on your router but hey you learn something.

Maybe Thumper will jump into this thread. Thumper seem to have sorting out and managing files better than anyone else I know. He seems to have a great knowledge of the software packages that automate that task for you too.

 

[WonderWoman]

That may be true but you still need a drive to "keep" projects not in process. My rule of thumb is my "C" drive is fast SSD and it only holds the O/S, cache of current programs, and files in process whatever work may be done on them at a time. It's too easy to junk up a work drive with just finished stuff and interim files. Archiving files off-line is fine but there are stories of accounts being shut down for DMCA content so keep in mind those online clouds aren't always private. 7 zip with a strong p/w is a good insurance policy. When working with video honestly 15 GB isn't really much at all BTW.
I always seem to have some videos that need attention be it TS to mp4 and adding a whole bunch more key frames or messing with audio sync on so-so group releases. But enough of that.

You are correct that 15 GB is not much at all which is why I am looking forward to being done with all of my archiving and being able to clean out that Google drive and get rid of it completely and why I opted for the 10 TB online Degoo account. I was only mentioning the 15 GB google option because I wanted to make the point that I am aware that they were free accounts but the free accounts are small and do not meet my needs.

my next question is when encrypting the folder with my music using seven zip with the folder being as large as it is can that shareware software choke on it? I do not wish to attempt to encrypt the file with something that is simply shareware and may choke and break and leave my files screwed. This is why I am wondering if there is an upper limit to what that type of software can handle encrypting without corrupting.

 

[ThumperTM]

You are correct that 15 GB is not much at all which is why I am looking forward to being done with all of my archiving and being able to clean out that Google drive and get rid of it completely and why I opted for the 10 TB online Degoo account. I was only mentioning the 15 GB google option because I wanted to make the point that I am aware that they were free accounts but the free accounts are small and do not meet my needs.

my next question is when encrypting the folder with my music using seven zip with the folder being as large as it is can that shareware software choke on it? I do not wish to attempt to encrypt the file with something that is simply shareware and may choke and break and leave my files screwed. This is why I am wondering if there is an upper limit to what that type of software can handle encrypting without corrupting.

Hi,

Is NAS affordable for you? If so, checkout some new models of Synology.

Been using Synology last few years and works great.

 

[DVDR_Dog]

Hi,

Is NAS affordable for you? If so, checkout some new models of Synology.

Been using Synology last few years and works great.

If you can afford it.
That's the highest rated hardware right now and has been for a long time.
My WD stuff is the Walmart of NAS but the price was right. A little temperamental but you can make it work with a little patience
I told you Thumper knew a thing or two, maybe more.

 

[DVDR_Dog]

You are correct that 15 GB is not much at all which is why I am looking forward to being done with all of my archiving and being able to clean out that Google drive and get rid of it completely and why I opted for the 10 TB online Degoo account. I was only mentioning the 15 GB google option because I wanted to make the point that I am aware that they were free accounts but the free accounts are small and do not meet my needs.

my next question is when encrypting the folder with my music using seven zip with the folder being as large as it is can that shareware software choke on it? I do not wish to attempt to encrypt the file with something that is simply shareware and may choke and break and leave my files screwed. This is why I am wondering if there is an upper limit to what that type of software can handle encrypting without corrupting.

That's the beauty of 7 zip, just break the archive into blocks of a sensible size. Don't forget to use Quickpar to insure the integrity of the files should they loose a few bits or so in transport.