On 7/16/2026 at 12:08 AM, kingstonkid said:

I Have had 2 instances where back uphas not worked properly due to the external filling.

I also have enough to fill a 5tb and not have room for anything else or able to update the folders ont eh drive.

Is a NAS better or should i bite the bullet and by a larger passport.

Also what programs are you using for daily back up

Thanks

One of the best features of a NAS is its RAID capability. A straightforward setup using RAID 1 or RAID 5 can provide solid data protection. If one drive fails, your data remains safe. However, it's important to note that this protection does not guard against catastrophic events like a house fire.

On 7/18/2026 at 10:03 AM, Thaibeach said:

I'd say that prices doubling for the same 8TB drive from 2023 qualifies as crazy expensive.

I couldn't buy a 10TB hd in 2023 for 7,000bht.

Bought a 1TB Samsung 870 Evo for 3,100bht today, is that more expensive than in 2023? A Crucial 500gb SSD cost me 2,000bht in 2020, so that doesn't compare too bad.

On 7/19/2026 at 2:13 PM, KhunHeineken said:

That sort of data is a hell of a lot more important than movies, which can be downloaded at any time.

We all accumulate data, over decades. Some more than others.

Sure, for some, USB sticks would have enough storage, but there would have to be two USB sticks, in two different locations, just to have a basic form of back up.

It's IT / electronics. You get what you pay for. I invested in a Synology NAS with some decent HDD's. Barring fire, flood, theft etc, it's a solid back up solution, and makes up part of my 3, 2, 1.

What if the NAS breaks?

12 hours ago, unblocktheplanet said:

Well, yeah. The problem comes with organising them and sharing them in person as a family event.

"Look at your granddaughter" on a mobile phone has no feeling to it.

Mum's nehs arte long lost but the photos have not degraded since 1880! Of course, the Polaroids aso are not as resilient as glass plates.

But this conundrum has made me simply not take photos anymore. I now only recall the feelings I had from the memories.

I'm not sure if that's sad or not.

I have aging relatives, and when back in my home country, I've put digital photos up on the big flat panel smart TV. They love that technology.

Some years ago, I gave the gift of a digital photo album that I loaded up with some photos from past to present that scrolled. That was well appreciated.

When chatting with old or new friends here and conversations come up about the cars or bikes we used to own, out comes the phones to see photos of our former pride and joys.

All my photos are in appropriately named folders, and reasonably easy for me to find. I occasionally view some and reminisce, even send a few to friends via email in surprise "remember this" emails.

You should take photos. You can always delete them later. Better to have a photo and delete later, than not having one and wishing you did.

11 hours ago, BritManToo said:

What if the NAS breaks?

If the CPU dies, the data is still on the HDD's.

If the NAS has multiple HDD's, as mine has, it has a feature called parity. Don't ask me how it works, but it's amazing technology.

Basically, all the data is spread across all the HDD's, but if one HDD dies (breaks) you load a new HDD and all the data is rebuilt and you have lost nothing. This leads me to think more than one copy is stored on different HDD's, but don't quote me on this.

Plenty on the internet about it.

1 minute ago, KhunHeineken said:

If the CPU dies, the data is still on the HDD's.

If the NAS has multiple HDD's, as mine has, it has a feature called parity. Don't ask me how it works, but it's amazing technology.

Basically, all the data is spread across all the HDD's, but if one HDD dies (breaks) you load a new HDD and all the data is rebuilt and you have lost nothing. This leads me to think more than one copy is stored on different HDD's, but don't quote me on this.

Plenty on the internet about it.

You can't really access a RAID array without the NAS, taking the HDDs out doesn't provide you with data you can use. You'd need a new NAS identical to the old NAS to recover any data.

I played with RAID, it's easy to lose everything with a minor problem.

Which is why I use multiple standalone USB HD backups.

When you say 'plenty of info on the internet' that suggests to me you haven't tried it yourself. I've tried RAID and encryption on HDs, all have serious problems that aren't apparent to non-users.

Edited July 21Jul 21 by BritManToo

31 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

You can't really access a RAID array without the NAS, taking the HDDs out doesn't provide you with data you can use. You'd need a new NAS identical to the old NAS to recover any data.

I played with RAID, it's easy to lose everything with a minor problem.

Which is why I use multiple standalone USB HD backups.

When you say 'plenty of info on the internet' that suggests to me you haven't tried it yourself. I've tried RAID and encryption on HDs, all have serious problems that aren't apparent to non-users.

I also have multiple SSD back ups.

My NAS, or a HDD in it, has never failed since purchase, some years ago. Synology 4 Bay, Seagate Ironwolf Pro HDD drives.

I also have an old desktop computer set up on a WiFi power switch that I can control remotely. The same data is held on an SSD in that PC, and there is also a HDD in that PC that holds the same data.

Then, to be paranoid about it, I have an SSD attached to the router at that location.

If the NAS dies, I have the PC and / or the SSD and HDD in it. If the PC dies, I have the NAS. If both die, I have the SSD attached to the router. I just VPN into the router.

So, at that location, I have four storage devices for data back up.

I have my computer and two SSD's here as back ups at the second location.

I have a cloud subscription. I contacted the cloud company and they stated all my data would not be held in just one data center, so should that data center burn to the ground, they still have my data in a similar fashion to parity.

Yes, the PC shuts down incorrectly, but I've never had a problem.

So, you are somewhat correct, I haven't tried it swapping out a HDD to test RAID / Parity, but with 4 Bays, I think I should be good.

Likewise, because my Synology NAS has never failed, I have no experience of buying a new one and data loss. I would be surprised if the Synology company didn't have some type of compatibility between models, but happy to learn more if you know.

Here's a youtube video from the first page of a Google search.

21 hours ago, unblocktheplanet said:

If you get this figured out, please let us know. Sounds promising.

I use nextcloud - what is there to figure out?

Do you have something that runs docker?

6 hours ago, recom273 said:

I use nextcloud - what is there to figure out?

Do you have something that runs docker?

I had a quick look at their website. The amount of storage and cost didn't jump out at me. How much is it? Where is the data stored?

2 hours ago, KhunHeineken said:

I had a quick look at their website. The amount of storage and cost didn't jump out at me. How much is it? Where is the data stored?

It's just a self hosted model, you could set it up on a vps.

Its evolved into a business software suite, but I guess you could use the document storage - I use it as an alternative to dropbox - it keeps all my documents on may phone that I might need at immigration or at a police stop. There is a messenger, a photo app, office suite, I think libra software comes part of the bundle. I think its not bad, but not really backup, and a bit of overkill if you just want a dropbox replacement.

I think you can set it up on a Synology, if thats what you have, its a little complicated, you need to understand mysql database - but plenty of tutorials out there.

Edited Tuesday at 02:32 PM5 days by recom273

I have been using Openmediavault

https://www.openmediavault.org/

with Snapraid as an alternative raid solution as it suited my situation very well

the big plusses for me being not having to format the disks that were already full of data and allowing different sized disks...mix and match files systems too NTFS,EXT4,FAT no problem

https://www.snapraid.it/faq

Other advantages over traditional RAID5/6 solutions include:

• All your data is hashed to ensure data integrity and prevent silent corruption.

• If too many disks fail to allow recovery, you lose data only on the failed disks; data on other disks remains safe.

• If you accidentally delete files on a disk, you can recover them.

• You can start with already filled disks.

• Disks can have different sizes.

• You can add disks at any time.

• It does not lock in your data. You can stop using SnapRAID at any time without needing to reformat or move data.

• To access a file, only a single disk needs to spin, saving power and reducing noise.

• You can have up to six parity levels, compared to one for RAID5 and two for RAID6.

RAID has advantages, such as better speed due to data striping. The best choice depends on your specific use case.

On 7/21/2026 at 11:42 AM, BritManToo said:

You can't really access a RAID array without the NAS, taking the HDDs out doesn't provide you with data you can use. You'd need a new NAS identical to the old NAS to recover any data.

I played with RAID, it's easy to lose everything with a minor problem.

Which is why I use multiple standalone USB HD backups.

When you say 'plenty of info on the internet' that suggests to me you haven't tried it yourself. I've tried RAID and encryption on HDs, all have serious problems that aren't apparent to non-users.

Had a synology and every time the ”updated” their software it would break lots of stuff. Wrote my own, encrypted, portable, raid. Travel carry an encrypted backup of the whole thing on a single disk and update the NAS when you get back to it if you've changed anything.. I have 3 or 4 NAS's in multiple countries. Works great.

23 hours ago, recom273 said:

It's just a self hosted model, you could set it up on a vps.

Its evolved into a business software suite, but I guess you could use the document storage - I use it as an alternative to dropbox - it keeps all my documents on may phone that I might need at immigration or at a police stop. There is a messenger, a photo app, office suite, I think libra software comes part of the bundle. I think its not bad, but not really backup, and a bit of overkill if you just want a dropbox replacement.

I think you can set it up on a Synology, if thats what you have, its a little complicated, you need to understand mysql database - but plenty of tutorials out there.

I'm a little confused.

It's self hosted, so the data is kept at one's house, which is where a PC, laptop, NAS, SSD, phone, USB sticks etc are also kept. So, in the event of flood, fire, theft etc, you lose the lot.

Dropbox is cloud storage.

Why would I put Nextclould on my Synology NAS when the HAS itself does everything Nextcloud does?

I suppose my question is, how does Nextcloud fit in to the 3, 2, 1 principle of backing up data?

On 7/18/2026 at 10:03 AM, Thaibeach said:

array, you need 2 disks and a NAS device/Pi/something. 8TB Ironwolf disks are currently $450USD per. And that RAID1 array nets you 50% capacity, so that's 8TBof storage with 2x8TB drives installed. Not even close to enough for me, but might work for OP, but that's still >$1000USD and comes with a learning curve and maintenance requirements.

10TB Seagate drives are 7,000bht.

With 3 year warranty Inc data recovery.

24 minutes ago, KhunHeineken said:

I'm a little confused.

It's self hosted, so the data is kept at one's house, which is where a PC, laptop, NAS, SSD, phone, USB sticks etc are also kept. So, in the event of flood, fire, theft etc, you lose the lot.

Dropbox is cloud storage.

Why would I put Nextclould on my Synology NAS when the HAS itself does everything Nextcloud does?

I suppose my question is, how does Nextcloud fit in to the 3, 2, 1 principle of backing up data?

It's self hosted, you keep your own info private and not in the cloud. If it's something that doesn't interest you then, don't dwell on it.

You can rent a VPS and run it on that.

Like I said, it's a suite of self hosted apps, plugins that use the nextcloud framework, its cloud storage, photo collection, a messenger - if you dont want your messages logged, collaborative work, office apps if you dont want to use Microsoft, etc.

I just simply replied to a user who said it looked interesting, it is.

There will be a backup plugin, so you can backup your data to multiple locations should you wish.

5 hours ago, johng said:

I have been using Openmediavault

https://www.openmediavault.org/

with Snapraid as an alternative raid solution as it suited my situation very well

the big plusses for me being not having to format the disks that were already full of data and allowing different sized disks...mix and match files systems too NTFS,EXT4,FAT no problem

https://www.snapraid.it/faq

Other advantages over traditional RAID5/6 solutions include:

• All your data is hashed to ensure data integrity and prevent silent corruption.

  DataManagement

• If too many disks fail to allow recovery, you lose data only on the failed disks; data on other disks remains safe.

• If you accidentally delete files on a disk, you can recover them.

• You can start with already filled disks.

• Disks can have different sizes.

• You can add disks at any time.

• It does not lock in your data. You can stop using SnapRAID at any time without needing to reformat or move data.

• To access a file, only a single disk needs to spin, saving power and reducing noise.

• You can have up to six parity levels, compared to one for RAID5 and two for RAID6.

RAID has advantages, such as better speed due to data striping. The best choice depends on your specific use case.

I tried OMV - it seemed too fragile, not enough community. I settled on unraid a long time ago, it's not so appealing now it's subscription based, but I have two servers. How long have you used OMV for?

11 hours ago, recom273 said:

How long have you used OMV for?

I've been using it for 3 years ..the community seems ok I have found answers to all the problems I've had..

The only time I had a problem with the actual OMV server was when I let root drive fill up

and the server became unresponsive, HTTP admin page would not allow login..lucky I had enabled SSH so got in there and deleted some of the orphaned torrent files dooh !! ☠️

10 minutes ago, johng said:

I've been using it for 3 years ..the community seems ok I have found answers to all the problems I've had..

The only time I had a problem with the actual OMV server was when I let root drive fill up

and the server became unresponsive, HTTP admin page would not allow login..lucky I had enabled SSH so got in there and deleted some of the orphaned torrent files dooh !! ☠️

That's great! - I tried it 5+ years ago, it was kind of glitchy, and I didnt quite trust the developer to continue - it seems to have lost its presence on YouTube these days, truenas is always mentioned. It has all the right attributes, snapraid, the idea you can mix and match drives - just like unraid - and it's free!