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Ask Slashdot: Simple Way To Backup 24TB of Data Onto USB HDDs ?

Posted by samzenpus on from the save-often dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Hi there ! I'm looking for a simple solution to backup a big data set consisting of files between 3MB and 20GB, for a total of 24TB, onto multiple hard drives (usb, firewire, whatever) I am aware of many backup tools which split the backup onto multiple DVDs with the infamous 'insert disc N and press continue', but I haven't come across one that can do it with external hard drives (insert next USB device...). OS not relevant, but Linux (console) or MacOS (GUI) preferred... Did I miss something or is there no such thing already done, and am I doomed to code it myself ?"

5 of 405 comments (clear)

  1. USB and disk Speed by gagol · · Score: 4, Insightful

    May be your limiting factor here.

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    1. Re:USB and disk Speed by drsmithy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If you can achieve a sustained write speed of 50 megabytes per second, you are in for 140 hours of data transfer. I hope it is not a daily backup!

      I'd be willing to bet his change rate isn't 24TB/day.

  2. Tape? by mwvdlee · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why not tape, backup RAID, SAN or some other dedicated backup hardware solution?
    24TB is well within the range that a professional solution would be required.
    Given a harddisk size of ~1TB, making a single backup to 24 disk isn't a backup; it's throwing data in a garbage can.
    More than likely atleast one of those disks will die before it's time.

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    1. Re:Tape? by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yup. spool to tape. get a SDLT600 tape cabinet and call it done. if you get a 52 tape robot cabinet you will have space to not only hold a complete backup but a second full backup in incrementals that will all run automatically. Plus it has the highest reliability.

      And anyone whining about the cost. If your 24Tb of data is not worth that much then why are you bothering to back it up?

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  3. Re:solution by AvitarX · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is it that much faster for 3mb to 20 gb files?

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