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Ask Slashdot: Best On-Site Backup Plan?

An anonymous reader writes "I know most people use backup services in the cloud now, off-site, but does anyone have good ideas on how to best protect data without it leaving the site? I'm a photographer and, I shoot 32GB to 64GB in a couple of hours. I've accumulated about 8TB of images over the past decade and just can't imagine paying to host them somewhere off-site. I don't make enough money as it is. Currently I just redundantly back them up to hard drives in different rooms of my house, but that's a total crapshoot — if there's a fire, I'd be out of luck. Does anyone keep a hard disk or NAS inside a fireproof safe? In a bunker in the cellar? In the detached garage? It's so much data that even doing routine backups bogs the system down for days. I'd love suggestions, especially from gamers or videographers who have TBs of data they need to back up, on what options there are with a limited budget to maximize protection."

3 of 326 comments (clear)

  1. USB Stick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    My preferred way is to copy the data to many different USB sticks. I write a little note with my name and address on it, slip the that and the stick into a bottle and pitch it into the ocean. Data is safe from fires and most other natural disasters. Best of all, people around the world contact me (we even become FB friends after!) and return the USB with all my data!

    Works like a charm

  2. Re:Offsite != cloud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    And if you don't have any friends, keep one in a bank's safe deposit box. They're usually not that pricey.

    Be careful with that, I store my expensive 200+ pound pull strength rare earth magnets in mine :)

  3. Re:Offsite != cloud by Culture20 · · Score: 5, Funny

    And if you don't have any friends, keep one in a bank's safe deposit box.

    Don't forget to poke holes in the safe deposit box so he can breathe.