[ubuntu-uk] External hard disks and backup strategies

[Mac]

Robert McWilliam wrote:
< big snip>
> I think NAS is extra complication (and cost) for not much advantage
> unless you want to use it for sharing the files or are using a laptop
> and want the backup to happen wirelessly, or have some other reason
> beyond backups.

I'd agree with this.  On my home system I back up to both NAS and to 
USB.  As Robert rightly says, I used the NAS as a shared 
(cross-platform) drive, so it was available for backup too, and that's 
why I used it, not because it was easy!  On the contrary, samba was not 
reliable, and cifs was difficult to get working (permissions are an 
inherent problem, it seems).

So if you just want to use the drives for backup, I'd go for USB as 
being the simplest option.  (And a couple of USBs has the other 
advantage Robert mentions in his post - the possibility, if you wish, of 
off-site storage.  I carry some important backup data with me, on a 
little 100Gb Seagate portable USB drive)

As a home user, I tried several GUI-based back-up apps.  I did not find 
one that did what it promised in all departments.  I eventually went 
back to rsync, which, once you've got it set up - perhaps with a script 
- just works.  (BTW, rsync still gives me errors when trying to sync 
ownership and permissions to the shared FAT32 NAS, which is another 
reason for keeping things simple with USB if you can.)

NAS is great for what it's for - sharing storage space and data on a 
network.  But it's less less than wonderful for Ubuntu backups.  As I 
say, if you just want backup storage, I'd recommend sticking to USB drives.

FWIW, that's my two-pen'orth.  HTH

Mac