Archive BU strategy??

[Frank Zwolinski]

Hello All,

I would like to hear how others back up their files, all the files-reunion, pictures, documents etc, for permanent off-site storage I am using two external drives and alternating them to an off-site location. My biggest problem is that my material is all over my computer hard drive and therefore it is tricky to find all the information each time I back up. I would like to see what other folks are doing, where they store things on their computer and any other tips you would like to share. If you are interested in discussing away from the list, I can be reached at fzwolinski@santarosa.edu

As always that you folks for your excellent ideas.

Frank

[kmgenealogy]

Re: Archive BU strategy??

Hello All,

I would like to hear how others back up their files, all the files-reunion, pictures, documents etc, for permanent off-site storage <snip>

I have just recently started using BackBlaze.com to do a cloud backup. Good rating by MacWorld.com and some others. If you pay monthly (like I'm doing right now) it's $5/month for unlimited storage. If you do the annual or 2year payment, it comes out less per month. They backup everything except applications (figure you can always reload them) and some files...can't remember which ones for sure. The initial backup of my iMac's over 400GB (including 11,000 images on iPhoto) took several days, almost all of the 15-day trial period, but now they only backup new items. They also backup any externals (except Time Machine) connected to your computer. Take a look at the website.

Hope this is helpful,
Kaye

[Bob White]

Re: Archive BU strategy??

Daily routine: Time Machine
Several times monthly: Copy of entire Reunion Files folder to USB stick (Note: That is everything as all media and photos live in said folder. I do not connect to iPhoto.)
When I think of it: Switch USB stick with one at daughter's home (my casual off-site storage)!
Once or twice a month: Stick USB stick in MacBook and copy entire Reunion Files into same.

I figure, in case of "disaster," I wouldn't have recreate more than a few weeks works at worst.

Note: iPad and iPhone versions automatically backup into iCloud.

[donworth]

Re: Archive BU strategy??

I have an external 2TB drive that I use for Time Machine backups of my 500GB internal HD. It also has a few things that are very large and I don't keep on my internal drive (but that are backed up on other media - DVDs etc.) - home movies of my daughter when she was a child, for example. I have another 500GB drive (the one I replaced when I upgraded my laptop drive to a SSD) with a complete image of my internal HD off-site at my sister-in-law's home. I figure I will refresh that every 6 months or so.

The stuff I really can't afford to lose is on Taiyo Yuden archive quality data DVDs stored off-site as well. Some of those are older backups, but often the stuff I care about most doesn't change that much over time.

For family history, photos, etc. I've scanned just about everything I have and burned data DVDs and have been sending them to various members of my extended family - usually in other states and even other countries. I have most of the originals I scanned in boxes in the garage. My scanning project was to create a backup strategy for that stuff - but I'm certainly not going to get rid of the originals! So I have them to fall back on too.

Finally, my TNG family web site has the vast majority of the original photos of the family (albeit scaled down a bit for web presentation) and, of course, all the data and source references. That's on a server in Chicago and my ISP keeps it backed up. So, worst case I can FTP a lot of what I have back from there also.

Don

EDIT: Oh yeah, and I submitted my full GED file to the LDS church, so they have all my data, sources and family stories stored and available online.

[Reiner L. Sauer]

Re: Archive BU strategy??

Hello All,

I would like to hear how others back up their files, all the files-reunion, pictures, documents etc, for permanent off-site storage I am using two external drives and alternating them to an off-site location. My biggest problem is that my material is all over my computer hard drive and therefore it is tricky to find all the information each time I back up. I would like to see what other folks are doing, where they store things on their computer and any other tips you would like to share. If you are interested in discussing away from the list, I can be reached at fzwolinski@santarosa.edu

As always that you folks for your excellent ideas.

Frank

Hello Frank,

I'm using CrashPlan, along with a secure cloud storage (suitable to small to medium-sized businesses with EU-compliance i.e. data is not stored on US servers). The data is fully encrypted and cannot be viewed or retrieved by anybody else. My entire MacBook Pro (500 GB SSD, 1 TB HD both are about 70% utilized) is permanently backed up over an internet connection (everything i.e. OS, software, data, configurations). CrashPlan works in the background and does not need to be started by me; it's fully automatic and requires no manual scheduling. It doesn't matter whether I'm home, or away from home. Every change to my data is incrementally backed up, provided there's an internet connection. Due to a sophisticated compression algorithm, the service uses less than 1TB at a cost of about 15 Euro per month.
In addition to the above, I use TimeMachine.

Regards
Reiner

[John M. Leggett]

Re: Archive BU strategy??

Hello All,

I would like to hear how others back up their files, all the files-reunion, pictures, documents etc, for permanent off-site storage ... My biggest problem is that my material is all over my computer hard drive and therefore it is tricky to find all the information each time I back up.

You have assessed your situation rather well: "My biggest problem is that my material is all over my computer hard drive..."

It is almost impossible to fully and completely backup files stored in such a manner except as part of a full hard drive backup.

On the other hand, if you were to create a new folder (or partition your drive) and put into it everything related to Reunion (or Genealogy) then backing up that folder or partition would accomplish what you want to do with a few clicks.

[Tom Robinson]

Re: Archive BU strategy??

I would like to hear how others back up their files, all the files-reunion, pictures, documents etc, for permanent off-site storage I am using two external drives and alternating them to an off-site location. My biggest problem is that my material is all over my computer hard drive and therefore it is tricky to find all the information each time I back up. I would like to see what other folks are doing, where they store things on their computer and any other tips you would like to share.

I have 3 destinations configured in Time Machine: one is a Time Capsule in our house which is backed up to hourly. The other 2 are external drives which live offsite. Every week the alternate one will come home, be updated, then taken offsite again.

Time Machine in Mountain Lion will automatically rotate its backups between available disks.

All 3 drives are big enough to store the entire contents of the computer, so nothing to think about. If something happened to my computer and TC the most I'd lose would be a week's work. If something happened while an offsite backup was at home, I could lose 2 week's work.

If you can afford it, a drive big enough for everything without thinking about it, really is the way to go.

I store all my Family History in one (computer) folder, which is mentioned in my will--makes it easy for someone else to copy the lot should the worst happen.

If we lived in a country which didn't have really high ISP charges I'd seriously consider a cloud backup solution, just for the convenience.

[donworth]

Re: Archive BU strategy??

Doesn't Apple recommend a Time Machine drive that is 3x the size of the drive you are backing up? Thought I read that somewhere...

[Frank Zwolinski]

Re: Archive BU strategy?? MORE!!!

You have assessed your situation rather well: "My biggest problem is that my material is all over my computer hard drive..."

It is almost impossible to fully and completely backup files stored in such a manner except as part of a full hard drive backup.

On the other hand, if you were to create a new folder (or partition your drive) and put into it everything related to Reunion (or Genealogy) then backing up that folder or partition would accomplish what you want to do with a few clicks.

Hi John, and thanks to everybody for all the effort and excellent advice. Well, I guess I need to put it all together as suggested. NOW the challenge!! Pardon my ignorance but I do not know how to "partition a hard drive" and I thought that all the parts of the Reunion program and pictures had to stay where the original installation put them. Can I simply just move EVERYTHING I have to one folder?? Is it really that simple? I also have my earlier versions with all notes and related files on my MacBook Pro and sometimes go back to check things. Can they all go in that same folder?

One LAST question, how do folks deal with family stories, written and recorded? Do you store them on your computer also?

Again, pardon my ignorance and I appreciate all your advice.

My best,
Frank

[donworth]

Re: Archive BU strategy??

Frank,

I use the Notes field associated with a person to write a little narrative bio for them incorporating the stories about them. I use a convention to put RESEARCH: after the narrative and put raw notes there. Then when I paste up my family books, I delete away the stuff after RESEARCH and keep the narrative. Example below:

http://www.bishir.org/gen/getperson.php?personID=I1024&tree=carleybisher

A lot of the stories I have I got from interviews with elderly relatives. I have a few tape recordings I kept of my grandparents from the 1970s in digitized audio, but mostly I have transcription notes on sheets of notebook paper which I have scanned and I keep those on my hard drive. However, the "good parts" have already been incorporated into the NOTES in the database. (All except for the stuff that might be embarrassing or libelous!)

Don

[Frank Zwolinski]

Re: Archive BU strategy??

Then when I paste up my family books

Don,

Thank you, that is helpful, however always brings up another question. What do you mean by the above. AND, does one go about converting their tape recordings to the computer?
Remember, I said I was ignorant about much of this this!!

Thanks again,
Frank

[donworth]

Re: Archive BU strategy??

For the books, I use Adobe InDesign on my Mac to lay out the pages. I start with a Register Report out of Reunion for the text and then insert zillions of photos using InDesign. You could do the same thing with Apple's Pages or even with Microsoft WORD. Then I export the whole thing as a PDF file which I upload to www.lulu.com (which is a print on demand service). We did a book on my wife's mother's family a couple of years ago here:

http://www.bishir.org/lee

You can see some of the pages if you follow one of the links to Lulu and click on the preview link.

For tape recordings, get a cable from Radio Shack that connects the output of your tape recorder (usually a mini stereo plug) to the microphone or line-in jack on your computer (usually also a mini stereo plug). I then use a free application called Audacity to "listen" to what I'm playing into the line-in jack from the tape recorder and digitize it into a file. You can get it here:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net

[Frank Zwolinski]

Re: Archive BU strategy??

WOW Don,

Great book!! And much to absorb.
Thank you for the information.
Would you send me a contact email address that I can use to pick you brain a bit more off line.

Thanks,
Frank

[Nick]

Re: Archive BU strategy??

Time Capsule. Then data copied quarterly to a DVD and archived - also in gedcom format. I also use Dropbox since I access my data in three different places.

[Frank Zwolinski]

Re: Archive BU strategy??

You have assessed your situation rather well: "My biggest problem is that my material is all over my computer hard drive..."

It is almost impossible to fully and completely backup files stored in such a manner except as part of a full hard drive backup.

On the other hand, if you were to create a new folder (or partition your drive) and put into it everything related to Reunion (or Genealogy) then backing up that folder or partition would accomplish what you want to do with a few clicks.

John, You are SO RIGHT!! I am getting into doing that now. I was a bit concerned about what I could and could not move but after talking to Leister, I now have a plan. Thanks!

Frank