Home devices and ever increasing Disk Space

[penfold]

I have a bit of an issue that I am not sure the best way to solve. I've made some similar posts about running out of space on the OneDrive storage which is being used to backup my wifes phone photos. I have managed to move the contents from the OneDrive folder onto her laptop and syncing is working from her phone (eventually I will script this as suggested already on here) but this leads to another issue. The space on her laptop is now running low. I have copied the contents to an external NAS, but I really need to review how I am doing things. I also have 2 young kids, 1 of which has a phone and I now see this is going to get more of the same issues if I don't do something about it. What my wife needs to do is manage the space that is on the laptop, but realistically that is not going to happen as everything needs to be kept (and to be fair she takes a stupid amount of pictures). So I was thinking, I can either pay for a yearly subscription for Office365 and use the online storage to increase the space which would solve having to move the files locally. Or I can use a NAS and use this to store things on and map the drive to her laptop but then I still need to back this up.

 

I have a very old HP server which I installed TrueNAS on to play with a few weeks back and it installs. I would need to get another "bigger" HDD and I could then use this as a local NAS. The cost of a new HDD is probably similar to a year subscription, but obviously I would hope it lasts longer. My concern would be the cost of running this old server as a NAS (monitory cost & time). Other considerations are that my computer is also getting old and also full so I either need to delete things or buy another HDD to go into my machine. Ideally I would like a new computer, but for now it is still working and there are other things which are more important.

 

So question is, for those of you who have multiple devices in the house, we have a laptop & computer and also an old laptop which may be re-purposed as my child's laptop to play with (but then they will also probably want to store their photo's on). How do you manage these devices? Do you have a centralized storage location and map it to all devices in the house & then have a backup in place for the content in the NAS. Or are you using any cloud services to backup and allowing pictures to be stored in the cloud and only download locally when needed?

 

Personally I have always been a little reluctant to go down the route of yearly subscriptions for storage as I see this as a never ending process, especially as phones get upgraded and size of images & videos keep getting bigger.

[LeMarchand]

As no-one wants to be the first to be held up for mockery...

 

 

• Phone photos: Primarily just to the provided cloud but also quarterly to external HDD.
  
• Phone other: Primarily the provided facilities as it's mainly just media stored elsewhere, but also quarterly to external HDD.
  
• Android Tablet, "Media" laptop and Windows tablet: Just the provided facilities as only used for media consumption.
  
• Main desktop media: Daily to HTPC.
  
• Main desktop all files: Monthly to external HDD.
  
• Portable Apps/Ventoy/"Scratch" USB: Monthly to spare external M2 duplicate and external HDD.
  
• HTPC non media, wife's laptop files: Quarterly to external HDD (very little change).
  

 

Main desktop, wife's laptop and HTPC also quarterly duplicated using free VEEAM quarterly.

[Chuckster]

I have a Synology NAS at home. On all of the phones, tablets and laptopsI have the Drive app installed that synchronises with the NAS either 1-way or 2-way.

 

I don't like the thought of paying a subscription to host my data on somebody else's computer.

[penfold]

As no-one wants to be the first to be held up for mockery...

 

 

• Phone photos: Primarily just to the provided cloud but also quarterly to external HDD.
  
• Phone other: Primarily the provided facilities as it's mainly just media stored elsewhere, but also quarterly to external HDD.
  
• Android Tablet, "Media" laptop and Windows tablet: Just the provided facilities as only used for media consumption.
  
• Main desktop media: Daily to HTPC.
  
• Main desktop all files: Monthly to external HDD.
  
• Portable Apps/Ventoy/"Scratch" USB: Monthly to spare external M2 duplicate and external HDD.
  
• HTPC non media, wife's laptop files: Quarterly to external HDD (very little change).
  

 

Main desktop, wife's laptop and HTPC also quarterly duplicated using free VEEAM quarterly.

Is this done manually?

 

It sounds like this is something that could easily be forgotten about until it is too late (or at least I know I would). Or you have already identified that the main desktop is the one source where it would be a big loss so other systems you could live?

[penfold]

I have a Synology NAS at home. On all of the phones, tablets and laptopsI have the Drive app installed that synchronises with the NAS either 1-way or 2-way.

 

I don't like the thought of paying a subscription to host my data on somebody else's computer.

 

Is this your backup solution? I guess my issue is how to manage the devices which are very nearly full now. So I would need to move data to a shared location (NAS) and then back this up.

[LeMarchand]

Is this done manually?

It sounds like this is something that could easily be forgotten about until it is too late (or at least I know I would).

 

Yes, I have various alarms set. Last Sunday of the month is "update day": Make sure everything is updated including PortableApps and I use Ketarin to keep my software store up to date and SUMo to check Windows devices. First Sunday is "Backup Day".

 

Or you have already identified that the main desktop is the one source where it would be a big loss so other systems you could live?

 

Basically, yes. The backup disk is in an (admittedly by chance) easy to grab on the way out place. In case of fire it's: Wife, cat, backup disk.

 

Is this your backup solution? I guess my issue is how to manage the devices which are very nearly full now. So I would need to move data to a shared location (NAS) and then back this up.

@Chuckster has inspired me to look at a NAS solution. I'm thinking autosync selected items to the NAS, then a task to delete designated items from the phone but keep them on the NAS. e.g. One way "new" items from phone DCIM to NAS, delete items older than x days/weeks/months from phone but not NAS.

[computer_expert]

Phone photos & videos are synced to a local nextcloud VM.

The nextcloud VM is backed up via Veeam B&R along with a few other VMs and physical boxes to a NAS.

The first NAS is backed up to a second, offline NAS

 

Everything is stored on the first NAS where possible.

 

I do have a tape drive but haven't got round to seeing where that fits in. Yes, this is a home environment and not your local data center!

[penfold]

@Chuckster has inspired me to look at a NAS solution. I'm thinking autosync selected items to the NAS, then a task to delete designated items from the phone but keep them on the NAS. e.g. One way "new" items from phone DCIM to NAS, delete items older than x days/weeks/months from phone but not NAS.

This is what I was thinking originally but due to space being eaten up on other devices (and the likelihood that this will continue to get worse) made me ask this question.

[penfold]

Phone photos & videos are synced to a local nextcloud VM.

The nextcloud VM is backed up via Veeam B&R along with a few other VMs and physical boxes to a NAS.

The first NAS is backed up to a second, offline NAS

 

Everything is stored on the first NAS where possible.

 

I do have a tape drive but haven't got round to seeing where that fits in. Yes, this is a home environment and not your local data center!

 

I was considering something similar. I was just wondering if I was over complicating things. I guess my issue is currently I setup my backups to go to an external drive and I know it could be better. The thing is that now with all the devices we have in the house I am having to do things manually which is a pain. With multiple users & devices and images/videos getting bigger I only see the problem getting worse. I need to setup something that doesn't take much time to setup & manage. Putting in place something that works with all devices and automatically is something I'm looking for ideally.

 

I keep hearing the same thing round and round in my head. Backups are not important until you need them. And it's making me review how I'm storing data in my house

[RobD]

I have a 10 bay qnap ts-1079 pro (9 functioning 1TB disks and 1 broken 1TB disk) I'd quite like to sell if anyone is in the market for one? Its brilliant but I just dont have enough data to warrant it.

[LeMarchand]

I have a 10 bay qnap ts-1079 pro (9 functioning 1TB disks and 1 broken 1TB disk) I'd quite like to sell if anyone is in the market for one? Its brilliant but I just dont have enough data to warrant it.

 

Having recently looked at the prices of 1 and 2 bay machines on eBay and winced, I'm afraid that bad boy is well out of my league!