Live data from Hacker News

How I store my files

unixsheikh.com

31–40 of 144 posts

Re: How I store my files

#31
post #12

Can someone point me to the flaws of my method? I simply use Google Drive. Me and my partner have multiple devices (tablet, iPhone, Android phone, multiple Mac and Windows laptops) and we just sync folders to our desktop. We just store everything we don't want to lose in Drive. We share folders we both need. Photo's we take on our phones are automagically backed up in the cloud, music and movies are streamed. My hous…

It should work fine until you get into the territory of having to store multiple terabytes of data, at which point cloud services can get expensive.

Re: How I store my files

#32
I thought most people just get fast internet and let "the cloud" handle it now days ?

Seems like a lot of work to ultimately not do things not as well as army of engineers focused on this problem full time.

Re: How I store my files

#33
post #13

Something tricky is how to bootstrap restoration of backup. If you have lost "everything", how do you get it back? For example, if you use borg to backup remotely via ssh, you will need ssh keys as well as a passphrase for the encrypted backup. Where do you store those to make sure you have them if your computer is gone? What I did was create a self-extracting restoration script, which embedded everything needed. Thi…

For small stuff like this, print it out and put it in a safe deposit box.

This would be the only reason I'd need to pay for a safe deposit box. It might be worth it, just for that, but I haven't made that leap yet.

Re: How I store my files

#34

I also have a ZFS NAS and a separate backup server for the NAS that only gets turned on once a week. I disagree about his recommendation to avoid encryption. I keep the NAS and backup server drives encrypted. It’s not a big deal to unlock the drives at boot with a password and I’ve never had any issues with it. If someone breaks in and steals one of the servers, at least they won’t have access to years of all of my d…

> most people would get burned out by the complexity unless you really like managing servers, automating things with scripts, and navigating the little quirks that pop up with the hardware and software involved. I didn't see the author's stated OS they use for their NAS, but depending on what it is, yes. {Free, True}NAS are dead easy to use as long as you stay inside the confines of the GUI, and hugely reliable. Anyt…

> {Free, True}NAS are dead easy to use as long as you stay inside the confines of the GUI, and hugely reliable.

I’ve used FreeNAS (now TrueNAS). Great at first but eventually I started hit snags and bugs. I still use TrueNAS but I wouldn’t say it’s 100% reliable, especially across upgrades.

> Anything else is no man's land. Running ZoL and you did a routine kernel update? Enjoy your new read-only ZFS pool!

FWIW, I have a separate ZoL server that has been bulletproof, even with frequent upgrades. I did, however, run into a kernel issue with TrueNAS after an upgrade that caused some hardware issues about once a week. My options were either to downgrade to an older TrueNAS until they fixed it (still not fixed) or buy new hardware.

Re: How I store my files

#35
For the past few years, I've created a photo book of the best family pictures from the past year. I store these photobooks in a fireproof safe. I think that's the easiest way to pass down pictures since it's paper doesn't require decryption or passwords.

Re: How I store my files

#36
post #11

Darn, I was hoping this would be an article about organizing one's files. I was really in the mood for reading about that, then spending the rest of the morning reworking my own system.

Same. I get lost in researching everyone else's file organization and other workflow methods. I always feel like mine is a dog's breakfast, scattered across many incongruent, un-coordinated drives, clouds, shares, etc.

Re: How I store my files

#37
post #32

I thought most people just get fast internet and let "the cloud" handle it now days ? Seems like a lot of work to ultimately not do things not as well as army of engineers focused on this problem full time.

Most people do (myself included, I just put everything on Backblaze or Google Drive), it's just that HN isn't most people.

Re: How I store my files

#38
post #35

For the past few years, I've created a photo book of the best family pictures from the past year. I store these photobooks in a fireproof safe. I think that's the easiest way to pass down pictures since it's paper doesn't require decryption or passwords.

This summer I forgot the PIN of my iPad, because I didn’t use it during all summer. And it’s only 6 digits. I had, however, made note of the PIN elsewhere so I was able to unlock it. I have similarly forgotten PINs and passwords in the past that I didn’t use for a while. I recommend unlocking your safe at a regular interval, so that you remember the combination, if it uses a code lock. And even if it’s a key lock it’s probably a good idea to do it too, so you know where the key is.

Re: How I store my files

#40
post #32

I thought most people just get fast internet and let "the cloud" handle it now days ? Seems like a lot of work to ultimately not do things not as well as army of engineers focused on this problem full time.

I took the deep dive into tech trying to fix the 2x cd drive someone gave me for my x86 pc. Part of the passion I have for tech is learning and digging deeper, and reading about topics I haven't learned yet to the point where I get a bit of malaise when I'm not learning something new. I say this as I'm repurposing an old pc to a full time nas and learning about zfs pools. There's always a simpler, faster, more expensive solution out there that takes the complexity out of the equation, but part of the fun is the complexity for me.
Post reply on HN