Cheapest way to back up a *lot* of data?

Comments

• roofuskit@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  How much of that 50 terabytes is media downloaded from the Internet? Because the cheapest way would be to trust that it’s already backed up on the Internet and then use one of the usual services like B2 by Backblaze or Storagebox by Hetzner to back the rest of it up.

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  • i_stole_ur_taco@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    This is a good compromise. When I was tight on backup space, I just had a “backup” script that ran nightly and wrote all the media file names to a text file and pushed that to my backup.

    It would mean tons of redownloading if my storage array failed, but it was preferable to spending hundreds of dollars I didn’t have on new hardware.

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    • roofuskit@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      If you back up the modern day Arrs databases then it’s essentially the same thing and already built into the software that will redownload them for you. That’s my solution. I backup my backups of those, of my home assistant, my Immich library, my Nextcloud, etc… Pirated media is, for the most part, out there backed up on several places already.

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    • fibojoly@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      If you tested whether those files had healthy seeds on the Net, that would actually be a pretty cool idea. But I have some rather rare Linux ISOs that definitely don’t get seeded anymore so those I would want to not lose and actually backup.

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  • morto@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    But… can we trust that we will have stuff available on the internet in the future?

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    • BootLoop@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      All my TV shows and movies, I don’t bother. But my 150gb mp3 library I keep backed up because it’s much smaller and I know some of that stuff is not readily available online.

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    • bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Exactly. Regimes want to kill this as fast as they can to milk us of every penny witghr their shitty services. I dont trust any sites will stay up.

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    • kumi@feddit.online ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      You can replicate and do regukar monitoring that backups are still accessible.

      If one goes down you hopefully have time to figure out a replacment before the other(s) do.

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  • RamRabbit@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Yeah, if 90% of that is movies/shows, then you really don’t need a backup of that as you can always re-download it.

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  • irmadlad@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Because the cheapest way would be to trust that it’s already backed up on the Internet

    That’s a shit load of downloading. LOL wow!

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    • roofuskit@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I have 56TB of storage and the majority of that is definitely downloaded media. They call us data hoarders for a reason.

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  • Inkstainthebat@pawb.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    It’s kinda complicated because a good chunk of that is data that is technically redownloadable, but has been tweaked (most of my movies are a multiplexed high-res eng version merged with audio from lower-res dub.) Either way, thank you for the suggestions

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    • roofuskit@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I suggest making a script that uses existing software to extract the dubbed audio and then backing that up and l leaving the high quality video to the Web to backup.

      I know it’s less than ideal but you can automate both extracting it and muxing it back in. It may take some effort to setup, but it’s well worth the huge recurring costs incurred from backing up that amount of data.

      Just an idea to consider.

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• RamRabbit@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  My suggestion: Buy 3x 28TB drives. Mirror the data to them. Then move them off site.

  The off-site location could either be a family member’s home where you can then sync to the drives over the internet. Or in a PO box nearby that you retrieve them from time to time to re-sync the data.

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  • EarMaster@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    That is the cheapest option. Maybe the most convenient or most reliable option, but definitely the cheapest.

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  • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I would definitely keep them warm, as in a running machine.

    Drives on a shelf die more often than always-on drives.

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    • Scrollone@feddit.it ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Really? Do you have any source on that?

      If it’s true, I bet it’s only if they’re actually running without ever spinning down.

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• badbytes@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Tape is still the cheapest and best archival medium. Drives are expensive, but the actual tape is cheap. But 50TB might not be enough to justify.

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  • cm0002@suppo.fi ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I’m heavily researching tape for my data, I currently sit around 400TBs Total but only around 200 in data that id actually want to backup and can’t just redownload.

    Iirc the break even point 100-150TB

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  • androidul@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I just came here to say exactly the same thing. Tapes for the long term, but you also have to take reaaaaaly good care of how they’re stored

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    • Mad_Punda@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      My kitchen sink in the kitchen is fine though? What about the bathroom sink?

      /s

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  • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    The tape drive costs more or less 2000€ (without VAT), the tapes cost about 80-100 for a 15tb drive (and compressed capacity doesnt count as the to be backed up data is probably not just a database or text.

    Don’t think there are much economic options beside finding the cheapest S3 storage or a secondary backup server.

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  • lillardfair@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    If blank tapes aren’t cheap enough…

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• solrize@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  In the backup world, 50TB isn’t really a lot, and you’re not really ready to talk about tape systems or maintaining an always-on disk system. Also, HDD’s have been getting more expensive due to AI idiocy. But, cheapest is probably a second raid system, like 4x 20tb drives. Do the backup at home and then move the backup system off site and either keep it spinning, or make sure to spin up and test the individual drives every so often.

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• irmadlad@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Backblaze personal is about the cheapest I know of: $99 per year unlimited. Caveats would be that the drives have to be physically connected to the computer doing the backup. Additionally, should you ever need to restore the backup, the best way would be to buy a 10 tb drive from Backblaze, restore the data, then send the drive back for a full refund x 5. Restoring 50 tb online would be excruciating.

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  • Davel23@fedia.io ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I'm currently backing up my NAS to Backblaze Personal by mounting the drives using Dokany. They appear as local drives and the Backblaze client accepts them for backup.

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    • irmadlad@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      That’s worth a bookmark. Thanks for the share.

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  • Scrollone@feddit.it ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    But isn’t it available only for Windows/macOS?

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    • yessikg@fedia.io ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Yeah, on Linux it is better to use their B2 service

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    • irmadlad@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Yes, however you could run it in Wine, or create a Windows VM.

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• just_another_person@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  First: there is no cheap way to back this amount of data up. AWS Glacier would be about $200/mo, PLUS bandwidth transfer charges, which would be something like $500. R2 would be about $750/mo, no transfer charges. So assume that most companies with some sort of whacky, competing product would be billed by either of these companies with you as a consumer, and you can figure out how this is the baseline of what you’ll be getting charged from them.

  50TB of what? If it’s just readily available stuff you can download again, skip backing that up. Only keep personal effects, and see how much you can reduce this number by.

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  • originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Bb would be ~300$/month for 50tb

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  • dan@upvote.au ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    AWS Glacier would be about $200/mo, PLUS bandwidth transfer charges, which would be something like $500. R2 would be about $750/mo

    50TB on a Hetzner storage box would be $116/month. It’d have to be split across three storage boxes though, since 20TB is the max per box. 10TB is $24/month and 20TB is $46/month.

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    • zutto@lemmy.fedi.zutto.fi ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      You can have more than 2x 22tb, the SX line is full of storage servers!

      SX65 2x 1TB nvme 4x 22tb (~104€ 0%VAT) SX135 2x 2tb nvme 8x 22tb (~204€ 0%VAT) SX295 2x 8tb nvme 14x 22tb (~384 0%VAT)

      If you manually add the disks to configurations like AX-line, there is a limit, that may be bypassed if you contact hetzners support, but that’d be expensive compared to the SX line I reckon.

      Also, Hetzner’s server auction has quite affordable 4x 16tb servers, starting from 63€ 0%VAT, that’d be pretty affordable RAID1- solution, ~1€ per TB/month.

      Unlimited traffic on all of the above, and a sidenote: SX line servers have one-off setup fees, server auction has no setup fees.

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  • utjebe@reddthat.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Damn, I would have thought that glacier would be cheaper and they would claw your eyes out on egress and access.

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• Alvaro@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Cold storage solutions would be cheapest if you don’t need to access it often, if you do then Backblaze b2.

  Lastly you could do your own backup (drives sitting at a friends of family’s place?)

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• bookmeat@lemmynsfw.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  First thing is decide what data you have that can be readily replaced. e.g. publicly available Linux ISOs. Then remove that from your backup strategy. You may end up with a lot less data needing backup.

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  • Scrollone@feddit.it ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Exactly, you can just redownload them later. But pay attention if you have rare Linux ISOs, maybe because of their quality or if they’re in a specific language.

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• neidu3@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Is it data you would trust in the hands of random strangers on the internet? If so, I can easily store 50TB for you, as long as it’s temporary.

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  • 8263ksbr@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    … this is odly nice of you. Sorry, but are you really willing to trust a random internet stranger to store up to 50TB of data on your machines? The data could be literally anything and might put you into trouble 😵‍💫 No offense.

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    • mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      what’s the difference to storing it on a company’s platform?

      sign a thing that says there’s nothing illegal in it. done.

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    • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      If it’s encrypted how should I know?

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• degenerate_neutron_matter@fedia.io ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Sort your data into stuff you absolutely need to keep (personal files and such) and stuff you'd be okay with losing (less important files, device backups, downloads you can redownload, etc). Then only back up the former. As for backup medium, ServerPartDeals often has some pretty good deals on storage; they were selling refurbished 12TB drives for $80 a pop a while back.

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  • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    They haven’t been selling anything that cheap since the AI driven hard drive shortage. A refurbished 12TB drive is around $200 now.

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• IronBird@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  diskprices.com

  is the best resource for finding cheap personal digital storage, last i looked into it not sure how up-to-date that site is kept though

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• Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

  Fewer Letters	More Letters
  NFS	Network File System, a Unix-based file-sharing protocol known for performance and efficiency
  SATA	Serial AT Attachment interface for mass storage
  SFTP	Secure File Transfer Protocol for encrypted file transfer, over SSH
  SSH	Secure Shell for remote terminal access

  ---

  [Thread #995 for this comm, first seen 12th Jan 2026, 03:05] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

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• Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Gee, that’s a lot of homework.

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• frongt@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  The cheapest medium is tape. It is by far the lowest price per terabyte. The tradeoff is that the drives are pricey, even the used ones, and it’s a huge pain to read the data back out (but in a recovery scenario, that’s tolerable).

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• FreddiesLantern@leminal.space ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Install W11… your data will be backed up…just not the way you want it.

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• suicidaleggroll@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  4-bay DAS with a handful of big HDDs in RAIDZ1. Load it up, then store it in your office at work or at a friend or family member’s house. Retrieve and update somewhere between once every few weeks to once every few months, depending on how often your critical data is changing.

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• dieTasse@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Nobody said this here but storj is one of the cheapest storage out there and it’s has redundancy and is distributed. And if you have truenas, it’s kinda baked right in. They had some hiccups when communicating changes to the community, but overall nice folks.

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  • 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    $15/TB (I’m assuming USD) is incredible!

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    • dieTasse@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I am actualy paying about 5 bucks per terabyte, but I think I am still on old tarif… Oh wait they still offer it, its now called active archive and its 6 dollars per terabyte.

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• thenoirwolfess@lemmynsfw.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  3 Ironwolf Pros for £1,200, before the AI bs ruins their prices too

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• Teppichbrand@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Slightly provocative take: Let it go, it doesn’t matter. The desire to hoard data is, like hoarding money, understandable but unnecessary. What do you do with all this media. You time on this planet is finite.

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  • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    so trash all family memories. ok.

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    • Teppichbrand@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      50 terabyte of family memories?

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• BCsven@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Tape Drive?

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