OT: Home backup strategy - NAS, DAS, Time Machine

[weaponsgrade]

My 2-bay WD MyCloud NAS device crapped out on me. I'm working on trying to recover what I had and will probably make another post for help, but for now I wanted to check if my new backup strategy for network attached storage and direct attached storage will work.

I've got 4 Mac computers that need to be backed up. My plan is to get a NAS (looking at the Asustor Drivestore 4 AS1104T) to serve as a backup target for the 4 Macs. I then plan on backing up the NAS to an external hard drive. Asustor says one of the backup options is to an external hard drive.

But, does that mean I can simply take that external hard drive, hook it up to any computer, and see my files?

[C40_guy]

Maybe. Depends on how the backup is done. When I back up my NAS to my backup NAS I do a simple one way file update. The backup NAS is fully functional, has live copies of all my files and is just a small version of my 5 drive RAID NAS.

I use GoodSync to do something similar from my Macs to the NAS, then replicate between my Mini (desktop) and my Air.

And I run TimeMachine.

Overkill, yes, but I've been in tech for a long time.

A few key files - mostly photos - are also replicated to a cloud provider.

[shadco]

Time Machine to a Synology with mirrored drives. Synology to another Synology with a removable drive. Monthly swapping the removable drive with another that is kept in a safety deposit box at my bank.

.

[bigbill]

I'm writing a thesis and I do a manual backup at the end of each day to a Seagate External 4 TB SSHD. I have a smaller Imation 1 TB that I take when I travel.

[banananutz]

2nd the synology. Have a ds723+, and before that a 212+. Both have been without issue. Had a drive go bad, hot swapped a new drive and it rebuilt the mirror automatically.

Highly recommend.

[9tubes]

Time machine to a 2-bay Synology, plus Backblaze. Just in case of ransomware I also do a full drive clone twice per month to an external drive and then disconnect it.