I want a better backup solution.

My current network consists of a 1Tb Time Capsule backing up a 500Gb HDD in an iMac and a 500Gb HDD backing up a MacBook Pro via the wireless network.
I have a 3Tb HDD attached externally to the iMac that I use for large file storage and remote access with my MacBook Pro. It's been a few years since I made the purchase and began using the drive in this way, and I feel like it's time to prepare for the failure of the drive. I've been present for many drive failures of friends and family. I don't take risks of losing my data.
I was curious of the backup solutions you all must have, drive brands that you trust (I'm a WD fan), and if you use RAID 1 or RAID 1 Mirroring.
Thank you.

I use a number of Lacie D2 Quadra drives + OWC Mercury Elite enclosures with WD Caviar Black SATA drives. They have been 100% reliable for many years. (I formerly used Seagate Barracuda drives, but gradually migrated to the Caviar Blacks). In practice, I have 3x backups on separate drives. The drives are only connected during backup operation, otherwise they are disconnected from my Macs, each other and power. I keep one set offsite.
For my more frequent, interim backups, I also use a Lacie D2 Network2 online in my network; I back up email & documents more frequently than other files since they change daily. I use a combination of manual copies via the Finder and automated backups via CarbonCopyCloner depending on what I want to backup at any particular time. I do not use Time Machine or a Time Capsule.
RAID is interesting and useful, but it is not backup. Mirroring only protects you against a single hard drive failure in the Mirror set itself. It does not protect you from software, user or system errors, which are much more frequent than hard drive failures. And in the event the RAID Mirror enclosure itself fails, both drives are likely to be unusable.

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I want to put my .m2ts movies (Sony HD recorder) on my Ipad3. It looks they need to be converted to h.264 format. Question is will Quicktime Pro work or are there any better software solutions. Running XP system. Thanks

I want to put my .m2ts movies (Sony HD recorder) on my Ipad3. It looks they need to be converted to h.264 format. Question is will Quicktime Pro work or are there any better software solutions. Running XP system. Thanks

You could try Handbrake, it works quite well.

Is there any doc about netbackup as OVM backup solution?

HI
IHAC who is going to purchase OVM, but currently the only concern is they are planning to use netbackup as the backup solution, so they want to know clearly which version of netbackup certifies with OVM.
I can find a certify link as below:
https://apex.oraclecorp.com/pls/apex/f?p=9303:8:8478416047898::NO::P8_PID,P5_ISV_ID:2128,2623
But it's better to have some more doc such as best practise and such as that.
Thanks & Regards!

Oracle 7.1.3 on Linux was probably never released -- 7.1.3 predates generally available Linux.
You would
a. install Linux on the new server
b. install Oracle 10g or 11g on the new server
c. create an empty database on the new server
d. export data from the 7.1.3 database
e. import it into the new database
Follow the 10g / 11g Upgrade Documentation.
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/server.102/b14238/toc.htm
or
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E11882_01/server.112/e10819/toc.htm
Hemant K Chitale
http://hemantoracledba.blogspot.com

Is DLT the best backup solution?

Hi,
I am curious to know what people use as a good backup for their FCP projects and footage. I know DLT is recommended for outputting DVD projects - but are there better options? Any feedback is greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

DLT is the dinosaur of the industry. Rock solid, totally dependable. The reasons it's still used for DVD replication are not associated with any reasons why you'd want to use DLT for backing up your FCP projects. DVD replication is an entirely different industry.
DLT would not be efficient for video offloading in the slightest. Linear and long. But, as said, utterly bombproof and relatively inexpensive. if you have a couple of DLT machines and lots of cart,, you can certainly use them for offloading your FCP media. But "best"? Not at all. There is no single best backup solution, only what works for your budget and workflow. Hot swap RAIDs, cheap FW drives, optical, DVD-ROM, even installing and removing ATA drives in your Mac; they're all viable.
bogiesan

NON 3rd party offsite server backup solutions....?

Can anyone recommend a method of an off-site server backup solution that doesn't involve a 3rd party company?
I'm new to server admin and the company I work for is sitting on tons of really, really confidential and sensitive data that we ardently protect on-site, but with all the inclemental weather we've been getting lately (and horror stories from other local businesses regarding their server rooms flooding and such) we've been considering options for offsite backups, but don't want an outside source to have any access to our server contents/data/info in way way shape or form (as in: our backups would be on one of their servers---we don't want to go that route).
Right now we CCC everything everyday to an on-site external drive and then CCCing the server backups onto another external hard drive which then gets taken off-site to the admin's home and brought back in when a backup is going to be made (about once a week for that one).
Any thoughts?
We're absolutely not above buying a second server and running it out of somebody's house for this purpose...but the details of how to configure it as a backup server aren't very clear to me.
Any help is appreciated!
Thanks!
Is there a better way to do this?

ssh/rsync works well for me at home -- local server with a backup copy plus a copy on my brother's server nearly 3000 miles away. Of course, I recommend shipping physical media containing an initial backup to the offsite backup location first to save on bandwidth and time. (Depending on your connection.)
My script is basically:
{quote}
backup()
    src=$1
    dst=$2
    rsync -abz --delete --delete-excluded $src $dst
    echo "Backup starts: `/bin/date`"
    echo ""
    backup /Volumes/backup/Backups.backupdb/computername/Latest/ \
        onsite_server:computername
    backup /Volumes/backup/Backups.backupdb/computername/Latest/ \
        offsite_server:computername
    echo ""
    echo "Backup ends: `/bin/date`"
} > backup.log
rsync -abqz backup.log offsite_server:backup.log
ssh offsite_server "~/bin/backup-complete.sh"
{quote}
backup-complete.sh just emails me using the contents of backup.log as the email body. I used keys for authentication.

I need a travel router and backup solution... Time Capsule?

I stay in hotels 365 days a year and traveling with the lightest and smallest equipment is important. I have a recent MBP and an iPhone I operate wirelessly each night. I currently have an external 2TB hard drive I use for firewire based backups now. I also have an Asus wl330ge mini travel router (basically a smaller and cheaper alternative to the Airport Express).
Basically, I want to end up with a wireless backup solution, (a wireless NAS) and I'd love it to have the wireless sharing/router/ethernet bridging abilities built in as well. I'm hoping this device is the Time Capsule. Please help me answer these questions:
-In hotel rooms where they provide a wired ETHERNET connection the Time Capsule will need to act as a wireless BRIDGE via ethernet + time machine. This is possible, correct?
-In hotel rooms where the hotel provides ONLY wifi, the device will need to ask as a wireless CLIENT and connect to the hotels WIFI network, is this possible?
Thanks for your assistance!

Welcome to the discussion area, GetFoxy!
In hotel rooms where they provide a wired ETHERNET connection the Time Capsule will need to act as a wireless BRIDGE via ethernet + time machine. This is possible, correct?
Yes. If you configure the Time Capsule in Bridge Mode, you can setup the Time Capsule to "create a wireless network" and connect multiple wireless and ethernet devices. The big question is IF the hotel allows multiple devices to connect from one room. Some hotel routers do, some don't.
If multiple devices are not allowed to connect, you can try changing the Connection Sharing on the Time Capsule to "Share a public IP address". This will create what is known as a Double NAT error...usually not too serious in this type of setup...and it may allow you to connect multiple devices to the Time Capsule since the hotel' router only "sees" one device...the Time Capsule in this type of configuration. Sometimes works when Bridge Mode will not do what you want, but some hotel systems will not allow another router to connect to their network.
In hotel rooms where the hotel provides ONLY wifi, the device will need to ask as a wireless CLIENT and connect to the hotels WIFI network, is this possible?
Yes. But, when the Time Capsule "joins" a wireless network and becomes a client, it performs no routing functions in this type of configuration. In other words, the ethernet ports on the Time Capsule are not enabled, and the Time Capsule cannot provide a wireless network configured this way, so all device connections would occur over the hotel wireless.
Whether or not you would be able to connect multiple devices to the wireless network is open to question as many hotels only allow one wireless connection at a time per room. Or, if multiple devices are allowed to connect per room, the hotel will likely charge you separately for each device/connection.
Bottom line...this is going to be an "iffy" proposition because you often will not know what will work and what won't until you actually get to the hotel. You'll have much better luck with hotels that provide ethernet connections.
Since you'll need to make configuration changes on the Time Capsule to adapt to different hotel networks, you'll need to have AirPort Utility, the software application used to setup the Time Capsule, on your computer.
Finally, as far as space is concerned, you would probably need to re-pack the Time Capsule in the original carton to protect the hard drive from damage during travel. Or, come up with a good way to protect it for travel.
Message was edited by: Bob Timmons

Help! I need a better backup rouine.

I am looking for suggestions on how to create a better backup routine. I'm on DVD number 140 in my Retrospect Backup set. I need a better solution.
*Our current set-up:*
We currently use a *Dual 2Ghz G5* with an external *LaCie Biggest F800* Raid drive attached to host our graphics files. This gives us the raid security for day to day use. It's pretty fast too as we have it attached via Firewire 800 and Gigabit Ethernet. We have 3 other Macs that log into this G5 under the host's user name in order to see the external drive and access it. (We found this to be the only way we could see the external drive without having to run something like sharepoints.) I know this isn't the most secure way of doing things but security isn't an issue here among the 3 users that log onto the host G5.
*Our current Back-Up Routine:*
Using Retrospect I run an automated backup script every other night to DVD-R media. This is handy because there are times when we need to restore a version of a file that is several generations old. Obviously this becomes a problem as we are now on DVD number 140 and counting. My main purpose for this is to have an off-location backup set.
*What I'm looking for:*
Unless someone has a better solution, I'm looking for a better form of removable storage. I know firewire drives are inexpensive these days however I believe they would fill up very quickly using this type of back-up routine. (Since we don't want to simply overwrite old files.) I don't know if DAT tapes are a thing of the past or if there is something else out there.
Any input would be appreciated. Thank you.

An intermediate step is instead of getting an enclosure for each drive, just get one enclosure and a bunch of bare drives. Alternatively, you can buy a connector (I don't know what they are called technically) which has a plug for IDE (and sometimes SATA) on a small box with the controller card on one end and a USB and/or Firewire and/or eSATA connector at the other. They are intended for people who want to store data on hard drives but not have a bunch of enclosures. You plug in the bare drive at one end and the other into your computer port -- kind of like an enclosure without the box. I wouldn't want to have this setup on my desk all day but I do have some archival hard disks I connect maybe once every two months where I do this.

What is the best free backup solution for Hyper-V R2/2012? CSV support is necessary

Hi,
I need so guidance, please.
I’m planning to deploy a free backup solution for my virtual environment and I need your advice. I have the following configuration:
Failover Cluster:
Two Dell Servers
OS: Windows 2012 STD
Each server has two AMD Opteron 4180 6C @ 2.6 GHZ
16 GB – RAM (supports 256GB)
QNAP NAS (CSV)
It’s hosting a DC, an Exchange 2010 and soon a SharePoint 2013 VM
Standalone Hyper-V:
Dell Server
OS: Windows 2008 R2 Datacenter
It has two Intel Xeon E5520 @ 2.2 GHZ
16 GB - RAM
It’s hosting 3 VMs
In my research I found these apps. All of them are limited in some way but they do the job:
Veeam Backup Free Edition v7
Altaro Hyper-V Backup
Unitrends Enterprise Backup
PHD Virtual Backup for Hyper-V
HV Backup from CodePlex
Windows Server Backup (WSB)
What is your experience with them? What would you recommend?
When it comes to money, which one is more affordable? (In case I want to buy the full version)
Thanks in advanced.

Hi,
I need so guidance, please.
I’m planning to deploy a free backup solution for my virtual environment and I need your advice. I have the following configuration:
Failover Cluster:
Two Dell Servers
OS: Windows 2012 STD
Each server has two AMD Opteron 4180 6C @ 2.6 GHZ
16 GB – RAM (supports 256GB)
QNAP NAS (CSV)
It’s hosting a DC, an Exchange 2010 and soon a SharePoint 2013 VM
Standalone Hyper-V:
Dell Server
OS: Windows 2008 R2 Datacenter
It has two Intel Xeon E5520 @ 2.2 GHZ
16 GB - RAM
It’s hosting 3 VMs
In my research I found these apps. All of them are limited in some way but they do the job:
Veeam Backup Free Edition v7
Altaro Hyper-V Backup
Unitrends Enterprise Backup
PHD Virtual Backup for Hyper-V
HV Backup from CodePlex
Windows Server Backup (WSB)
What is your experience with them? What would you recommend?
When it comes to money, which one is more affordable? (In case I want to buy the full version)
Thanks in advanced.
Any Altaro Hyper-V Backup User?

Backup solutions w/RAID or redundancy (NAS, RAID, DIY File server)

Hi all, I need a place to bounce my ideas off of. Here goes:
I have been doing a lot of reading, since I was considering adding an NAS solution for my home network. My data consists mainly of videos (TVs and movies) and pictures (many many years worth).
Anyways, out of the box solutions seemed a bit too pricy and the RAID not that spectacular unless you're willing to spend, so I began looking at building my own fileserver, with a hardware/software RAID solution. That was a bit better bang for the buck, but I still had one nagging concern.
I've played around with RAID before, and I realized that with mirroring (the only RAID option I was really considering), was that it relied on the RAID controller. I couldn't just take a hard drive, remove it physically from the array, and have my information accessible when plugging it into another computer.
What happens in a few years if your RAID controller dies and you can't find the exact same one? Your array will always be dependent on that controller and I really don't like that feeling. I'd rather have the option of taking a drive, plugging it in another computer, rather than needing to move the whole array (RAID, NAS, DIY file server) around. That means quicker access to my information or the ability to take it with me anywhere I go, on a moment's notice.
The least costly solution I have come up with, for data that doesn't change all that much, is to have two huge drives (1 TB) on a computer, either one or both connected via eSATA. Just remember to ghost/copy the main drive once in a while, and keep the 'backup' drive detached (preferably located in a fire-proof safe) and back it up once in a while, on a regular basis).
Sorry for the long post, but how does that sound, for a cheap, reliable backup solution, for data that doesn't get updated too frequently and for ease of access and use?

Hi BGBG;
For what you are attempting to do, RAID is not the best solution. The reason I say this is because RAID 1 is only capable of protection from disk failure. It is not a valid backup solution.
I think that your last solution of using eSATA and a copy is the best. My only addition to your proposal would be a third disk. That way when you move the backup disk into storage you could replace it with the third one. In this way you could use SuperDuper to periodically backup between two disks.
Allan

Which backup solution to use?

I didn't see anything here, but only looked a few screens deep, so sorry if this comes up a lot.
I just found out from reading here that I was running BOTH the Windows backup AND the Lenovo R&R backup. Nowhere does the computer warn about this (something that should be fixed, IMO).
I deleted all the R&R backups and recovered almost 60GB of disk space.
Can someone provide a link or an explaination as to which service is "better", or at least a comparison. From reading, it seems it is recommended to only run one of them. I saw one post which said R&R was better at recovering, etc, but I see other posts which says it just fails (for that person)...
I have a 142gb drive (reported size for C Thinkpad T61p purchased in Dec 2007, running Vista Ultimate with SP1
Thanks.

977220 wrote:
Hi ,
We have Oracle 8i DB running on Windows with Backup using CA client.
We are planning to migrate all backups from CA to Netbackup but since Oracle 8i is no longer supported by Netbackup so we need to use either RMAN or User managed backup .
Can somebody guide,which backup solution to use on Oracle 8i (we will migrate DB to MS-SQL) so this will be temporary solution for DB backup.
1) shutdown IMMEDIATE
2) OS file copy all the files
3) STARTUP

Backup solutions for Solaris 10 systems

I am trying to put together a backup solution for a number of SunFire V240 systems running Solaris 10. We do run our backups using NetWorker, along with a couple of high powered back up systems. But this solution I am trying to create is something that can be performed by our first responders, our help desk folks. The systems in question are already in production but we do have days where we can bring them down for maintenance or whatever we need to do. Therefore, I can implement this new solution during the day(s) of maintenance time.
I was looking at using Solaris Volume Manager and its metadata configurations. But I am unsure how to start with files sytems already created. I want to be able to have a backup of the boot disk in the event that the hard drive in which it resides goes down. I want our help desk folks be able to immediately bring the system right back up with little down time during the evening to late hours.
I guess what I am looking for are exact steps to help configure this backup solution with Solaris Volume Manager for our production systems. Can anyone help?

Hey there,
Have a look at this excellent guide. I think that you may find what you need here. If not drop an email back. To begin with you need an extra disk(s) since you will mirror your data. This is sort of a pre-requisite.
Good luck,
Pierre
http://www.adminschoice.com/docs/solstice_disksuite.htm

2x 10.5.2 xServe + raid backup solutions - Suggestions please!

Hello,
I'll give a brief overview of what I'm rolling out. *Limited budget* So keep that in mind
Basically I'm just looking for suggestions on backup solutions for this particular setup. I have been hearing mixed reviews of most backup solutions under 10.5.x... (In 10.4.x server I was relatively confident with Retrospect and had performed restores before).
--2 xServes, One web server, one for local services like mail, OD, AFP, Cal, etc. each has 2x 80gb drive (boot volume + mirror). Advanced server config.
--1x raid configured as raid6 with 4TB useable after formatting and parity. Data (user directory, mail store, calendar, web sites and database, etc) will be on the raid volumes, the 80 gb drives in xserves are only for OS and log files.
--All clients are using MacBook Pro's and most users have minimal data. Most data will be mail and quicktime videos (compressed for web, originals on mini dv tapes).
--MacBook Pro's already live, current server is SBS 2003 and it handles backups via Retrospect.
--Backups will have to be D2D, tape is not an option in this case. This means two external drives for backup (one on site and one off site, cycle on friday). Probably 2TB FW800 for each drive as entire raid isn't being backed up, some of it is scratch storage so 2 TB is plenty for now).
Naturally I want to use time machine but I am hearing of horror stories using time machine to backup advanced server in 10.5. Also seeing issues with cyrus (mail) and time machine (I will be running mail services). In addition, I don't think I could do any sort of cycle with the two external drives using time machine? The lack of configurability in time machine worries me. And finally, I don't know how time machine does with active database' (Ie: sql database for web server, I just don't know if time machine will cause problems when trying to back live database up). If someone has experience with time machine in a similar setup I'd love to hear your thoughts / suggestions.
Alternatively there is retrospect. We already own a license and I am familiar with administering it on 10.4.x. How reliable is it for backing up 10.5.2 clients and 10.5.2 server? Including active databses (Again the web server sql databases, etc? Kind of a pain restoring anything from retrospect (Especially entire server if / when it has to be done) but it was tried and true for me in 10.4.x server installations.
These MacBook pro's will also likely become mobile homes once all is said and done (But currently are not as the xServes are not installed yet). Time machine + mobile home directory seems like a lot of data being backed up that is probably redundant?
To top it all off, until new office is ready (All gigabit when that happens in ~1 year) network is as follows:
Servers have 100 mbit full duplex connection
Clients have 10mbit half duplex (This is where time machine really frightens me with hourly client backup).
Considering above, I can either:
A: Run proactive backup script from retrospect for all clients and then nightly backup for select raid volume contents + server boot volumes.
B: Not backup clients directly via retrospect and only backup contents of the raid volume (Which is where the mobile homes will be stored). Mobile home sync would be set to occur on login / logout only (Considering 10mbit client connections, I don't want active or user initiated sync heh).
Thoughts / suggestions? Thanks in advance, any suggestions are much appreciated. Hardware is set in stone but backup solution is not so most aspects of backup solution can be changed =)

First of all, thanks for your reply!
Well I should clarify in that I wasn't going to operate "network" homes and that they were just going to be the mobile homes with sync only occurring at login / logout. Even then, I think I'd run in to issues with the 10base-T for the client systems. The servers are on 100base-T full duplex. Currently All of the Windows systems do the same and logging in / out isn't too terrible but I couldn't imagine actually running the home directories off the server on 10base-T.
Do you still think mobile homes would be too much with just the login / logout sync? If so, I'll simply avoid this option until we get our new building and gigabit networking all around in the next year.
You're correct in that all clients will be running 10.5.2.
If I am not running mobile homes, I suppose the easiest way then is to in fact backup clients via time machine to the raid volume and then backup the entire raid volume (Hence all of our sites, compressed video files and databases to a large external drive (Maybe I'll get a couple 3 or 4 TB raid drives instead... lol). Naturaly I'd select the scratch disk directories and tell time machine to ignore them. Only issue there being that I may run in to space concerns like you say. If it becomes a huge problem and apple still hasn't made TM more configurable by then, I could use the time machine editor app or modify the intervals myself. I'd rather not and will only do this if it becomes an issue
From what I can gather, time machine is not making complete duplicates of an active database (MS Entourage in this case) and is only backing up the changes. I was worried about how it handled this and whether it would detect a change and just backup the entire database again (Which would be a nightmare if it did this for our web directories as they have active databases running).
Do you know of time machine will wreak havoc with active databases (Like the ones our websites use, a couple small sql databases and one larger one).
I think time machine would work well with the method you suggested. So I can just set it to backup all clients to the raid volume and then setup time machine to backup the raid volume to the external disk? For my off site... I suppose I could just bring in the second identical external drive every Friday and copy the time machine backup database from the on site backup drive on to it and then get it out of there each evening.
As for backing up the servers themselves, they will not be storing much of anything and most everything will be pointed to the raid volume (Hence the 80GB drives). Because of this, the data on the servers themselves will not change THAT much compared to the raid volume which will change drastically every day so full backups of the servers is fine. Perhaps just setting psyncX (assuming it works in 10.5) to backup the 80GB boot volume for each server would be best? I could just set psyncX to backup each server boot volume to the same external drive the raid volume is backing up to and then each friday just copy the data from the on site drive to the external, killing two birds with one stone. (Tape would make this all easier but it isn't gonna happen in this case sigh).
I worry about the cyrus / mail issues I'm reading about on servers running time machine though.

Why to use SQL Server's native backup facilities, not other backup solution?

I've been asked in my company: why to use SQL Server’s native backup facilities? Instead, they currently rely on other backup software, like Backup Exec, BrightStor, or even Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager. Those solutions let the
company manage all of its backups—including SQL Server—in a single place, whereas SQL Server’s native backup abilities only apply to SQL Server.
So what does SQL Server native backup facility give us more to be forced to use it?

Satish and Pawan ... thanks but, a backup solution is just there. they don't need to pay anything. even though, having a backup solution that backup everything on the server, like files, software.. etc is needed regardless if you have SQL Server databases
or not, and if it does database backup it would be even better and more complete as a backup solution. So sorry your answer is not an enough reason that will force me to leave that complete backup solution and use the SQL Server backup tools specifically to
backup databases.
Olaf ... thanks as well. But I was just counting a number of solutions that i think they are related to backup things. yet I believe that Symantec backup exec does backup for SQL Server database, ain't?! what I understood from the link that you gave me,
that some backup applications (if not all) use SQL Server backup facilities to do database backup, is what I understood correct? if yes then the question will be, is there any situation or reasons that force me to use SQL Server backup tools even if I have
those backup solution (that some of them in the backgroud they are using SQL Server backup facilities)? does SQL Server backup tool give me more capabilities in backing up databases than what I find in backup solutions?
The answer is NO, as of now you get all these features in 3rd party native backups...
So in nutshell Microsoft never forces you to use SQL Servers Native backup -----The only reason why you get native backup featues is since SQL Server is an Enterprise Solution MS provide you all features in-built within the bundle so that you don't have
to purchase any other license (incase you\your company doesn't have one already)
Sarabpreet Singh Anand
SQL Server MVP Blog ,
Personal website
This posting is provided , "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" and "Vote as Helpful" on posts that help you. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Rsync or other backup solution- single source multiple target?

Seems from http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions … ly-774225/ that I can't do what I want, but I thought I'd ask as well.
My laptop hard disc is going to be backed up to two external hard discs (regular script). What I do right now is run two separate rsync commands, but of course this means that the data (all 300+ GB of it, currently) needs to be read twice. Seems it'd be much more efficient if the data were read once and then written to both external hard discs.
It doesn't seem from the above link and other google resources that this is possible. Can anyone suggest an alternative short of scripting a file-by-file cache?
Last edited by ngoonee (2013-10-31 01:33:22)

cfr wrote:
Doesn't this partially undermine the point of doing two backups? I realise one is off site and that they are on separate devices which rules out some sources of corruption/loss but if you run the backup as you wish and something bad happens to the source during the backup, you are likely to end up with three corrupted copies rather than only two.
I don't manage to do this as I only have one complete backup but I thought that best practice involved not touching one backup while the other backup was being created (or restored or...). That way, you always have one "known good" backup whatever happens.
EDIT: not "whatever happens" but "whichever of any of a larger number of possible catastrophes occurs". Obviously, the third copy could be on a device that dies or explodes or gets drowned by a peeved goldfish at just that moment when mice eat your source during a backup, thus corrupting your other two copies. But you can only plan so far...
This isn't my complete backup solution. I have two hard discs in one location (what I'm asking about here) and another one at a different location. The reason I have two is simply because I have a spare which doesn't have any other use, and it may as well be put to use in this way.
Besides, if something happens to the source, using --backup-dir means I'll still have the last known good copy anyway (not taking into account the backup which is at the different location.

Backup Solutions for our iMac

We just narrowly escaped losing our hard drive due to maxing it out - 319GB or 320 used. The reason? I procrastinated creating a backup solution. Now we need to move forward and am looking for suggestions as to the best route. As background, our system currently consists of:
(1) Macbook Air (2012)
(1) iMac (mid 2007, Intel)
(1) 2wiregateway wireless router (AT&T Broadband)
Online back-up via Backblaze (am considering switching to Crashplan or Carbonite)
We need a solution that will provide:
automatic wireless back-ups of both machines though I could hardwire our desktop if need be - TC?
external disk storage for our media (e.g., photos, music and video files) - WD, SG, IOM linked to TC, needs to be backed up using TM
media server - access from Macbook Air, iPad (future), iPhone (future), any wireless device playing iTunes; e.g., Denon receiver (future need)
I purchased and tried to set-up a Seagate GoFlex Home option but the wireless set-up via the 2wire has been difficult and I've had no luck with linking it as a drive for Time Machine. I plan to return based on feedback (regarding my set-up options). Like everyone, we want to 'future proof', however, we're NOT large media purchasers so excessive storage is not an issue - mostly photo files. We're mainly focused on ease, durability and costs.
This is what i was thinking:
automatic wireless back-ups of both machines - Time Machine/Time Capsule ($300+)
external disk storage for our media - external harddrive (WD, SG, IOM) connected via Ethernet to TC or as it's a store server, hardwire this one (firewire) to the desktop. This too will need to be backed up using Time Machine ($150+)
media server - ? Again, secondary future need
Thoughts?

Thanks for all of the feedback. I've sat down and drawn out an updated solution (see below). I think this will meet all of our needs but would love all and any feedback including on my drive selections/options. Our modified 'need' list.
external disk storage for our media (e.g., photos, music and video files) [External Hard Drive FW800 connection]
automatic wireless data back-ups of both machines [Time Capsule]
bootable local back-up of both machines [External Hard Drive with Super Duper linked to Time Capsule]
media server - access from Macbook Air, iPad (future), iPhone (future) [iCloud]
network printer connection [Time Capsule]
off-site data back-ups of both machines [Back Blaze/Carbonite]
Does this make sense? Overkill? Thoughts regarding Iomega drives?

I want a better backup solution.

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