Backup / Recovery concept

Let me give you a few ideas for data organization and backup/recovery concept which I developed in over 30 years. The latest proven concept with a combination of disk imaging and mirroring of user data (Macrium Reflect and FreeFileSync) I have been using now successfully for over 10 years.

Macrium Reflect Home for the Windows drive (with programs, sample libraries, …)

With Macrium Reflect Home, you can restore your Windows SSD in no time.
https://www.macrium.com/products/home

For a SSD filled with 850 GB of data, a restore takes only 12–15 minutes. Currently, after the new installation of my system, I didn't restore everything, for 160 GB of data the restore takes 8 minutes.

While I am at it, my new installation of Win10 here, see here https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?id=40861

Speedup of backup is provided in Macrium by two mechanisms

a) Rapid Delta Restore. It analyzes 1st what data needs to be changed on disk
and then only restores the data that needs to be restored. In most cases, during a day or week, not much changes on the Windows disk. But even then, it will speed up your restore dramatically.

b) A good backup profile called "Grandfather, Father, Son" which provides a mix of full, differential and incremental backup.
This reduces the amount of backup files that Macrium has to analyze for changed data, which also speeds up recovery.

So … Whenever such things should happen (on Win10, luckily not), then I am back in business very fast.
Currently, in less than 8 minutes and even that is long because the BIOS POST of my server mainboard is long, and I have to go through this for the reboot into the recovery system and the final reboot to boot the recovered system.

Separate your user data to a different drive (at least partition)

Best is to support the backup concepts by a clean data concept.
I am separating Windows/Applications and user data on at least 2 SSDs.
This allows me to restore Windows without losing the latest changes / additions in the area of user data.

The prepared folders (my documents, my music, etc.) I am moving to the SSD with user data.

This makes it possible to restore a disk image of the Windows SSD without loosing real work.
It does not hurt to lose a few application settings in the user profile.

One exception: Firefox Bookmarks are in the user profile, those I do not want to lose.
Therefore, I back up Firefox bookmarks separately before restoring the Windows installation.

My user data I am mirroring with FreeFileSync in "native format" ("as is")  because I do not want a backup program to convert my "precious" user data into an image format, which can only be accessed by the backup program itself.
If such a backup program has a bug and can't read the image anymore (I had this with Acronis True image)
then you can't restore anymore, which is bad.
The best backup solution to mirror data is by far FreeFileSync with a lot of other useful options.
https://freefilesync.org/
I have been donating money for years for new versions, as this is a very well-written program with plenty of features.

I am avoiding cost and complexity of a NAS drive

I am using the following concept to avoid cost and complexity of a NAS drive. I want to keep it simply and to have redundancy of backup using two external USB3 disks.

In the computer, I have only SSDs for absolute noiseless operation.
- SSD1: Windows 10
- SSD2: Windows Test Installation
- SSD3: User Data
- SSD4: Recording / Video Editing
- SSD5: Unix
- SSD 6-8: RAID-0, backup

For backups, I am using three Samsung 870 QVO which are organized as 19 TB RAID-0 (24 TB brutto) to bring the QVOs to speed. They provide you payable 8 TB capacity, but they become slow quickly when the disk cache is full (160MB/s).
But in a RAID-0 you get 3x160 MB/s which is 480 MB/s at minimum, often much more. In a RAID-0 the disk cache also survives a bit longer, which is an additional win.

Side note: I bought them, when they were significantly less expensive, around €330 each.
https://geizhals.de/samsung-ssd-870-qvo … 07522.html
These Icy Dock Express Cages are very well to place SSDs in the front of your desktop computer. This makes operation of SSDs easier and optimizes the airflow within the computer. I have space for 4x 5.25" mounting frames.
https://geizhals.de/icy-dock-mb324sp-b-a1265464.html
Pictures:
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/attachme … lower-jpg/
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/attachme … -raid-jpg/
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/attachme … side1-jpg/

I am using the RAID capabilities of my mainboards SATA controller (not from Windows).
Then the RAID-0 is accessible by Macrium USB Boot/Recovery stick or just in case of a new installation.

Should the RAID-0 fail, no problem, as I have redundancy. Backup of user data and the last disk images (and my "Gold Images") of the Windows SSD to two external USB3 disks. USB-3 controller, USB-3 enclosure support UASP operation.
The external USB3 disks are 20TB Seagate Exos X24 drives which are fast and reliable Hard disks up to 270 MB/sec speed.

NAS drive, redundancy, speed, costs ...

If I had only one NAS, then it would be expensive and add complexity to manage it. I also would have to trust that the RAID levels are fully working. As you can't really trust it, you would need a 2nd NAS and this is all too expensive.
I couldn't use a small NAS because 1 Gbit throughput is less compared to the transfer over USB3 with UASP. Roughly 100 MB/s vs up to 270MB/s. The cost of a 10 Gbit NAS is definitively higher, especially when having to buy two for redundancy.

The external disks are of higher capacity so that I do not have to write on the slower inner cylinders and because it brings a higher throughput.

Automation

Backup with Macrium runs unattended. The same can be achieved for FreeFileSync by using the Windows task scheduler.
Then both backups can run automatically, unattended every day or initiated by you on demand.

Windows 10 installation, tuning

Some recommendations, tuning tips and LatencyMon results:
https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?id=40861