Backing up data to second hard drive

[Conor Calby]

Hello All,

I have a Freenas server (home built Intel Celeron CPU G465 @ 1.90GHz with 4GB of RAM (works fine!!) running FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201412090314)
I use the server for a variety of things but mostly as a home cloud storage system. It hosts things like family photos, various software bundles, and loads of media files. I created the server to make it easier to access content without copying them across 11 devices.

The server is about 4 years old now and I am starting to upgrade the poor thing. I've recently upgraded from FreeNAS 9.2 and plan to upgrade the RAM then upgrade to FreeNAS 11 shortly.
I have noticed a small problem... I use to backup data to a server I had in a datacenter but when I scrapped that server, I forgot to configure any further backup measures! So none of my FreeNAS data is being backed up .

I have a spare 500GB hard drive next to me now - however the mounted HDD is 3TB - with about 2.2TB in use.
I was hoping to mount this 500GB hard drive and just backup family videos and photos (like 30GB worth). I was thinking of RAID to achieve redundancy however there is a lot of rubbish on the server I can just re-download again or stuff that isn't overly important to me. I didn't want to invest in another 3TB drive just to start a RAID array and end up backing up 2.2TB of stuff I wouldn't overly miss.

Before anyone suggests deleting the 'rubbish' - it has its value and stuff I do use regularly, BUT it isn't stuff I will never be able to download again or replace.

 

[Chris Moore]

I have a Freenas server (home built Intel Celeron CPU G465 @ 1.90GHz with 4GB of RAM (works fine!!) running FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201412090314)

If you want to upgrade to a newer version of FreeNAS, you will need more memory and I would very much recommend a faster processor.

I have noticed a small problem... I use to backup data to a server I had in a datacenter but when I scrapped that server, I forgot to configure any further backup measures! So none of my FreeNAS data is being backed up

You might want to build a new server and have the new one as primary and this old one as a backup. I have two servers for that purpose.

I was thinking of RAID to achieve redundancy

Perhaps you need to learn some terminology.

Slideshow explaining VDev, zpool, ZIL and L2ARC
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/

Terminology and Abbreviations Primer
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/terminology-and-abbreviations-primer.28174/

Why not to use RAID-5 or RAIDz1
https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-raid-5-stops-working-in-2009/

What you can do here depends on the exact details of your existing hardware ... You might be able to add that 500GB drive as a separate storage pool, then just copy the things you want from one pool to the other using midnight commander.
Please review this guide so you will know the kind of information we need to know about your existing system:

Updated Forum Rules 12/5/18
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/updated-forum-rules-12-5-18.45124/