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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/TheNormalTitan on 2026-03-28 13:07:17+00:00.

Hey guys,

I’m completely new to this homelab journey. I’m building a small setup with a mini PC, and the data will be stored on a 4 TB SSD. However, I’m not sure about the best way to handle backups.

I spoke with ChatGPT, and it suggested buying an external hard drive and backing up all the data weekly, keeping 4 weekly versions, plus 1/month and 1 yearly backup.

So in a scenario that I have only 1 TB of data, I would need at least a 6 TB external hard drive. Is that correct? My question is: is there a way to compress this data? From what I understand, the process is essentially just copying and pasting from the homelab to the external drive.

If that’s not the case, how do you usually handle backups? I’m considering buying a 3.5" NAS hard drive and using it in a USB enclosure.

Thanks, guys!