Backup Ideas

[Bry]

Hi, at the moment I have about 2.5TB of data on my PC which I backup to single external HDD.

However, this is proving quite a chore, having to plug in each one every time (finding the correct one) and proves problematic when a HDD fills up (do i buy another external hdd or upgrade the capacity with a bigger hdd)

So I am looking into a NAS system. Basically a RAID 5 system. I would ideally need 5-6 HDD's in a raid to provide approximately 4TB of backup space (looking towards the future here).

While i know a raid system shouldn't be counted on as a backup itself, the raid will essentially be mirroring the data on the pc (data backed up every week or 2) so as long as a hdd in the pc and on the external raid doesn't die at the same time it should be fine.

Now onto my actual question.

I have basically 2 options a pre built 4-5 disk raid solution like qnap or synology. Or build one myself using either freenas or windows home server.
I was looking more into building one myself however, most 8 port raid cards seem to be around £250 which is close to the price of a prebuilt NAS and way over when you add in additional pc components.
Or do I really need a Raid? Since its a backup should i just use a second pc with the drives directly attached?
While I understand I could go with a 4 port NAS card this would not have much future proof.

Any suggestions on what would be best for my backup box?

 

[rpstewart]

I don't see there being a need for an expensive hardware RAID card when the data rate is going to be limited by the speed of the LAN and hence below that which a motherboard based RAID5 solution is capable of.

The other option is to dispense with RAID entirely and simply have individual disks on the backup machine. You need to think about how to distribute your source data across the target disks - this might be complicated if you have a data set on the source box which won't fit on a single target disk if you follow me.

 

[Bry]

Yea I do thats why i was thinking of going with raid in the first place since it would allow for one big drive.

 

[Deks]

so as long as a hdd in the pc and on the external raid doesn't die at the same time it should be fine.

The flaw I see here is you have a massive amount of data backed up on site which you can't afford to lose under any circumstance. For a more secure backup policy you should consider offsite storage of data as well in case of fire, theft etc at you home.

Just thought i'd add this as disasters do happen

Deks