Help a disk storage noob!

wonder_lander

wonder_lander

wonder_lander

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
5,586
Location
Stone, Staffordshire
Ok I've got an old Dell Dimensions 4600 which has a P4 2.8Mhz processor and 1GB of ram. The machine is currently used for running my birdcam (search the forums if you wanna know) and I also use it to store my music, photos and docs on.

My mother passed away in February and that led to the realisation that I don't really have a very good filing method for my photos and if I where to lose the HD then they'd be gone.

What I'm looking for is a solution that covers most of the risk basis.

I had thought about buying an HP Proliant server (ML115) and replacing the dimension. I could then add extra disks in whatever configuration people thought was best!

Currently the Dimension only has 2 HD bays, and is fitted with a 200GB C: and 300GB U: drive (U for users data) and C: for the OS (XP) and birdcam captures.

Can I get an external solution to add to the Dimensions PC, would I be better off going with the HP and adding a few disks to Raid and Backup?

What solutions are recommended for long term archive and off site storage?
 
It's not *IF* your HD will fail, it *WHEN*. Bearing that in mind the first thing I would do is burn your photos to DVD, make sure you verify the data when burning, check the disks in more than one DVD Drive if you can. That will at least give you a bit more security for now. If your computer has USB2.0 ports, or firewire, then an external HD (say, 500GB) will expand storage space and is easily transferable to another machine. Make a backup copy of your photos onto that drive in addition to the DVD discs. External drives are still volatile media though, you can't trust them not to lose everything suddenly.

For off-site probably a backup on DVD discs is easiest, but discs are fragile so pack them well, keep them away from sunlight, high humiditiy and temperatures. The best protection is to make multiple copies of everything rather than rely on ONE amour-plated backup. Remember to *check* those backups still work at 6-12 month intervals. Right now you're driving without insurance mate!

Oh, and I would forget about RAID in that machine. Even RAID1 (so called mirrored drives) are subject to failure, and the system only protects against sudden hardware failure (not data corruption or accidental file deletions). Delete files on the first drive and the mirrored drive will faithfully mirror the deletion!
 
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I do actually have a partial backup on a second machine and on an external USB drive but want something a bit more robust and structured that I can automate.

The machine stays on 24/7 so if I can get it to backup to other disks and maybe upload backups that would be useful.
 
The easiest method, and the one I use, is to have automated disc images created using Norton Ghost (other programs will do this). They are easy to copy onto external media and store, you don't have to worry about backing up individual files, they are quicker to do than filexfile copies, they can be restored onto a different hard disc if necessary.
 
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