Please advise...(Local or Network Storage?)

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16 Aug 2004
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804
Hi,

I am thinking of "centralising" all my backup and file storage needs to one device. My needs for backup are weekly backups of 2 PCs (laptop and desktop) and folder share of one big storage pool for music and mainly films in order to play them in WDTV Live.

First I tried the Raidsonic NAS 4220 but it failed after 5 minutes of using it!
Since this is the 2nd Raidsonic device it failed to me, I decided to give up to this company (1st was the IB-3218).

Right now I am among the following options:

1)Buying an 1,5TB disk and putting it in my esata/usb external case. I will use the esata for my desktop and the USB for the laptop. Unfortunatelly there wont be any NAS capability. For sharing movies I will have to keep the laptop turned on. Furthermore esata and usb cannot be used at the same time.

2)Buying an 1TB WD NAS external disk and using it for network backups and films sharing. My concern here is the backup speed via a 10/100 network and the fact that right now films sharing to WDTV in my setup is not problems-free. Furthermore the size of the disk will be limited without any upgrade capability. gigabit ethernet is not an option right now since I would need new router and new homeplugs.

Ideally I would like to have a storage device which I would be able to access locally for increased speed and via the network for remote access.

Any ideas or suggestions? What are the best practise for home storage solutions?

Thank you in advance
 
I was against this to start with, but I've got an old machine plugged into my router running Windows Home Server (tucked away in a cupboard).

Works a treat tbh. I can stream movies, audio, store files I can use on multiple machines, duplicate files in case of disk failure, and the backups run automatically and/or manually.

I had to restore the girlfriends laptop recently which was straight forward and reasonably quick.

Can't fault it really!

(yes, the cupboard is ventilated and the machine is actually underclocked to save power (AMD 3000 running at half speed) which is more than adequate for the storage and streaming needs I have)
 
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