Storage Suggestions

Amp34 · 10 Sep 2008 at 11:04

I'm thinking of overhauling my storage system in my computer but i'm not too sure what to go for.

At the moment i have (all Hitachi's bought over the last 2-3 years):

1x160GB (for OS and Documents, on separate partitions)
2x250GB (for music, videos and Photographs)

At the moment i'm running out of space, especially for my photography which needs to be backed up (currently I do that by sticking finished work in a third partition on the 160GB drive, not the best solution).

At the moment I am wondering about keeping the 160GB drive as the OS/documents drive and swapping the 250GB drives for larger ones, possibly using one them as an external backup for the most important files. I was wondering about perhaps getting 2 1TB drives to replace the 250s, then RAIDing them together to give me a good backup solution, but when it comes to RAID I have no idea really.

So any suggestions on the layout of my machine to get the best backup but also as reasonably cheap.

Thanks

rpstewart · 10 Sep 2008 at 11:37

First off RAID1 is not a backup, it's a means of providing continued operation in the event of a hardware failure.

The simple solution would be to replace both 250Gb drives with a single internal 1Tb disk to double your internal storage capacity. Then a second 1Tb disk in an external caddy (preferably eSATA) for backups. If you want to start being paranoid then you could use one or both of the 250s for offsite backups of the really critical stuff.

Amp34 · 10 Sep 2008 at 16:33

Just to add something more to the mix I also have a laptop so a large external backup HDD would make a lot of sense. At the moment it's quite difficult and time consuming transfering data between the two and some kind of dual backup drive would be useful. Something that would automatically backup my Laptop and Desktop onto one drive and let one access another's data at any time would be ideal.

I guess if two computers wanted to access the same drive at the same time I would want some kind of NAS device? And preferably one that would let me access it wirelessly with my laptop as well as via ethernet (I don't have a wireless network where I live). Just having a quick look around for something along those lines i guess it would have to be something like Apples Time Machine, which is way more than I want to spend. Is there something like that (or another way of doing it) that is at a more down to earth price?

If that was a viable option I could then use a 1TB drive for external backup and use either another 1TB drive in my Desktop for storage or maybe a 500GB and one of the 250GB drives I already have.

Major_Disaster · 11 Sep 2008 at 21:48

Just echoing rpstewart, RAID is not backup. You get a virus, delete documents or accidentally format the drive, you loose everything (just becuase its RAID1 means that you'll have lost the data twice in effect!)

Not much help on suggesting hardware... but if cost is an issue, couldnt you just attach an external drive to the PC, and then let the laptop access it wirelessly (im assuming you have a workgroup setup at home)?

Imy · 12 Sep 2008 at 09:48

Just 2nding rpstewart's opinion.

As for having a shared backup device, you could set up the external 1TB drive on a network share but this would mean your desktop would have to be turned on when backing up your laptop.

The other route is to get a NAS enclosure instead of a standard eSATA one. eSATA would be about 7x faster though for reading and even more faster for writes.

What I would do then is stick to rpstewart's suggestion but get another external caddy (driveless) and stick one (or 2) of your 250GB drives in there to backup your laptop as I doubt your laptop has more than 500GB internal storage.

Amp34 · 12 Sep 2008 at 18:26

The only problem with eSATA is my motherboard doesn't have an eSATA connection on it (I assume it is different to the standard SATA connection).

Why use two external HDD's as I would have to spend most of my time moving files from one to the other via my desktop? To me that seems like I would be ending up with files all over the place, and triple, even quadrule backup.

At the moment I am erring on the NAS side and maybe a wireless router (as there doesn't seem to be any reasonably priced wireless versions on the market). That way I have a single backup solution for both my desktop and computer and I can share files easily without having to move them around so much.