Adcadet
Storage Freak
Hey gang,
My wife and I are settling into our new house, and we need to setup some sort of robust backup system. With my job starting soon, I won't have much time to think about it for the next year. It will need to backup and/or serve data from two computers mostly. Between my wife and I, we're talking about somewhere around 340 GB currently, but of course I'll want room to grow. Thus I'm guessing that 500 GB will suffice for now. Most of the data that it will either be serving or backing up isn't accessed regularly (i.e. backed up pictures), or the data that is accessed more frequently doesn't require great speed (MP3s), and the stuff that is frequently accessed are small files (Word, Excel, Quicken files). We're too forgetful to backup regularly to DVD, so I want some sort of hard drive system. Above I've said "backup/serve" because right now most of the data I access is served off of the old desktop computer because I like being able to access it from my laptop or wife's computer, and my wife and I share an MP3 collection. I'd like to move almost all of our data to a single server.
Here's what I've got:
- Two desktop computers, with a good amount of storage space on them already - enough to keep original copies of the data.
- My old desktop computer, which is serving up most of the data that I use. It has an old 7K250, but after the move it made some loud clicking noises. Windows thought the drive didn't have any errors, but I'm not about to trust it.
- My wireless network router has 4 ethernet ports - two are taken up by the two desktop computers, the old desktop computer uses the other, and the fourth is rarely used by a laptop. The laptop can use wireless if it has to.
<b>Some options I've thought of:
-Option #1- turn the old desktop into a full featured server. Install linux on some hard drive, and pop in a 500 GB, and somehow set it up to regularly backup it's data back to the desktop computers. Or better yet, just get two 500 GB drives and set them up in RAID1. The good is that I've already got the old computer (MSI K8T Neo, AMD64 "Newcastle" 3000, 512 MB RAM, SATA RAID ports (Promise and VIA 8237), so the cost would be $115 per 500GB hard drive. The bad is that if the computer dies, my data is at least temporarily off-line. Also, since I'm now paying my electric bills, it involves running another computer 24/7. However, I do like having another desktop computer available to me in case my main one goes down for any reason. Is there a better RAID card that what my board comes with that is relatively cheap? I like the idea of being able to take out the HDs and RAID card and just plugging them into another computer in case the old desktop goes down.
-Option #2 - set up a simple NAS HD device, either one that comes with the HD or buy the device and HD separately. I suppose this would eat less electricity, and perhaps be more reliable than my old desktop acting as a server. The down side is that it will be slightly more expensive per GB. It looks like 500GB models start around $200, and I'd pay about the same at least for the device and HD separately. From looking around online, it looks like these devices range from adequate and hassle-free to buggy, slow, and frustratingly crippled.
Here's another thing: the computer room is located directly above our laundry/storage room, which is where the cable (internet) comes into the home. There is a sizable gap around heating/cooling vent, making it trivial to run wires though the floor, which is how we ran the cable up to the computer room. Directly beneath the computer room in the laundry room is a series of sturdy wooden shelves upon which we could mount some computer hardware - near power, in a cool place, and above the floor where water could potentially accumulate. The computer room gets warm, being on the second floor and filled with 3 computers and two hot bodies (OK, one hot body and one not so hot one) in a small room. Moving some of the heat generating equipment downstairs might be appreciated.
Anybody have thoughts on a simple, cheap, effective way of accomplishing my relatively simple backup goals? Yeah, yeah, it's probably pick 2 out of the 3.
Thanks,
Adcadet
P.S. The move went surprisingly well. We had some very minor hickups, but nothing to complain about and we're now permanently here in Rochester. If anybody is near by, shoot me a hello!
My wife and I are settling into our new house, and we need to setup some sort of robust backup system. With my job starting soon, I won't have much time to think about it for the next year. It will need to backup and/or serve data from two computers mostly. Between my wife and I, we're talking about somewhere around 340 GB currently, but of course I'll want room to grow. Thus I'm guessing that 500 GB will suffice for now. Most of the data that it will either be serving or backing up isn't accessed regularly (i.e. backed up pictures), or the data that is accessed more frequently doesn't require great speed (MP3s), and the stuff that is frequently accessed are small files (Word, Excel, Quicken files). We're too forgetful to backup regularly to DVD, so I want some sort of hard drive system. Above I've said "backup/serve" because right now most of the data I access is served off of the old desktop computer because I like being able to access it from my laptop or wife's computer, and my wife and I share an MP3 collection. I'd like to move almost all of our data to a single server.
Here's what I've got:
- Two desktop computers, with a good amount of storage space on them already - enough to keep original copies of the data.
- My old desktop computer, which is serving up most of the data that I use. It has an old 7K250, but after the move it made some loud clicking noises. Windows thought the drive didn't have any errors, but I'm not about to trust it.
- My wireless network router has 4 ethernet ports - two are taken up by the two desktop computers, the old desktop computer uses the other, and the fourth is rarely used by a laptop. The laptop can use wireless if it has to.
<b>Some options I've thought of:
-Option #1- turn the old desktop into a full featured server. Install linux on some hard drive, and pop in a 500 GB, and somehow set it up to regularly backup it's data back to the desktop computers. Or better yet, just get two 500 GB drives and set them up in RAID1. The good is that I've already got the old computer (MSI K8T Neo, AMD64 "Newcastle" 3000, 512 MB RAM, SATA RAID ports (Promise and VIA 8237), so the cost would be $115 per 500GB hard drive. The bad is that if the computer dies, my data is at least temporarily off-line. Also, since I'm now paying my electric bills, it involves running another computer 24/7. However, I do like having another desktop computer available to me in case my main one goes down for any reason. Is there a better RAID card that what my board comes with that is relatively cheap? I like the idea of being able to take out the HDs and RAID card and just plugging them into another computer in case the old desktop goes down.
-Option #2 - set up a simple NAS HD device, either one that comes with the HD or buy the device and HD separately. I suppose this would eat less electricity, and perhaps be more reliable than my old desktop acting as a server. The down side is that it will be slightly more expensive per GB. It looks like 500GB models start around $200, and I'd pay about the same at least for the device and HD separately. From looking around online, it looks like these devices range from adequate and hassle-free to buggy, slow, and frustratingly crippled.
Here's another thing: the computer room is located directly above our laundry/storage room, which is where the cable (internet) comes into the home. There is a sizable gap around heating/cooling vent, making it trivial to run wires though the floor, which is how we ran the cable up to the computer room. Directly beneath the computer room in the laundry room is a series of sturdy wooden shelves upon which we could mount some computer hardware - near power, in a cool place, and above the floor where water could potentially accumulate. The computer room gets warm, being on the second floor and filled with 3 computers and two hot bodies (OK, one hot body and one not so hot one) in a small room. Moving some of the heat generating equipment downstairs might be appreciated.
Anybody have thoughts on a simple, cheap, effective way of accomplishing my relatively simple backup goals? Yeah, yeah, it's probably pick 2 out of the 3.
Thanks,
Adcadet
P.S. The move went surprisingly well. We had some very minor hickups, but nothing to complain about and we're now permanently here in Rochester. If anybody is near by, shoot me a hello!
