Suggestions for home network backup hard drive?

[ErikLS2]

I need to get a network hard drive for backing up all our files at home. Want one that will plug right into my router I think instead of one of the existing computers. Found this one at Costco:

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11535973&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eCat=BC|84|31022|59219&N=4018620&Mo=4&pos=3&No=0&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=59219&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&ec=BC-EC10626-Cat31022&topnav=

Any one have any other suggestions? Thanks!

[Mathius]

I always get fliers from Tigerdirect in my e-mail and they always have cheap drives on sale once every few weeks. I read the reviews on them often and while a lot of them don't get good reviews, they are still recommended as ok for backups because a strictly RAID and/or backup drive doesn't get as much strain as a normally used HD I guess.

It might be worth looking into. They do have some really good deals. I think they had a 2tb drive for $70 OEM a month ago.

Newegg is a great place to buy computer stuff as well, and they have very helpful reviews and pretty darn good customer service.

Mathius

[pokey64]

We have multiple PCs around the house so I use Microsoft Live Sync. It's simple to setup and it's free. It will automatically sync folders that you select between each PC you setup so you have a copy on each one. If they're on the same LAN network it tranfers locally. If your away it will transfer accross the net. After the first big sync it will just do modified or new files. It's pretty flawless. The only annoyance is if 2 PCs have have the same file open it will create a second copy.

My wife and I both have laptops and we sync everything from pictures and iTunes music to work files. Pretty much anything you'd hate to loose.

Upside is you have another PC to hop on if needed. Downside is that a running PC will take more power than just a drive and probably cost/GB if you don't already have 2 PCs.

https://sync.live.com/home.aspx (https://sync.live.com/home.aspx)

I'm not familiar with network hard drives but have had a couple USB external drives fail within the first year.

[XLexusTech]

buffalo or lacie... if were talking a few hundred gig Else a portable solid state drive can be had anywere

http://www.buffalotech.com/

http://www.lacie.com/

[GeoffP]

I'd recommend staying away from any larger Seagate drives until they resolve the reliability issues they've been having. Aside from that, most of the external drives available on the market are generally good quality.

[ArtosDracon]

There are actually only about five companies that make the hard drves themselves and two companies that make the logic chips for these things, so IMHO, just base your choice on value and warranty. Iomegas are generally good quality, and use WD drives if memory serves.

[ErikLS2]

Thanks for all the input. I talked to a local computer store I do business with that specializes in data recovery and they said due to the proprietary software on these things, recovering data from them is difficult. They suggested also having an online backup source.

I found this highly rated one and it seems very comprehensive
https://www.sugarsync.com/

[sebtarta]

Online backup source? Nor worth it. What is this mainly used for? Business, personal?

There are several options here. But it also depends on how much money you are willing to spend.


Two ways to tackle this:

1- You can get a Network Attached Storage (NAS), have it build with a RAID 1 for mirroring. Here you just have to add the drives, which need to be exact.

For example you can get this NAS unit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822108028

And add 2 HD like these
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284

All in all its around $480, or you can add a few extra $$$ and get larger HDs if needed.



2- Build a PC with the option of RAID 10 on it, and use that as a file server. This is more expensive than the above, you can then have an external drive attached to that PC and make a backup every other day if needed.

[ErikLS2]

Use is mainly personal. Pictures and home movies of kids and stuff, financial info, tax returns, etc.

SugarSync has some really cool features above and beyond backin up files. You can access your files from any computer, it syncs multiple computers, if I take a pic with my Blackberry, it automatically is uploaded to the site's photoalbum and syncs to my home computer. Stores the last 5 versions of each file but only the latest version counts towards your total storage allotment.

Will probably still at least have something external at home too. If we lost all our kid pics and movies, wife would not be happy (nor would I).

[GeoffP]

Erik,

You might consider a Windows Home Server. They use redundant storage out of the box and are easy to add additional storage space to the protected array of drives by either installing more drives internally or via eSATA or USB.

[ArtosDracon]

WHS with full redundancy is sounding like your best option IMHO. SugarSinc is cool, but think about the cost of that per month over roughly 5 years and you could pay for a server(likely twice) and then you have full control over your data and back-ups and recovery is easy because it uses a dedicated OS drive and completely standard storage models. The only drawback to this, as with RAID1 is that your usable space is exactly 50% of your total hard drive capacity. I like RAID5 or RAID6 personally, they're relatively easy to control and so long as you have a windows server OS or a Pro version of the desktop OS you'll retain access to your data so long as you use software RAID. It won't be as fast as hardware RAID, but for file storage you don't need fast, you need fast enough, and some kind of redundancy. You could pick up regular desktop parts and build a diskless server for ~$300 and then add however much storage you want. It'll be infinitely expandable that way in theory too.

[sebtarta]

RAID5 is no that is old technology. Maybe RAID5+1 (or 53), but for what he is using RAID10 is more than enough.

He is not using any databases so there is no need for an integrated parity check. Also by having a RAID5 only, if one of the HDs crashes you lose everything.

Having a RAID10, if one goes down, swap a new one and it rebuilds it self.


Also for a RAID you always want it to be hardware and not software controlled.

But it all boils down to how much money you are willing to fork out.

[1badchevelle]

great info.thanks.

[ArtosDracon]

RAID5 is no that is old technology. Maybe RAID5+1 (or 53), but for what he is using RAID10 is more than enough.

He is not using any databases so there is no need for an integrated parity check. Also by having a RAID5 only, if one of the HDs crashes you lose everything.

Having a RAID10, if one goes down, swap a new one and it rebuilds it self.


Also for a RAID you always want it to be hardware and not software controlled.

But it all boils down to how much money you are willing to fork out.

You don't lose anything if one drive crashes in a RAID5, it won't even drop the array, you can hot-swap in a new drive and it will re-build, if you have a hot spare then you don't even need to do anything but replace the drive that died with a new hot spare.

Problem with RAID10 is that you are only getting half the storage space, but it picks back up speed because of the striping, and for basic file serving you don't need the speed.

I've been using RAID5 in home for years with no problems at all, I've had drives crash with no ill effects, the only time I've had a problem was when I had a power supply let go and it took 3 of 12 drives in one array and I lost everything.

I understand that hard drives are cheaper now than ever before, and it's down to about a nickel a gigabyte on sale, but losing 50% of the space for a mirror is still hard to swallow for most.

[Jim Nilsen]

Had a friend the other day say he wanted all of his music off of his old computer and was not able to do it because his disc drive was broken. His business partner told him to get an external drive and put it on it and he would be good. then I asked if he had a USB port? He said YES !

Simple solution and the biggest reason the new mini laptops are becoming popular with kids. You can put all of your info on a USB memory stick for little or nothing and it will work on any computer you stick it in. Big bulky drives are a thing of the past and the kids know it but we all still think old school when it comes to storing our VITAL info.

I have most all of my vital stuff now on memory sticks and the rest I could care less about. I have had my computer crash and lose it all once and within a week of my new computer I was back up and going with all of what I really used and needed. I was all disappointed and panicky about it for a few days.

Important records and most other files don't take up that much room and if you really think you have to have movies and music to the terrabite size my brother has you might need to reconsider the imortance of some of your files. I laugh at my brother when he tells me how much music and movies he has on his computer slowing it down just to have it on his hard drive. It is like a contest or something that only matters to him.

Putting all of your file in one of those memory bank places is risky too. If you have no internet service because of a problem they are having you still have no access to it and it is worthless.

Go with memory sticks and update them daily just like you would a disc backup if you are that concerned about it all.