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cartmen34 · 10-20-2006, 01:02 PM

Help! I am looking for a secure backup solution. Up until now I've been backing up everything like critical files, ISO images, and must have software to DVDs. It is getting to the point where myself and my wife have WAY to much data to backup to a few DVDs. We need a permanent solution with as much redundancy backup as possible with space to spare.

Solution?
Well, I started looking into backup solutions and a few GIS quickly came up RAID1. This seems ideal, as it writes the exact same data to each drive on the array. If one or even two drives fail, we still have all our data on one drive until the failed units are replaced. So... I know I want RAID1. How much space? Well I'm thinking at least 3 identical 500GB drives. 2 for the redundancy, and 500GB just because I want plenty of space. I'm not worried that much about speed. I just need it to be redundant in case of a hardware failure.

Another GIS and I quickly realized that I need the RAID array to be controlled by hardware not software. If the OS fails I do not want to have to re-build my array. Any suggestions on which hardware controller to use?

I'd also like the array to be accessible by everybody at any time. I don't want to put the array in my desktop because I'm constantly modifying and tinkering with it and I don't want to be in the middle of replacing my CPU when my wife needs access to some of her files. So perhaps I should built up seperate computer and plop it on my network? Maybe a NAS? How exactly do I administer a NAS?

Now a little about me. I'm a software guy, not hardware. As you may have sumised, I know enough to build my gaming machine and tweak XP Pro exactly as I like it, but that's about it. I don't konw Unix or Linux, and don't really want to take the time to learn it. (Well, at least not now. I'll probably look into it later.) If I need to build another box to accomplish this I'd like to stick with XP pro for now. I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty, and don't mind spending a little extra time to get exactly what I need, but I also don't want to spend weeks of my personal time getting it up and running.

Any suggestions? Thanks for all your help guys!

10-20-2006, 01:02 PM	#1 (permalink)
cartmen34 Psycho Location: the hills of aquafina.	need help with RAID solution Help! I am looking for a secure backup solution. Up until now I've been backing up everything like critical files, ISO images, and must have software to DVDs. It is getting to the point where myself and my wife have WAY to much data to backup to a few DVDs. We need a permanent solution with as much redundancy backup as possible with space to spare. Solution? Well, I started looking into backup solutions and a few GIS quickly came up RAID1. This seems ideal, as it writes the exact same data to each drive on the array. If one or even two drives fail, we still have all our data on one drive until the failed units are replaced. So... I know I want RAID1. How much space? Well I'm thinking at least 3 identical 500GB drives. 2 for the redundancy, and 500GB just because I want plenty of space. I'm not worried that much about speed. I just need it to be redundant in case of a hardware failure. Another GIS and I quickly realized that I need the RAID array to be controlled by hardware not software. If the OS fails I do not want to have to re-build my array. Any suggestions on which hardware controller to use? I'd also like the array to be accessible by everybody at any time. I don't want to put the array in my desktop because I'm constantly modifying and tinkering with it and I don't want to be in the middle of replacing my CPU when my wife needs access to some of her files. So perhaps I should built up seperate computer and plop it on my network? Maybe a NAS? How exactly do I administer a NAS? Now a little about me. I'm a software guy, not hardware. As you may have sumised, I know enough to build my gaming machine and tweak XP Pro exactly as I like it, but that's about it. I don't konw Unix or Linux, and don't really want to take the time to learn it. (Well, at least not now. I'll probably look into it later.) If I need to build another box to accomplish this I'd like to stick with XP pro for now. I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty, and don't mind spending a little extra time to get exactly what I need, but I also don't want to spend weeks of my personal time getting it up and running. Any suggestions? Thanks for all your help guys! __________________ "The problem with quick and dirty, as some people have said, is that the dirty remains long after the quick has been forgotten" - Steve McConnell Last edited by cartmen34; 10-20-2006 at 01:05 PM..