Advice on disk backup system/NAS devices!

[Jay_Z]

Hi, I'm seeking any advice/thoughts on the followings products.

I have a ThinkPad (Windows Vista) that I am looking to backup, along with the contents of a 300GB drive I am looking to transfer over. I would like a dual drive NAS device so I can use RAID and connect via ethernet (to router or system directly)

Any thoughts, recommendations, feedback on these?

- LaCie LaCie 2big Network 2TB 301259U (2 x 1TB drives)
- D-Link 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure DNS-323 (Adding 2 x 1TB drives)
- Linksys 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure NAS200 (Adding 2 x 1TB drives)
- NETGEAR Storage Central Turbo SC101T (Adding 2 x 1TB drives)

Thanks for your advice!

[nitrobass24]

I like this device (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822111016)

It already has 2tb of storage in it and is a great price.

[pug71]

Check out this site also : http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_nas/Itemid,190

[Waldorf]

If you know Linux and you like to hack things, the D-Link 323 can be fun. I like mine, but only after I hacked it to slow down the fan (via commands, not mods) and removed the back. I also hacked it to allow me to plug in USB drives so I could back it up. There are all kind of apps you can download for it. Check out this site for some good info on it:

http://wiki.dns323.info/

An alternative to setting up RAID is to use just one disk and rsync the contents the other disk. That way, if RAID decides to wonk out on you, you haven't lost everything. I have mine in RAID, but I rsync/backup the important things to a laptop drive that I have plugged into the USB port.

Edit:
Oh yeah, the thing consumes next to no power when the drives are spun down. I replaced my file server with there 323. It consumes under 10 watts of power when idle, which is 99% of the time.

[Shaggy3zx]

Another option is to build a low-power machine and use something like BackupPC (http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/). I find that it works very well and was a fun little project.

[blivit4]

We have the Dlink DNS-323. It works fine and was easy to set up. We wanted a unit without drives, because it actually works out cheaper and you can pick the type of drive you want. (You don't need fast drives for a NAS, because of the network bandwidth limitation.) Drives are very easy to install/replace.

The advantage to ready to run NAS is that it is smaller and uses much less power than a PC setup as a NAS or file server.

Here's a review (http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/29671/75/).

[Jay_Z]

Thanks - this info and the links have been quite useful!

It looks like this may be a good direction to go and the D-Link looks like the best out of these 3 units. The reviews have been interesting that compare this and since the product has been out for a couple years it seems it has had some firmware upgrades to address some of the issues.