Good backup solution or not?

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450

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Feb 19, 2007
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At my friend's house there are 4 computers: 3 desktops (wired w/gigabit onboard) and 1 laptop (wireless).

About 300-400GB of data to back up total at first. With very minor changes after the inital backup.

They have a 1 TB USB/eSATA external HDD that is currently 5-10% full. They currently have a 10/100mbps 54g wireless router, but I thought about upgrading the router to a Linksys WRT-350N for the DD-WRT firewall capabilities, the gigabit ethernet, and the USB port. Backups would be made with Acronis True Image to the 1TB external.

Would it be a good idea to hook up the 1TB to the USB port of a router like the WRT-350N or DiR-655 and back up via wired gigabit ethernet? Or should I use another method?
 
Not that I have tried it your way, but I would connect the external directly to the computers directly (using the eSATA when possible).
 
Those USB ports on wireless routers are flakey at best.

No way would I trust it for flawless back-ups.
 
sounds like Windows Home Server would be perfect for this, especially for incremental backups and using the external drives as a secondary backup.
 
Well they don't have more room for a 4th desktop in there, so would it be alright to use the current 1TB external, hook it up to one of the computer via eSATA and setup the drive as a shared network drive then backup all the computer w/True Image? Also is a 100mbps network fast enough.
 
I have another question...My friend has a spare laptop... 1.6GHz Pentium M, 512MB DDR. Could I install WHS on that and have the 1TB HDD on USB 2 and have that be the backup server?
 
450 said:
Well they don't have more room for a 4th desktop in there, so would it be alright to use the current 1TB external, hook it up to one of the computer via eSATA and setup the drive as a shared network drive then backup all the computer w/True Image? Also is a 100mbps network fast enough.
Click to expand...

450 said:
I have another question...My friend has a spare laptop... 1.6GHz Pentium M, 512MB DDR. Could I install WHS on that and have the 1TB HDD on USB 2 and have that be the backup server?
Click to expand...

They don't have the room for a super small system but they have room for a router, external usb drive enclosure and drive, and a laptop?

Sell the laptop and buy something like a HP home server, super tiny.
 
Sell the laptop and buy the following -
MSI Wind PC ($140) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856167032
G.Skill 2GB ($20) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231147
Windows Home Server ($95) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116550
Add the 1TB drive and you have a fully working WHS for $255 then take out what you get for the laptop. Very much worth it. You could also save $95 in the short run buy getting the 120day WHS evaluation.
 
Just wanted to let you guys know that we eventually went for the HP EX470 Windows Home Server. Thanks for all the advice!
 
Depending on how important that stuff is, they should also look into keeping some data offsite in case of fire, burglary, etc.

A simple external HDD or periodic burning of media wihch is kept at an office or friend's house can save invaluable family pictures or whatever.
 
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