How do you arrange storage and backups

B

bubbles

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 16, 2005
Messages
180
How do you guys organize your storage?

Here's my setup:

PC: 120GB C: - OS/progs drive
PC: 300GB D: - Downloads/Files/Temp stuff
PC: 500GB external USB - nightly backup of PC
SERVER: 2TB raid5 array - Long term storage, movies, music.

Do you think there a better way to organize it? I see a lot of 750GB and 1TB drives these days but I wouldn't feel comfortable storing that much without a backup and its much more than I would need for a C: drive.

I'd like to keep things efficient as possible, maybe do away with the server?
 
Do you have a backup for your server?

I have a 1 TB Hammer Myshare NAS box. I have it setup in Raid 1 for 500 gig of storage, and that gets backed up to 2 external USB drives. Anything important on my 5 PC's I have around the house goes on the NAS box which then get's backed up regularly.

Don
 
I backup the OS drive of the server if I ever make changes to anything but I don't backup the array because it's too big. Otherwise I leave it as is. I use the JFS journaling filesystem, and the Samba share is read-only to windows. I transfer files over via FTP and have a script that automatically moves them to the read only share, so there is not much risk of a virus or file system problems. The only problem would be 2 drives in the array failing at the same time.

I've never seen a cheap ready-made NAS box that is fast enough. I get 30-40 MB/sec transfer, even through a DGL-4300 router. I can easily burn dvds straight off the server and unrar files on the samba share (gets processed through the PC though at ~70MB/s duplex).

I do backup important files on the USB drive, but dont have enough space to backup music and everything else.
 
What software do you use for backing up to your backup server?

I use DVDs for music and downloads, if they are worthy. DVDRWs for regular backup of important data, and I have another hard drive to copy the important data. I don't backup my downloads because I find I erase things or have no need for them after I've watched it.
 
I haven't tried/tested a raid setup, and I have misgivings about one. When I swap out a 500GB drive for a 750, I will buy another 500GB drive an try a raid. That being said:

PC:
150GB - OS/Apps/Games
750GB partitioned to 250GB - My Documents and 500GB - Storage/Bits

Server:
80GB - OS/Apps
250GB - My Docs backup
750GB - TV Shows
750GB - Movies
500GB - Stuff...
 
I find having partitions annoying, personally, and avoid it when I get the chance.

On my desktop, I have a Raptor with two partitions: data and OS, each of equal size. I'd have only one partition if I hadn't had to have XP installed at one point. One of these days I'll get around to merging them.
On my (Solaris x86) server I have an 80GB boot disk with three slices on it: root, altroot, and /export/home. Then the other disks are in a single zpool, storing stuff I don't care about. I'm hoping to find money to get that pool mirrored so I can have more confidence in it.
On my laptop I have a single 2GB CF card that stores the OS and data in compressed form. I have about 3.2GB of software on it, but the squashfs'ed image is only about 1.2GB.
 
I don't mess with partitions. I've got a 500 GB drive as my system drive and my 3 SCSI drives in RAID 0 for programs/video editing/swap file. I have a separate fileserver with four 250 GB drives in RAID 5. It has folders for disk images, music, videos, pictures, and miscellaneous (mostly video projects I'm working on).

I use an 200 GB external drive for backing up vital stuff and I synchronize my fileserver and my parents fileserver every few months when I come home from school.
 
My C:\System partition is about 40GB in partition size, but only about 8GB used (XP + critical apps only). Non-critical apps and games in other partitions, no backup necessary.

Currently using Acronis TI10 for backup of C:\System to another partition on same drive and to DVD media.

All critical personal data on separate partition backed up separately by Nero to DVD media periodically.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top