Need data storage and backup solution

V

vidoprof

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 3, 2007
Messages
468
So I have about 5 TB of data to store and backup. I was wondering what the best way to do that is. I would need to do incrementals as well whenever data changes on the main drive(s).

I am a photographer and have a ton of data files. I am currently using just a bunch of hard drives right now with different data on different drives, generally each drive has say 1/2 a year and then the another drive has the other half of the year and I have 6 drives right now going back a few years, and then a drobo that i do backups every couple of days by doing a manual copy to the drobo. This is pretty time consuming and really annoying.

I was wondering if anyone has any better alternatives (there has be a ton that are better than this) to what I am doing.

Thanks
Ryan
 
What I'm doing is running 8 1TB drives in raid 5 which give me 6.36usable TBs. If you need storage with redundancy, you can get few 1.5TB drives and put them into raid 5 or 6 (need a nice controller for decent speed though). Or you could get a few 1.5s in a raid 10 array which would be striped mirrored sets for write performance and redundancy. You should always have a backup though.
 
if you want to go balls out

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132016

get a pair of those

populate them each with eight 1.5tb drives, in raid 5 for redundancy

they will be rather slow writing all the data to them, since it's software raid.. but I want to say it will be the same speed if not slightly faster than your drobo unit..

anyway, you can get a program (many are free) to do incremental backups automatically at a certain time between the two units

a small business that I worked for used a program called backupassist - it's about $200 for a license but it is extremely easy to use and very easy to setup a backup schedule with just about any kind of storage device you can throw at it.

best of luck!
 
I would set up a Windows Home Server with full duplication. It would require double the hard drive space as it is a 1:1 backup, but, IMO, it avoids the hassles of RAID. I'm sure somebody will reply about how easy RAID is and all that, but for my $ WHS is the simplest solution to data storage and backup.
 
+1 for WHS. I'm looking for that as my solution for photo files.

Backup at night (automated) and time permiting, burn "client folders" to DVD for more permanent storage. It's very straightforward and a "set and forget" solution for me.
 
thanks for all the replies. I have to look into WHS for sure a little more. Those Rosewill units don't look too bad that's for sure. Plus if I get two of them then I have at least a few options.

I would have to figure out a backup solution though. I guess I would still need another bunch of hd's to backup to also right?

Thanks
Ryan
 
Here's another parts thought that's almost the same cost as above.

NORCO RPC-4020 4U Rackmount Server Case
Norco%20RPC-4020%204U.jpg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219021&Tpk=norco 4020


PC Power & Cooling S75CF 750W PSU
PC%20Power%20%26%20Cooling%20S75CF%20750W.jpg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341011
 
I agree with daphatgrant for the hardware with WHS (with full duplication) as it provides huge expansion very easily, but this is still just the storage side. This would protect you from drive failure, which sounds like your biggest issue currently.

Offsite storage as a backup seems like it is the next step afterwords.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top