Need simple ethernet backup drive

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evilsofa

[H]F Junkie
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Jan 1, 2007
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I've got three computers:
Win7 64bit PC with 320GB hard drive (my main rig)
WinXP PC with 320GB hard drive (wife's rig, will eventually be upgraded to Win7 64bit when she lets me)
Mac Mini with 60GB hard drive (for my web browsing and email) currently running Mac OS X 10.4 (I am holding out for 10.7 before upgrading the OS, I know that will be awhile)

I've got a Verizon FIOS router, the Actiontec MI424WR. All three computers are connected to that by ethernet, with one ethernet port remaining.

I would like to have a simple hard drive (1TB would be enough) which I could plug into the router using ethernet and be able to back up all 3 computers onto it with reasonably easy applications.

I don't really care about web sharing, media hookups to TVs, etc. This is just going to be my backup solution.

Looking around in newegg's NAS section, the Buffalo LS-XH1.0TL seems to be the cheapest NAS with good ratings, and it's $175. In the external hard drive section, I find the LaCie Network Space 2 1TB for $120, and its description seems to say it'll do everything I want.

I don't have anything like an external hard drive case, and have managed to give away all my old crappy PC cases to friends and family, so I don't know if a build-my-own FreeNAS box would be worth bothering to build over the options I've already mentioned.

Any alternatives or problems I haven't thought of? Would I want to use FreeNAS instead of whatever comes with the stuff I'm looking at?
 
We have 2 different model Buffalo NAS here at work that we use for miscellaneous storage. I'm too lazy to get up to check the model numbers but I do know one was a RAID drive and the other wasn't. The RAID drive ended up dieing on us with no warning, the standard drive runs like a champ.

I don't have any experience with the LaCie products. I would think for the money and ease at which you can be setup and running I would go with a NAS for your storage needs and not worry about piecing together something.
 
I have had both a lacie and several buffalo NAS' fail catastrophically. If you are looking to add storage to a network then avoid them like the plague. If you are looking for a network attached backup type device where the stuff being stored is a 2nd or 3rd copy of data then they are just fine for the money.

For the lacie the power supply died and took the raid config with it, all data was lost. For the buffalo the PSU killed two drives thus breaking the array entirely. And the other one the chassis failed, but after cross shipping a replacement and working some serious tinkering magic we were able to get that one back online without losing too much data. Buffalo claimed you could move drives to different chassis and not lose anything but they couldn't actually explain how to do it and what little support they did give didnt work at all.

The lacie was the 2 drive RAID 0/1 version and the buffalos were the 4 drive ones (the Terrastation line iirc) configured in RAID5, a lot of good that did them.

This is a true example of getting what you pay for, I will never use nor recommend either products in a production environment again.

additional note, for my purchases/experience I have seen buffalos fail 2 out of 3 times, lacie 1 for 2, western digital 0 of 3, netgear 0 out of 1 and iogear 0 out of 2 (though I wouldn't recommend iogear or netgear they are slower than cold tar)
 
Thanks for the input! I'm not at all interested in RAID versions, which seems to be a major cause for failures, because the extra performance is completely unnecessary for me.

Looking at western digitals, I see the 1TB My Book World Edition for $150, and it's even at my local Costco for the same price so I would probably just pick it up there, but the newegg reviews of it seem pretty negative. Newegg reviews seem to be pretty bad for all NAS - it seems the more reviews they have, the worse they get.
 
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evilsofa said:
Looking at western digitals, I see the 1TB My Book World Edition for $150, and it's even at my local Costco for the same price so I would probably just pick it up there, but the newegg reviews of it seem pretty negative. Newegg reviews seem to be pretty bad for all NAS - it seems the more reviews they have, the worse they get.
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Please don't open yourself up to the grief. I didn't heed the reviews and my 1tb World Edition died on me 1 year after I bought it. Wasn't worth trying to RMA because I just ripped the drive out and threw it in a WHS. It did what it was supposed to but the speeds were horrible and the "extras" were worthless.

Edit: I should say the enclosure and the controller died, the drive was fine and still works great in my WHS 1 year later.
 
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Kenworth said:
Please don't open yourself up to the grief. I didn't heed the reviews and my 1tb World Edition died on me 1 year after I bought it. Wasn't worth trying to RMA because I just ripped the drive out and threw it in a WHS. It did what it was supposed to but the speeds were horrible and the "extras" were worthless.

Edit: I should say the enclosure and the controller died, the drive was fine and still works great in my WHS 1 year later.
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Really couldnt agree more. Havent really seen any 'cheap' NAS live up to its task of being reliable. though oddly enough an aftermarket NAS thing I got after the lacie died has lasted a good bit longer (used the drives from teh lacie) but I still will never buy one of those things again. No commercial NAS in a SOHO or home user's price range will work well enough compared to just adding a USB drive to a computer. The components just seem to die a lot more than they should.
 
Okay, just getting an external USB drive seems like the best thing for my purposes, since cheap NASes are so bad. I can handle the sneakernet method since all the computers are in the same room.

I see WD and Seagate versions of 1TB USB 2.0 drives for $80.
 
Doing a bit more research, I think I've decided to get an internal drive and an external case separately, because the enclosures on external drives seem to fail a lot. Also, the two PCs have eSATA so that would be nice.

My initial research has me looking at the Vantec NST-300SU-BK for $27 and the Hitachi Deskstar 1TB for $50 after MIR. The Antec MX-1 enclosure seemed nicer but costs twice as much, while WD drives cost $20 more and don't seem to play well with Vantec enclosures.

Looking around for backup software too; I'd like to have incremental backup ability. I think I've heard criticism of the Windows 7 backup utility, so GFI Home Edition seems like what I want. Is there better?

Edit: now I see a labor day newegg deal on the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB for $50 - should I leap on that? Edit 2: or maybe not.

And this non-enclosure from Thermaltake for $30.08 after shipping looks intriguing.
 
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And this non-enclosure from Thermaltake.....
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Those are considered drive docks and work just fine for quick swapping but a case would give your storage drives a little more protection.

Doing a bit more research, I think I've decided to get an internal drive and an external case separately
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An extremely wise move that should be a no-brainer but some still insist on taking their chances with prebuilt units.

The Antec MX-1 enclosure seemed nicer but costs twice as much,
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Do yourself a favor and get a case with active cooling. The newer green drives run cooler than their 7200 rpm cousins but I wouldn't buy a case without a fan. BTW, I'm not familiar with any problems between WD drives and Vantec enclosures. Do you happen to have a link?

For back-up and restore I like Acronis but it's not free.
 
Old Hippie said:
BTW, I'm not familiar with any problems between WD drives and Vantec enclosures. Do you happen to have a link?
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Many comments in the newegg user reviews for the Vantec NST-300SU-BK complained about problems with WD drives, particularly 1TB versions, and newegg comments about the Vantec NST-360SU found similar complaints, including this interesting one:

I traced down the problem to the power supply (both units that I bought in August worked with the power supply bought in January). The problem is that at start up when the current on the 5V input spikes the 12V output of the supply grows to 14V which triggers the HDD self protection. Because I am an electronics engineer, I managed to find an easy fix for the problem, but I am not allowed to disclose it here, as it involves adding an extra component to the power supply to limit the voltage spike.
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