External Ethernet HD and Mirroing

  • Thread starter Thread starter gstark33
  • Start date Start date
Ron Reaugh said:
Rod Speed said:
Ron Reaugh said:
Do any of the new inexpensive ethernet external drives support
mirroring?
AFAIK no.
My wife now works from home and I (as her IT guy)
want to set up a fail safe backup/recovery system.
I'd like to have two external drives mirrored to each other.
I can understand that very well.
My advice would be to do it yourself with a real computer running
Linux and software-RAID1, i.e. two disks that mirror each other.
Then export the space via NFS (if you use Linux/Unix) or
SAMBA (if you use Windows). For the server best use some older,
reliable hardware, e.g. an older computer you trust. If you buy
new hardware, go for older, reliable stuff, not cutting edge.
Also keep a spare disk handy.
The advantage of this approach is that you know what you get, you
understand the technology and you can repair/upgrade/modify it
yourself. The disadvantage is that it requires some work. I
don't think it will be more expensive.
I've rarely seen such a bad set of advice.

Its not bad advice. I'd personally do it using Win and
RAID in the extra PC. Mainly because that give you a
lot more flexibility than with a ethernet hard drive box.
The user should simply mirror two drives on a PC and then keep a 3rd[4th] HD
for offsite backup. The 3rd[&4th] should be rotated offsite as a
backup.

That wouldnt be as convenient to use.

Nonsense, it's the most convenient.

Nope, not if the PC cant handle the removal of the drives easily.
 
Rod Speed said:
Ron Reaugh said:
Rod Speed said:
Do any of the new inexpensive ethernet external drives support mirroring?

AFAIK no.

My wife now works from home and I (as her IT guy)
want to set up a fail safe backup/recovery system.

I'd like to have two external drives mirrored to each other.

I can understand that very well.

My advice would be to do it yourself with a real computer running
Linux and software-RAID1, i.e. two disks that mirror each other.
Then export the space via NFS (if you use Linux/Unix) or
SAMBA (if you use Windows). For the server best use some older,
reliable hardware, e.g. an older computer you trust. If you buy
new hardware, go for older, reliable stuff, not cutting edge.
Also keep a spare disk handy.

The advantage of this approach is that you know what you get, you
understand the technology and you can repair/upgrade/modify it
yourself. The disadvantage is that it requires some work. I
don't think it will be more expensive.

I've rarely seen such a bad set of advice.

Its not bad advice. I'd personally do it using Win and
RAID in the extra PC. Mainly because that give you a
lot more flexibility than with a ethernet hard drive box.

The user should simply mirror two drives on a PC and then keep a 3rd[4th] HD
for offsite backup. The 3rd[&4th] should be rotated offsite as a backup.

That wouldnt be as convenient to use.

Nonsense, it's the most convenient.

Nope, not if the PC cant handle the removal of the drives easily.

Nope, using SATA and removable trays like KingWin KF-83 it's the most
convenient.
 
Ron Reaugh said:
Rod Speed said:
Ron Reaugh said:
Do any of the new inexpensive ethernet external drives support
mirroring?

AFAIK no.

My wife now works from home and I (as her IT guy)
want to set up a fail safe backup/recovery system.

I'd like to have two external drives mirrored to each other.

I can understand that very well.

My advice would be to do it yourself with a real computer running
Linux and software-RAID1, i.e. two disks that mirror each other.
Then export the space via NFS (if you use Linux/Unix) or
SAMBA (if you use Windows). For the server best use some older,
reliable hardware, e.g. an older computer you trust. If you buy
new hardware, go for older, reliable stuff, not cutting edge.
Also keep a spare disk handy.

The advantage of this approach is that you know what you get, you
understand the technology and you can repair/upgrade/modify it
yourself. The disadvantage is that it requires some work. I
don't think it will be more expensive.

I've rarely seen such a bad set of advice.

Its not bad advice. I'd personally do it using Win and
RAID in the extra PC. Mainly because that give you a
lot more flexibility than with a ethernet hard drive box.

The user should simply mirror two drives on a PC and then keep a
3rd[4th] HD
for offsite backup. The 3rd[&4th] should be rotated offsite as a
backup.

That wouldnt be as convenient to use.

Nonsense, it's the most convenient.

Nope, not if the PC cant handle the removal of the drives easily.

Yep.

using SATA and removable trays like KingWin KF-83 it's the most convenient.

Assuming the number required will fit.
 
Rod Speed said:
I'm gunny ignore all your puerile attempts at trolling, ****nert.

Wanna bet?
It's not in your nature Rodney, and you broke your promise already.
 
Ron Reaugh said:
I go away for awhile and you turned it over to the wackos.

You give him far too much honor.

When you left he wasn't here yet.
When you left you actually gave "wacko"
Rod Speed his chance to take your place.

One wacko replacing another.
 
Buffalo <http://www.buffalotech.com/products/storage.php> makes some
multiple-drive NAS boxes that do RAID, but they're not exactly
"inexpensive". Consumer NAS boxes contain a single drive and a USB port
for an additional drive, but don't support any kind of RAID. There are
some inexpensive dual-drive enclosures that do striping, but I don't
know if any do mirroring reliably.



Two drives will give you more backup safety for the buck if they're in
separate enclosures (or hot-swap carriers) and kept in separate
locations (or a fire safe). At least one of the two drives used for
backup should not be powered up and mounted all the time. Not as
convenient as a simple NAS mirror, but the minimum for a "fail-safe"
system with two drives.

XP doesn't do RAID1. IMO putting a second disk in a machine and using
Acrinis TI or one of the other image backup tools is even better than
RAID1.

RAID1 doesn't give you the kind of backup lets you recover a file you
deleted by accident, or yesterday and want it back. Keeping
generations of images on a big second disk lets you do this. An Image
backup will give yo an easy way to protect yourself prior to doing a
major OS or applicaiton upgrade.

You can tell TI to break your images up to fit on CDR or DVDR media so
you can burn backups for offsite backup.

If you crash your C drive you get a replacement drive, boot the TI
recovery CD and restore. It takes just a few minutes. About a minute
per GB. If you need to be back in business immediatly buy a spare
disk.
 
RAID 1 and backup are two different things and cover different exposures.
Both are often needed. And RAID 1 by switching drives can also cover backup
needs. Generally a compressed image backup like TrueImage to a removable HD
is the best backup solution. RAID 1 is very easy and inexpensive to get
these days. Most good mobos have it builtin for XP. An addon card is less
than $100 for RAID 1 on XP.
 
RAID 1 and backup are two different things and cover different exposures.
Both are often needed. And RAID 1 by switching drives can also cover backup
needs. Generally a compressed image backup like TrueImage to a removable HD
is the best backup solution. RAID 1 is very easy and inexpensive to get
these days. Most good mobos have it builtin for XP. An addon card is less
than $100 for RAID 1 on XP.



Back to the OP, Raid1 isn't a backup system as the phrase is generally
used.
 
I was disappointed to find out that XP does *not* support mirroring. At
least not by itself in software

Nonsense! It most certainly does, at least in XP Prof. Be aware that you
need to be using "Dynamic Disks" to do any sort of OS software based RAID.
Go to disk management, click help, help topics. Switch to the index
tab. Type "mir". Observe that "mirror sets, creating" is highlighted.

That said, I've found through the hard way that a hardware raid card is
best and easiest when it comes time to actually deal with a failed disk.
I would never ever recommend software mirroring on windows to someone with
less than an expert level of computer ability. Linux SW RAID may be
reliable but it's asinine to think that even a well versed windows user
could easily switch to using that without an enormous, time wasting effort.

For the OP, looks like Buffalo tech has the TeraStation 1 Tera byte model
that can do mirroring (you get then 500Gigs of storage) and heck, it's
only a grand; what a bargain!
<http://www.buffalotech.com/products/product-detail.php?productid=97&categoryid=19>

~Jason

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