Having an off site storage would be ideal, personally i don't like the cloud. Maybe you can simply barter it with your next door neighbor. At $60/year/computer the cloud is not very cheap either. I do agree with Gustin on the raid 5 being surpassed by raid 6, however if you are going to settle for a 4 drive unit, a raid 6 would use 2 of your drives for redundancy, granted it would still be better than 2x raid 1 volumes for safety, your capacity would be the same. On a 5 drive bay, the story would be different tho :-) you would have a 5 drive spool in which 2 drives can fail, if you replace the first failed drive immediately, you still have redundancy while rebuilding. AND that is really great safety. and you would have the storage capacity of 3 drives put together..
Cheers Sam On May 31, 2014 Saturday 01:24:25 Gustin Johnson wrote: > Offsite would be ideal, though probably easier and cheaper to use an online > backup service like Carbonite. > > Typically a NAS just sits somewhere in your network. > > On Fri, May 30, 2014 at 11:22 PM, Joe S <joes...@shaw.ca> wrote: > > Thanks for the info. I'll have to look at raid. Don't know > > anything about it at the moment and don't really have the time > > at present. NAS I'm assuming to make it worthwhile I would have > > to have someplace outside my residence to back up to? > > > > On Fri, 30 May 2014 11:43:45 -0600 > > > > Gustin Johnson <gus...@meganerd.ca> wrote: > > > Just a couple of comments: > > > RAID 5 is to be avoided at all costs. This is a complicated > > > topic but the short answer is that I don't know anyone for > > > whom RAID5 is a good idea. Raid 1, 10, and 6 are the levels > > > that interest you. > > > > > > "Green" branded drives are fine since most NAS enclosures do > > > not use a hardware RAID controller. The vast majority use > > > some version of embedded Linux and the software RAID stack > > > mdadm (not to be confused with the fakeraid stuff, mdadm is > > > awesome). Having said that I usually purchase WD "Red" drives > > > solely for the longer warrenty (I actually don't care about > > > the other features, most of the features are marketing fluff > > > that you are not going to be using anyway). > > > > > > For purchasing suggestions I am a fan of the Synology line of > > > NAS devices. Hi Joe, > > > Having a single drive external, while better than nothing is > > > way not as good as having a 2 bay / drive raid 1 enclosure. in > > > terms of safety i am talking. A > > > step up in terms of safety would be a 4 drive raid 1 or 5 > > > enclosure. A step up > > > in all these cases, is having the drives/enclosures as a NAS > > > device sitting in > > > a different place (safer?) than the backed up computers are, > > > and connected with > > > the network to them. > > > > > > Most 2-4 drive enclosures (that come with drives) state the > > > capacity as a raid > > > 0, which can be tricky for the uninitialized. A raid0 > > > configuration will not increase safety, in fact it will reduce > > > it drastically, so when looking at populated 2 - 4 drive > > > units, as a rule of thumb, half the capacity for 2 disk > > > units (to get the capacity in raid 1 terms). the 4 disk raids > > > a bit more complicated. you can treat them as 2 pairs, this > > > halving the capacity, or as a > > > 4 disk raid 5, in which case you get 75% of the total disk > > > capacities. > > > > > > For direct connect enclosures, look for e-sata capability, > > > look for usb3 , specially if your backed up computer has these > > > ports, you can not go wrong with these features. > > > > > > For NAS devices, look for the once that have dual gigabit > > > Ethernet connectors, > > > they usually perform better speed wise. > > > > > > If you are going to invest on a 2-4 or more drive external nas > > > unit, think about augmenting it with UPS (uninterrupted power > > > supply), for capacity, add up the power rating on the NAS > > > unit. If you want to skimp out on the UPS, just > > > get a surge protector, it's your data after all. > > > > > > Here are some pointers: > > > > > > Single drive, direct connection: > > > http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX45802 > > > http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX22324 > > > > > > Dual drive, direct connection: > > > http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX40154 > > > http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX43461 > > > > > > 4 drive, direct connection: > > > (do consider the noise of 4 drives spinning near your desktop) > > > http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX30898/Reviews > > > and of course the drobo: > > > http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX42950 > > > > > > Single drive, NAS: > > > http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX32282 > > > http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX33812 > > > > > > Dual drive, NAS: > > > http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX47066 > > > http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX49052 > > > > > > 4 drive , NAS: > > > http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX39139 > > > http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX49654 > > > > > > And you still need to get your drives. > > > Generally look for NAS / Storage rated drives, Green rated > > > drives tend to perform poorly in raid environments. > > > Desktop / workstation rated drives will do fine, specially > > > under low/medium stress situations. > > > > > > On May 29, 2014 Thursday 14:22:21 Joe S wrote: > > > > I was reading the reviews of external hard drives. I found a > > > > number had problems with reliability. I don't have experience > > > > with these, but need something for backing up my home > > > > computer. Are there any that can be recommended? I also > > > > thought of getting an enclosure and a regular drive in case > > > > I have to replace it in the future. Probably 1 TB or so. > > > > > > > > > > > > Thanks for suggestions > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > clug-talk mailing list > > > > clug-talk@clug.ca > > > > http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca > > > > Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) > > > > **Please remove these lines when replying > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > clug-talk mailing list > > > clug-talk@clug.ca > > > http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca > > > Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) > > > **Please remove these lines when replying > > > > _______________________________________________ > > clug-talk mailing list > > clug-talk@clug.ca > > http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca > > Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) > > **Please remove these lines when replying _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list clug-talk@clug.ca http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) **Please remove these lines when replying
