Network storage/back-up

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Gary
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I don't really have a back-up regime and know it's something that I need to sort out. My use is personal and not professional.

I've just come across a Netgear product called Stora, which looks as though it can run with mirrored drives. That would suit me as I want to get all my pics off my work laptop, and looks as though it would give me a back-up as well. (Of course, doesn't cover catastrophe like house burning down or the unit being stolen).

Looks like I can get a unit with one 500 gb drive for about £65 and claim a second 500gb hard drive free directly from Netgear on a promotion until end August.

Given that 500gb is OK for me for quite a while, this looks like I can't go wrong. Or can I? Any comments from the experts?

Thanks,

Gary
 
Do a search for 'Netgear' on here.
 
A few people have had problems with some Netgear stuff. I have quite a bit of older Netgear stuff lying around which is still working fine but gave up on them when I ended up needing 4 routers in 2 years.
 
did someone say netgear? lol

i just returned on of my netgear NAS units and sold the other.. while the units themselves were pretty good, the support and warranty wasnt.

replaced them with synology units and theyve blown the netgears out of the water in terms of performance, quality, noise etc. havent needed to test their support yet (touch wood)

also do not use RAID mirroring as backup. EVER.
 
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Thanks chaps. So no great support for Netgear hear then!! No point in asking if you don't listen, so I'll do the search as suggested and look at Neil's suggestion.

Neil, that final bit of advice is very emphatic. Is that because, by implication, there is not a secure back up off site? Or something more than that?

Gary
 
like you say raid wont protect against fire or theft etc, but it also wont protect against hardware failure.

i.e. - i have seen a raid controller (the bit of hardware that read/writes to the drives and controls the raid configuration) fail and nuke all data on all attached drives.

RAID1 (mirroring) is not a backup method it is only designed as a method of redundancy for systems that need 24/7 uptime.
 
My NAS unit failed but the 2 drives are healthy. because they were configured as a raid the only way to get at the data is with an identical controller to the one used to create the raid.

The NAS was a backup of stuff that is on the computers we use so nothing lost when it failed but I will not be using a NAS device again. I'll still be using network backup but it will be to an old PC with drives having a simple NTFS format that can be read by any computer if the machine fails.
 
Anyone thinks Raid 5 would be better than Raid 1 if I have 3+ drives?
 
I agree with Neil about RAID. We use it on corporate servers for uptime and speed. In a home environment it is less compelling. Most of the restores I have to do at home are due to over zealous use of the shift+delete keys. RAID does not help for that.
 
I have a Western Digital NAS which is great but the software that comes with it is utter ***** so you're better off either doing it yourself or finding other software to run. Of course, if you can afford it just get a Drobo.
 
If you can't afford a Drobo then consider one of the ICYDOCK range. Very good build, quality and design.

I.e. Add two drives to one of these:

Linky

HTH

Barney
 
LemmingLover said:
Better for what?
Click to expand...

As if either one drive is dead then I can replace it and the data still be there.
Although I know Raid 1 can do that.
But aren't raid 1 has to have even number of drives?
Where raid 5 can have odd numbers as well as even.

Correct me if i am wrong :)
 
kevin612 said:
As if either one drive is dead then I can replace it and the data still be there.
Although I know Raid 1 can do that.
But aren't raid 1 has to have even number of drives?
Where raid 5 can have odd numbers as well as even.
Click to expand...

Correct.

Raid 1 is simple mirroring of data between two drives.

Raid 5 can have as many disks as you like (minimum of 3 units) and will continue to work (albeit with reduced performance) with a single drive failure in the array. You replace the failed unit and the data on it is reconstructed from parity data distributed amongst the other disks. With large disks, this can take some time.

If a second drive dies before that is done, then your data is hosed.
 
Just trying to work this out - With these NAS units, are they sold with the drives in them, or do they come at extra cost?
 
kevin612 said:
As if either one drive is dead then I can replace it and the data still be there.
Although I know Raid 1 can do that.
But aren't raid 1 has to have even number of drives?
Where raid 5 can have odd numbers as well as even.

Correct me if i am wrong :)
Click to expand...

RAID 1 = 50% loss of space for redundancy
RAID5 (3 disks) = 33% loss of space for redundancy
RAID5 (4 disks) = 25% loss of space for redundancy
RAID5 (5 disks) = 20% loss of space for redundancy
ETC.....

That's the most relevant difference in my opinion.
 
LemmingLover said:
RAID 1 = 50% loss of space for redundancy
RAID5 (3 disks) = 33% loss of space for redundancy
RAID5 (4 disks) = 25% loss of space for redundancy
RAID5 (5 disks) = 20% loss of space for redundancy
ETC.....

That's the most relevant difference in my opinion.
Click to expand...

The checksum has to be worked out over more drives so the write speed reduces as more drives are added. This is ok when there is a large amount of data which does not change a great deal or few people using the data but can be a problem is certain situations.
 
ding76uk said:
So what is the best way for large amounts of data to be backed up then?

Raid is not a good backup method, so what is the best way of doing it for large amounts of data?

Main drives in raid? and backup system needs to be non raid people say, so what do you do?
Click to expand...

As long as you have 2 physical copies of your data on 2 separate devices. That could be 2 separate raid devices of you like but don't keep all of your data on a single raid device even at raid1 level
 
neil_g said:
As long as you have 2 physical copies of your data on 2 separate devices. That could be 2 separate raid devices of you like but don't keep all of your data on a single raid device even at raid1 level
Click to expand...

Ah now it makes more sense, cheers Neil. Whats the difference with Raid 5 against Raid1? Faster, more reliable? Just thinking ahead as next year will be too big for just ext HDD's if I keep going like this.
 
cowasaki said:
The checksum has to be worked out over more drives so the write speed reduces as more drives are added. This is ok when there is a large amount of data which does not change a great deal or few people using the data but can be a problem is certain situations.
Click to expand...

<Sigh>
 
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ding76uk said:
Ah now it makes more sense, cheers Neil. Whats the difference with Raid 5 against Raid1? Faster, more reliable? Just thinking ahead as next year will be too big for just ext HDD's if I keep going like this.
Click to expand...

its too early for me but this might be worth a read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels

personally id always opt for raid5 on storage for space/cost.

also worth a look when designing your drives:

http://www.z-a-recovery.com/art-raid-estimator.htm
 
We Use 2 * Qnap 410 4 Bay units,

4 * 2Tb Drives in each unit, Gives full 8Tb in working space in each unit then the units are stored in 2 buildings seperated by about 150 meters and set to mirror each other (Connected on a Wired Gigabit Network), find this gives good disaster recovery as if a drive goes down in one unit, the data is mirrored to the remote device and if a device is stolen or damaged in fire the second device is far enough removed to be secure,

Total cost for the system was £290 for each Qnap 410, + £80 for each 2Tb drive so about £1250 all in,

The Qnap 410s also double as our Webserver and Security Camera recording system, so depends on how much you value your data and how long you need to retain it, but for Small Medium Business QNAP do some very good Drive Bays (Raid and otherwise)
 
For a starting back up you cant go far wrong with 1tb seagate drive, it comes with software. I have it set so that it checks for any new photo's or files added within a certain directory and automatically moves them to the external HDD.

I also have a Drobo with 5 drives in, yes a bit more money but 5tb's of space is good. Ok yes i know you only get about 3.5 to 4tb as the rest is bin and recovery but its great, if one of the drives fails then the information needed will be stored across the others and able to restore it. Put a new drive in and it works itself out.
Also with being wireless as soon as the computer is on it starts to work its magic.
 
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