Lots of media, 4 hard drives need a solution

ericinboston · Jun 24, 2012

AppleDApp said:
Budget is limited for building/buying a PC. No more then 500$...I would like to use NAS and gigabit ethernet. I'd like an option that can replicate data to another device.

Well we at least now know your total budget...$500. Do you already have wired gigabit or faster?...all your computers/devices can push gigabit?

Gigabit still may not make you happy depending on your time expectations and backup size. 1Gb transfers at about 120MBytes/sec...that's at full throttle...with the wind blowing and all computers and their NICs perfectly perfect. Now compare 120MB/sec to your SATA hard drives that already can push/pull at at LEAST 150MB/sec. Many quality SATA drives (check http://www.newegg.com) can push/pull at over 250MB/sec. What's my point?...that using gigabit ethernet, at best, is still going to be about 1.5-3x SLOWER than using a quality 2nd internal SATA drive or using an eSATA or USB 3.0 drive. If you're only transferring 1-10GB every week, sure, go with gigabit ethernet and NAS. But if you're trying to back up 1TB-2TB, it's still going to take hours...and if your network backup is competing with other network activity/traffic, the backup will take longer.

Do you already have all the gigabit equipment and cables? Are you network savvy?

I think you/we are very close to a solution...

AppleDApp · Jun 24, 2012

ericinboston said:
Well we at least now know your total budget...$500. Do you already have wired gigabit or faster?...all your computers/devices can push gigabit?

Gigabit still may not make you happy depending on your time expectations and backup size. 1Gb transfers at about 120MBytes/sec...that's at full throttle...with the wind blowing and all computers and their NICs perfectly perfect. Now compare 120MB/sec to your SATA hard drives that already can push/pull at at LEAST 150MB/sec. Many quality SATA drives (check http://www.newegg.com) can push/pull at over 250MB/sec. What's my point?...that using gigabit ethernet, at best, is still going to be about 1.5-3x SLOWER than using a quality 2nd internal SATA drive or using an eSATA or USB 3.0 drive. If you're only transferring 1-10GB every week, sure, go with gigabit ethernet and NAS. But if you're trying to back up 1TB-2TB, it's still going to take hours...and if your network backup is competing with other network activity/traffic, the backup will take longer.

Do you already have all the gigabit equipment and cables? Are you network savvy?

I think you/we are very close to a solution...

All my device can push gigabit currently only a macbook pro but soon an iMac. gigabit ethernet is good I don't move a 1tb/week. One a busy week I will move 100+gigs on a slow week probably anywhere from 10-60 gigs. I currently have a few gigabit ethernet cables. I have some networking experience I am by no means a pro yet.

I was thinking of getting this synology NAS. My biggest concern really is telling itunes that my library is on an external drive.

ericinboston · Jun 24, 2012

AppleDApp said:
My biggest concern really is telling itunes that my library is on an external drive.

I'm not a Mac guru but in Windows, you simply map a drive letter to the external device(regardless if it's a NAS or USB or eSATA or whatever)...Windows usually does this automatically and you can even force Windows to always use the same drive letter for the device in case you change things down the road. iTunes, in Windows, doesn't give a hoot where the files are...as long as it's on a drive letter that Windows sees.

I would assume iTunes on OSX is very similar...and Synology products are clearly aimed at Mac users. Maybe you should give them a call.

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AppleDApp said:
All my device can push gigabit currently only a macbook pro but soon an iMac. gigabit ethernet is good I don't move a 1tb/week. One a busy week I will move 100+gigs on a slow week probably anywhere from 10-60 gigs. I currently have a few gigabit ethernet cables. I have some networking experience I am by no means a pro yet.

Everything between device A and B in the network has to be gigabit (cables, router, your machines' NICs, switch, etc.) otherwise the traffic is going to slow down the lowest common denominator. If computer C is on a crusty old 10Mbit NIC, that is fine because A is talking to B over the cables and router. But once C starts transferring or accepting files to A (which has a gigabit NIC and gigabit cable let's say), it's going to go from 1000Mbit to 10Mbit because C can only go at 10Mbit. Make sense?

100GB isn't a crazy amount of data. As I mentioned, I back up my 90GB hard drive to a USB 2.0 drive every few months. The software compresses the backup to about 50GB and the backup takes about 1-2 hours I think. I also transfer about 180GB worth of MP3 files a few times a year to an external USB drive...that takes a few hours...I think about 4 hours. If I used USB 3.0 it would be 3-4x faster (hopefully someday I will find USB 3.0 devices that come closer to their "10x faster than USB 2.0" marketing promise.

flynz4 · Jun 24, 2012

Over 100 replies later... and you are still trying to figure out what you want to do with your 4 drives. You need to get over the fact that the drives are the critical part of your storage solution. You are thinking about this all wrong.

A corollary would be the following situation:

I have four P19570R14 tires, and I am thinking of buying a car. Should I get a 2 seater sports car, a sedan, a minivan, or a truck? Please help, because I want to start using these 4 tires.

You have already had 10X the advice you need given over 3 months. Forget about the damn drives. They are insignificant. Consider what you want to accomplish.

/Jim

AppleDApp · Jun 24, 2012

flynz4 said:
Over 100 replies later... and you are still trying to figure out what you want to do with your 4 drives. You need to get over the fact that the drives are the critical part of your storage solution. You are thinking about this all wrong.

A corollary would be the following situation:

I have four P19570R14 tires, and I am thinking of buying a car. Should I get a 2 seater sports car, a sedan, a minivan, or a truck? Please help, because I want to start using these 4 tires.

You have already had 10X the advice you need given over 3 months. Forget about the damn drives. They are insignificant. Consider what you want to accomplish.

/Jim

I know what I want to accomplish I just need help figuring out how to do it.

murphychris · Jun 24, 2012

AppleDApp said:
Budget is limited for building/buying a PC. No more then 500$

I would like to use NAS and gigabit ethernet. I'd like an option that can replicate data to another device.

Depending on the amount of data this is probably possible within your budget. The drawback with NAS is that you need to learn everything you need to know with direct attached storage, and then stack on top of that network knowledge. So NAS is inherently more complicated to research, plan, and configure. It shouldn't be more complicated to maintain, but will be different.

You could check into running one of the open source NAS options I mentioned on an Atom CPU and save some money. Otherwise the ballpark of what you're looking at hardware wise is something like this microserver. All of the open source options I mentioned use a file system called ZFS. It is inherently resilient, checksums all data, does not suffer from silent data corruption, bit rot, or the RAID 5 write hole problem. It can create periodic (scheduled) snapshots which in turn can be exported to an external disk. Those exports contain verifiably identical data to what's on the NAS.

I haven't tried it, but hypothetically you could upload those snapshotted exports to CrashPlan. That portion really depends on your available upload bandwidth and how much changing data you have.

FreeNAS vs NAS4|free (I put the pipe in because this message board must think it's spam if I don't) are similar but have different maintainers. I *think* FreeNAS is based on FreeBSD 8, ZFS v15, with a newer interface; and NAS4|free is based on FreeBSD9, ZFS v28, with an older interface. I have used FreeNAS in VM, it's pretty straightforward, I haven't gotten around to evaluating NAS4|free but I like the idea of using a newer (current) version of ZFS. Key is both have built-in support for AFP using NetaTalk and support Time Machine backups (to the NAS as if it were a Time Capsule or Server).

Nexentastor I prefer overall performance and interface wise, but it lacks built-in AFP. You either have to install it yourself, or figure out how to do NFS which might be like a really simple calculus problem. i.e. if you know how to do it, it's cake. If you don't, it's annoying research.

AFP I get roughly 35-45 MB/s throughput with gigabit ethernet. If I use NFS with the async option, and this mount command in Mac OS X, I consistently get 100+MB/s on sequential files (like AAC files, movies, Raw images; piddly text files are much slower performing):

Code:

sudo mount_nfs -o resvport,rsize=32768,wsize=32768 192.168.1.137:/home/chris/Music /Volumes/NFS

Naturally the IP, username and mount point may be different for you. To set this as a persistent automount option, you can use Disk Utility's NFS mounts option, and break up the above command.

Anyway, the point is, it can be done, but it's a layer or two more involved than just locally attached storage. If you can learn new things, tolerate getting frustrated, and commit to making it work, then it's a good route. If you want something more plug and play experience wise, a NAS is a little rough around the edges.

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Oh and the hardware, Macbook Pro 8,2 and Macbook Pro 4,1, and a Linksys WRT600N running dd-wrt firmware. With non-pristine CAT 5e cables. Really, I probably shouldn't be getting 100MB/s with the cables I have. Just make really sure you don't kink them, have furniture or staples putting pressure on them, or making them to tight bends like 90 degrees around a corner, or near power lines or worse fluorescent ballasts. Ethernet cables are a bit pissy.

----------

Oh and NAS software. I'm biased against proprietary software. I don't want to get stuck in warranty let alone out of warranty, having to replace or buy proprietary hardware to re-gain access to my data if some bit of hardware fails. If you buy an Atom server that holds two disks and you outgrow it in 2 years, you can put the drives into some totally different hardware that holds 4 or 6 or more drives, and still have access to your data. I'm sure service/support for proprietary solutions are competent and helpful, and all that - so open storage is my bias, which is why I've suggested the three NAS options I have. All are managed by web browser interfaces, just like proprietary NAS's do.

FWIW, Nexentastor scales to petabytes of storage and is used for extremely large enterprise class storage without hardware RAID controllers. But is free for storage arrays 18TB or less. So it's not like it's Tonka Toy stuff, just because it's free. And FreeNAS and NAS4|free are, again, quite similar and can easily manage tens to hundreds of TBs of storage without a problem.

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http://www.nas4 free.org/index.php/nas4 free-home/
remove the space after the two 4's.
http://www.freenas.org/
http://nexentastor.org/

AppleDApp · Jun 25, 2012

murphychris said:
Depending on the amount of data this is probably possible within your budget. The drawback with NAS is that you need to learn everything you need to know with direct attached storage, and then stack on top of that network knowledge. So NAS is inherently more complicated to research, plan, and configure. It shouldn't be more complicated to maintain, but will be different.

You could check into running one of the open source NAS options I mentioned on an Atom CPU and save some money. Otherwise the ballpark of what you're looking at hardware wise is something like this microserver. All of the open source options I mentioned use a file system called ZFS. It is inherently resilient, checksums all data, does not suffer from silent data corruption, bit rot, or the RAID 5 write hole problem. It can create periodic (scheduled) snapshots which in turn can be exported to an external disk. Those exports contain verifiably identical data to what's on the NAS.

I haven't tried it, but hypothetically you could upload those snapshotted exports to CrashPlan. That portion really depends on your available upload bandwidth and how much changing data you have.

FreeNAS vs NAS4|free (I put the pipe in because this message board must think it's spam if I don't) are similar but have different maintainers. I *think* FreeNAS is based on FreeBSD 8, ZFS v15, with a newer interface; and NAS4|free is based on FreeBSD9, ZFS v28, with an older interface. I have used FreeNAS in VM, it's pretty straightforward, I haven't gotten around to evaluating NAS4|free but I like the idea of using a newer (current) version of ZFS. Key is both have built-in support for AFP using NetaTalk and support Time Machine backups (to the NAS as if it were a Time Capsule or Server).

Nexentastor I prefer overall performance and interface wise, but it lacks built-in AFP. You either have to install it yourself, or figure out how to do NFS which might be like a really simple calculus problem. i.e. if you know how to do it, it's cake. If you don't, it's annoying research.

AFP I get roughly 35-45 MB/s throughput with gigabit ethernet. If I use NFS with the async option, and this mount command in Mac OS X, I consistently get 100+MB/s on sequential files (like AAC files, movies, Raw images; piddly text files are much slower performing):

Code:

sudo mount_nfs -o resvport,rsize=32768,wsize=32768 192.168.1.137:/home/chris/Music /Volumes/NFS

Naturally the IP, username and mount point may be different for you. To set this as a persistent automount option, you can use Disk Utility's NFS mounts option, and break up the above command.

Anyway, the point is, it can be done, but it's a layer or two more involved than just locally attached storage. If you can learn new things, tolerate getting frustrated, and commit to making it work, then it's a good route. If you want something more plug and play experience wise, a NAS is a little rough around the edges.

----------

Oh and the hardware, Macbook Pro 8,2 and Macbook Pro 4,1, and a Linksys WRT600N running dd-wrt firmware. With non-pristine CAT 5e cables. Really, I probably shouldn't be getting 100MB/s with the cables I have. Just make really sure you don't kink them, have furniture or staples putting pressure on them, or making them to tight bends like 90 degrees around a corner, or near power lines or worse fluorescent ballasts. Ethernet cables are a bit pissy.

----------

Oh and NAS software. I'm biased against proprietary software. I don't want to get stuck in warranty let alone out of warranty, having to replace or buy proprietary hardware to re-gain access to my data if some bit of hardware fails. If you buy an Atom server that holds two disks and you outgrow it in 2 years, you can put the drives into some totally different hardware that holds 4 or 6 or more drives, and still have access to your data. I'm sure service/support for proprietary solutions are competent and helpful, and all that - so open storage is my bias, which is why I've suggested the three NAS options I have. All are managed by web browser interfaces, just like proprietary NAS's do.

FWIW, Nexentastor scales to petabytes of storage and is used for extremely large enterprise class storage without hardware RAID controllers. But is free for storage arrays 18TB or less. So it's not like it's Tonka Toy stuff, just because it's free. And FreeNAS and NAS4|free are, again, quite similar and can easily manage tens to hundreds of TBs of storage without a problem.

----------

http://www.nas4 free.org/index.php/nas4 free-home/
remove the space after the two 4's.
http://www.freenas.org/
http://nexentastor.org/

I'm not a fan of the proprietary factor but if I go the open source route I have little to no support.

ericinboston · Jun 25, 2012

murphychris said:
Depending on the amount of data this is probably possible within your budget. The drawback with NAS is that you need to learn everything you need to know with direct attached storage, and then stack on top of that network knowledge. So NAS is inherently more complicated to research, plan, and configure. It shouldn't be more complicated to maintain, but will be different...

There are a few concerns for consumers using NAS...some of which have been implied/stated:

1)it is a network device, so you will need to be open to managing network devices that are NOT computers.

2)Since the devices are on a network, you will need to figure out if you want to assign a static IP to the device or use DHCP.

3)If your network has a hiccup (2 second power outtage or simply your router flakes out), your devices will be unavailable. This happens to me 1-2 times a year with my $45 Netgear router. The quick answer is to power the router off for 2 mins, then power it back on, then wait 2 mins. But your solution may vary.

4)Regardless of network, I ALWAYS recommend people to invest in a simple $50-$100 UPS for power hiccups. I am aware that Macs are very unfriendly with UPS devices but you don't even need the software integration...just something to keep you powered up 100% for 5-15 minutes if the power goes out. My power goes out a few times a year for 30 seconds and I am unaffected thanks to my APC Back-UPS ES 750.

5)Although NAS devices are inexpensive, they still hover around the price of a very cheap Wintel desktop. As I stated a few posts back, you may want to weigh all the pros/cons of a good NAS vs. a desktop that will do far more than simply act as a hard drive dumping ground for your media. But I do understand that you are looking for a backup solution, not a new media server...yet a NAS really acts as a media server while providing some backup flexibility.

I think this will be my lost post here. Although Flyn/Jim was a little brash, he's right on target: you are not explaining to us, in detail, how you want to back up your data. I can't offer you any more backup advice because I still don't know what you want to do...from a high level, business point of view. Forget the drives...you need to tell us, in great detail, something like "Backup #1: Every Friday I want to back up ONLY NEW data on my 1st machine which is a Macbook Pro which should be about 10GB a week. Backup #2: Every Saturday I want to back up all media on my 2nd machine which is an iMac and is currently at 1TB which means every Saturday I want to back up 1TB...and I want it backed up within 3 hours. Backup #3: Every month I want to back up ALL my data on my 1st machine. I want to use _______ software to manage all backups. I want backup 1 to be automatic yet backup 2 to be manual so I can double check things. I want to keep at most 5 backups of Backup #1. I want to keep at most, 3 backups of Back #2..." etc.

What I've just quickly written is exactly what I and businesses write in a Backup Manual...it's high level, it's easy to understand, and it's clear. Further on in the reading would be the TECHNICAL details of how the backups work...software titles and names, devices, device technology, typical run-times, failure/retry options, etc.

AppleDApp · Jun 25, 2012

ericinboston said:
There are a few concerns for consumers using NAS...some of which have been implied/stated:

1)it is a network device, so you will need to be open to managing network devices that are NOT computers.

2)Since the devices are on a network, you will need to figure out if you want to assign a static IP to the device or use DHCP.

3)If your network has a hiccup (2 second power outtage or simply your router flakes out), your devices will be unavailable. This happens to me 1-2 times a year with my $45 Netgear router. The quick answer is to power the router off for 2 mins, then power it back on, then wait 2 mins. But your solution may vary.

4)Regardless of network, I ALWAYS recommend people to invest in a simple $50-$100 UPS for power hiccups. I am aware that Macs are very unfriendly with UPS devices but you don't even need the software integration...just something to keep you powered up 100% for 5-15 minutes if the power goes out. My power goes out a few times a year for 30 seconds and I am unaffected thanks to my APC Back-UPS ES 750.

5)Although NAS devices are inexpensive, they still hover around the price of a very cheap Wintel desktop. As I stated a few posts back, you may want to weigh all the pros/cons of a good NAS vs. a desktop that will do far more than simply act as a hard drive dumping ground for your media. But I do understand that you are looking for a backup solution, not a new media server...yet a NAS really acts as a media server while providing some backup flexibility.

I think this will be my lost post here. Although Flyn/Jim was a little brash, he's right on target: you are not explaining to us, in detail, how you want to back up your data. I can't offer you any more backup advice because I still don't know what you want to do...from a high level, business point of view. Forget the drives...you need to tell us, in great detail, something like "Backup #1: Every Friday I want to back up ONLY NEW data on my 1st machine which is a Macbook Pro which should be about 10GB a week. Backup #2: Every Saturday I want to back up all media on my 2nd machine which is an iMac and is currently at 1TB which means every Saturday I want to back up 1TB...and I want it backed up within 3 hours. Backup #3: Every month I want to back up ALL my data on my 1st machine. I want to use _______ software to manage all backups. I want backup 1 to be automatic yet backup 2 to be manual so I can double check things. I want to keep at most 5 backups of Backup #1. I want to keep at most, 3 backups of Back #2..." etc.

What I've just quickly written is exactly what I and businesses write in a Backup Manual...it's high level, it's easy to understand, and it's clear. Further on in the reading would be the TECHNICAL details of how the backups work...software titles and names, devices, device technology, typical run-times, failure/retry options, etc.

1) I am aware.
2) I'll use DHCP
3) Thanks for the tip.
4) I use a UPS with each my computer and router.
5) I guess I want both a media server solution and a backup solution all in one.

As for your next point. This is my current situation. Only backing up one computer.
Backup 1 will be a time machine backup that backups every hour/day as per the regular time machine schedule. This backup is automatic. I want to be able to go back at least 3 weeks.
Backup 2 I will clone my internal drive using CCC every few weeks (or once I've judged significant content has changed on my internal drive) This serves as a preventive measure if my time machine backup fails as it has in the past. This backup is manual. I don't want more then 1 copy of my internal drive.
Backup 3 I will copy new data (Media files) from my media drive to my backup media drive. This backup is manual. I want only want one backup of my media.

This is what I want. Backing up 2 computers while using some sort of consolidation. NAS or otherwise.

Backup 1 will be a time machine backup that backups every hour/day as per the regular time machine schedule. This backup is automatic.I want to be able to go back at least 3 weeks on each computer. This backup should be no more then 20gb a week.
Backup 2 I will clone my internal drive using CCC every few weeks (or once I've judged significant content has changed on my internal drive) This serves as a preventive measure if my time machine backup fails as it has in the past. This backup is manual. I don't want more then 1 copy of my internal drive.
Backup 3 I will copy new data (Media files) to a backup device. This backup will be done every time content is added.I want only want one backup of my media. This backup should be no more then 20gb a week.

Is this better? Do you need more info?

ericinboston · Jun 25, 2012

AppleDApp said:
Backup 1 will be a time machine backup that backups every hour/day as per the regular time machine schedule. This backup is automatic. I want to be able to go back at least 3 weeks.
Backup 2 I will clone my internal drive using CCC every few weeks (or once I've judged significant content has changed on my internal drive) This serves as a preventive measure if my time machine backup fails as it has in the past. This backup is manual. I don't want more then 1 copy of my internal drive.
Backup 3 I will copy new data (Media files) from my media drive to my backup media drive. This backup is manual. I want only want one backup of my media.

Missing info:

1)How much data is in EACH of your 3 backup scenarios?

2)I believe CCC makes a clone of your entire drive...so if you have a 500GB drive and only 10GB is used, the CCC clone is still 500GB large. If that is the case (and what you want to do) then you should have a dedicated external USB drive for Backup #2. It will NEVER be used for anything else other than a clone of your laptop. If, however, you wish to "image" your drive (that process creates a single file on the destination drive that is a backup of your hard drive's used space (10GB in this example)) then that's different. Clones are really used to power on/boot your Mac from the USB clone while Image files are really backups that you can restore to your original Mac drive or some kind of master drive replacement. I use Norton Ghost to "image" my main 500GB C drive which is 90GB used and the image file is about 50GB after compression. If my main C drive died tomorrow, I would buy a new drive, boot my computer up with a Norton Ghost Recovery cd-rom, and "restore" my image file to the new C drive.

3)What are your expectations of time for EACH of the above scenarios? 3 hours to back up? 10 hours to back up?

You are doing a mix of manual and automatic...and you don't seem super happy about NAS and all its networking needs. Overall I would recommend simply using 2 different external USB drives for Backup1 and Backup2. As for Backup3, I assume the media already lives on a USB drive...so just copy it again to another USB drive. Each USB 3.0 2TB external drive would cost you at most $120...so $360 for your solution. But again, please fill in the missing info above.

murphychris · Jun 25, 2012

AppleDApp said:
I'm not a fan of the proprietary factor but if I go the open source route I have little to no support.

There's separation of hardware support and software support. The software is community supported like with all open source projects. So I'd qualify the support as being different rather than little to none. This is a box that once you configure you're unlikely to interact with directly very much.

murphychris · Jun 25, 2012

Further, the maintainer of FreeNAS produces a version with commercial support called TrueNAS. They also make hardware. I don't know how good their support is.

Nexentastor tends to scale to large storage, they also have support beyond 18TB. I don't know if the support pricing makes sense for amounts less than this.

All proprietary solutions are using conventional filesystems that are not resilient, do not checksum data, and cannot ensure their replicated data is identical to what's on the NAS.

AppleDApp · Jun 25, 2012

ericinboston said:
Missing info:

1)How much data is in EACH of your 3 backup scenarios?

2)I believe CCC makes a clone of your entire drive...so if you have a 500GB drive and only 10GB is used, the CCC clone is still 500GB large. If that is the case (and what you want to do) then you should have a dedicated external USB drive for Backup #2. It will NEVER be used for anything else other than a clone of your laptop. If, however, you wish to "image" your drive (that process creates a single file on the destination drive that is a backup of your hard drive's used space (10GB in this example)) then that's different. Clones are really used to power on/boot your Mac from the USB clone while Image files are really backups that you can restore to your original Mac drive or some kind of master drive replacement. I use Norton Ghost to "image" my main 500GB C drive which is 90GB used and the image file is about 50GB after compression. If my main C drive died tomorrow, I would buy a new drive, boot my computer up with a Norton Ghost Recovery cd-rom, and "restore" my image file to the new C drive.

3)What are your expectations of time for EACH of the above scenarios? 3 hours to back up? 10 hours to back up?

You are doing a mix of manual and automatic...and you don't seem super happy about NAS and all its networking needs. Overall I would recommend simply using 2 different external USB drives for Backup1 and Backup2. As for Backup3, I assume the media already lives on a USB drive...so just copy it again to another USB drive. Each USB 3.0 2TB external drive would cost you at most $120...so $360 for your solution. But again, please fill in the missing info above.

1) I edited the post about 20gb a week for scenario 1 & 3. Scenerio 2 is about 300gb.
2) My internal drive as mentioned is about 300gb in the event that my internal drive at least I will have that to boot up my machine. It is solely used to clone my internal drive.
3) Initial backups aside I am expecting no more then 5 hours to back up in most cases I won't be backing up too much it should be completed in an hour.

I currently don't have a NAS. My current setup is all external drives. I want a consolidated solution.

ericinboston · Jun 25, 2012

AppleDApp said:
1) I edited the post about 20gb a week for scenario 1 & 3. Scenerio 2 is about 300gb.
2) My internal drive as mentioned is about 300gb in the event that my internal drive at least I will have that to boot up my machine. It is solely used to clone my internal drive.
3) Initial backups aside I am expecting no more then 5 hours to back up in most cases I won't be backing up too much it should be completed in an hour.

I currently don't have a NAS. My current setup is all external drives. I want a consolidated solution.

If you want a consolidated solution for 2 different backups and each backup is weekly and each backup is about 20GB, you're either going to a)go NAS or b)use a single external drive and manually do the backups.

If you go NAS you basically now know all the work you will need to learn/do. If you buy a single 1TB drive for $100 and simply swap the USB cable for every backup, then that's much simpler and cheaper.

A last option is to turn one of your computers into the media/data hub itself...it will contain, on 1 or more drives, ALL the data/media. Then, simply back it up with 1 USB drive. Your computer should have at least 2 USB ports...1 for all the data/media and 1 to plug in the backup external every week. If you do not have a free USB port, then consider somehow upgrading your computer so you do have another USB port.

One of the limitations of a laptop is that a laptop typically only has 2-3 USB ports and rarely an eSATA port. What do each of your computer/laptops have for USB/eSATA/Firewire ports? How many are free on each machine?

On a final note, do you really need to back up every week? Do you really fear your main drive is that terrible (or your paranoia of data loss in general) that you need a backup that often? That's a LOT of backing up for a consumer.

AppleDApp · Jun 25, 2012

ericinboston said:
On a final note, do you really need to back up every week? Do you really fear your main drive is that terrible (or your paranoia of data loss in general) that you need a backup that often? That's a LOT of backing up for a consumer.

I'd rather be safe then sorry.

ericinboston · Jun 25, 2012

AppleDApp said:
I'd rather be safe then sorry.

Ok.

I guess this thread is done...you have your answers, let us know in a few weeks how it works for you. A)NAS, B)USB drives, C)Make one of your computers the central datastore and back it up via a single USB drive/single NAS box.

AppleDApp · Jun 25, 2012

Will do. It will have to wait until the new iMacs are released.

ericinboston · Jun 26, 2012

1 last option that is similar to NAS but simpler.

What about using a Router that has a USB port...you just plug your external into it and it can be used/shared on the network lickity split.

http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Wirel...62258&sr=8-2&keywords=netgear+wireless+router

is about $90. I'm sure there are other routers out there if you want to look around but I do like Netgear over Linksys. If you look at the chart inside the above webpage, there are other Netgear routers that have 2 USB ports.

smellalot · Jun 26, 2012

Why don't you make your Mac mini the server? It doesn't draw more power than a NAS and you don't need to bother with transfer speeds, shared libraries etc.

AppleDApp · Jun 26, 2012

ericinboston said:
1 last option that is similar to NAS but simpler.

What about using a Router that has a USB port...you just plug your external into it and it can be used/shared on the network lickity split.

http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Wirel...62258&sr=8-2&keywords=netgear+wireless+router

is about $90. I'm sure there are other routers out there if you want to look around but I do like Netgear over Linksys. If you look at the chart inside the above webpage, there are other Netgear routers that have 2 USB ports.

I already have a router. most routers have one or 2 ports I'd need an enclosure or something.

smellalot said:
Why don't you make your Mac mini the server? It doesn't draw more power than a NAS and you don't need to bother with transfer speeds, shared libraries etc.

I don't own a mac mini. Storage wouldn't be enough.

murphychris · Jun 26, 2012

I wouldn't trust USB flash drives to important data. And even fast flash drives are slower than anything discussed here, including slower than wifi. And doubtful the router is running AFP with support for Time Machine.

Mini server doesn't bring anything to the table over a NAS.

obama3344 · Jul 12, 2012

http://www.amazon.com/Mediasonic-HF...?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&filterBy=addOneStar

How about Mediasonic HFR2-SU3S2 ProRaid 4 Bay External Hard Drive Enclosure - USB 3.0 & eSATA?

Seems like it is pretty fast?

AppleDApp · Jul 12, 2012

obama3344 said:
http://www.amazon.com/Mediasonic-HF...?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&filterBy=addOneStar

How about Mediasonic HFR2-SU3S2 ProRaid 4 Bay External Hard Drive Enclosure - USB 3.0 & eSATA?

Seems like it is pretty fast?

Do you have any experience with something like this?

obama3344 · Jul 12, 2012

AppleDApp said:
Do you have any experience with something like this?

Nope, I don't have experience on it but surely if I buy one it should not be a problem to research on in internet. I just don't want something that broke too often and take too much times to troubleshoot. but at the same time, I want to buy something cheap enough. preferably below $200

Macman756 · Jul 12, 2012

obama3344 said:
Nope, I don't have experience on it but surely if I buy one it should not be a problem to research on in internet. I just don't want something that broke too often and take too much times to troubleshoot. but at the same time, I want to buy something cheap enough. preferably below $200

And the username fits the post!

Lots of media, 4 hard drives need a solution

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