Home Network Backup Drives

Looking to connect some type of Backup Hard Drive to my Home system which includes both Mac and Windows computers. I understand that there are devices that will allow me to plug it into the router and all computers in the house can see and access the drive.

Now what I am asking is for any suggestions or recommendations keeping in mind that I am not a computer guy so the easier the better.

Thanks

Seagate Black Armor Network Attached Storage. Sure, it's a little pricey for being a 2TB storage device, but it's designed to be used on a network, and has hardware-based encryption so your private data stays private.

A few thoughts.

These devices have two basic capabilities: the hardware part that connects to the network and the software part that does the actual data transfer.

To get NAS (network attached storage) capability (aka, hard drive on ethernet), you can get an actual NAS box and plug it into the network or get a normal drive and plug it into something that translates it into ethernet (Airport Extremes do this). There are also all-in-one boxes like the Time Capsule that do NAS + networking + backup software. But the more features (fewer boxes), the more $$ per box.

Mac stuff generally does PC stuff better than the other way around.

The goal should be to have some kind of storage medium that is always on the network, then have software on each participating computer that can access that drive and send backup data to it - preferably automatically.

The more participants, the harder it can be to manage which one gets what space. This becomes more important the more full the drive gets.

Depending on your goals and number of systems, another option to consider is cabonite. It is an on-line backup - $ 50 / system / year, and the data is stored off site for even greater reliability. (such as a fire for example).

I am a satisfied user, but not involved in any way. Using it, I was able to transfer my data from a damaged (non functional) win xp laptop to a new vista business one with only modest effort.

We run a mixed environment at my house too so I understand the challenge. If you setup a central server as your backup, I think that carbonite will treat that computer's drives as "one" system.

Home network drives are all well and good until something happens to the house... and then you have a real problem.

NASes tend to be slow or expensive. However, depending on what you want it for, it may be OK.

Consider at the very least offline backups (like Mozy) or CDs / USBSticks / DVDs with the really important stuff. Store it at the office, Grandma's...

Bret

Most people want to just hit a button to do their back-up, and writing incremental back-ups to DVDs can be a pain.

Personally I'm not a fan of NAS drives because they're slow and tend to not work as well as just sharing a volume on a single computer. However, if you just need a simple, common location to store files from all your computers a NAS will do the job.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. Does anyone have any experience with a Drobo and a Drobo share? Seems like the concept should work but does it in the real world?

Thanks

Go to amazon and search for network attached storage. There are a number of options. I just ordered one for my home network. I personally prefer stand alone external hard drives, but I need to maintain a constant backup of my wife's work also--this seemed the easiest approach. It will be here in a few days--I'll let you know (if I remember).

One of the best info sources I have found for home networking is
http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/index.php (and the reviews on the main pages). If you are a windows user, then the Windows Home Server might be a good fit.

Do you have a old pc that you could leave on 24/7 and are you good with computers? If you are you could use linux and set up a samba share or use Windows Home server.

Apple's Time Capsule?

Wireless router with hard drive built in. I know that hooking up Macs is really plug and play, and that they can do Time Machine backups. From what I hear, PCs should be not much more difficult (no Time Machine, of course).

$299 for 1TB, $499 for 2 TB. IIRC, one can also hook up an external USB HD to it which is then accessible over the network. Also, one can set it up so that the drives are accessible over internet from abroad.

I've got a similar setup and use the DLink-321 strictly for backups. For $119 (you supply the SATA drives), it can't be beat! Taken from the site:

• Store Digital Content from Multiple Computers into a Central Location
• Stream Music, Photos, & Videos to Compatible UPnP AV-enabled Media Players
• Access Stored Data Away from Home with the Built-in FTP Server
• Supports Four Different Hard Drive Modes (Standard, JBOD, RAID 0, and RAID 1)

http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=666
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822155009

I have it connected directly to the wireless router as a RAID 1 drive array. Unfortunately, Time Machine won't use it as a backup drive so I use Carbon Copy Cloner (free) to make an image of my data and plop it on the 321 at 3AM.

It's not exactly the fastest device but I doesn't need to be for my purpose.

Qnap are good.

Thanks for all your suggestions. I ended up going with a two part solution. On my main Photo Editing computer I ended up with a Drobo 4 bay unit. For the Home Network shared drives I went with a ReadyNAS NV+ which was super easy to set up even for a someone with little computer knowledge like myself.

All seems to be working well in this mixed PC - Mac network and I am actually overprotected for now.

Thanks!