today I learned about NAS: network attached storage.
now that i've moved into the 21st century with the purchase of a new mac laptop running Snow Leopard (previously was running Tiger, skipping Leopard entirely), AND designating my laptop as my new "main machine", i thought it high-time to modernize my backup procedures. And to get the gf's machine running regular backups, as well.
naturally, i first investigated Apple's solution, Time Machine and Time Capsule. it didn't take me long to find the accounts of the multitudes with failed Time Capsules, seemingly due to a bad thermal design. That, and there's no built-in RAID, so Time Capsule is off the list. Would still like to use the Time Machine s/w, though. after some googling, I found that what I was looking for was an NAS device.
anyone been to Linksys' site lately? it's now streamlined and fantastically worthless. what is Valet? haven't a clue, other than beautiful people can use it easily.
the Iomega Ix2-200 looked promising, but some devastating reviews @ amazon has put me off. the Netgear Stora stuff also looks interesting, but it seems it also has its fair share of issues. That, and I'm not *at all* convinced that I want the same device storing my backups to also be serving files and media to devices outside my home.
after more research, including finding the (netgear) readynas site and its osx section, the leading contender is a diskless Netgear ReadyNAS duo, which i'll fill with a pair of 2-terabyte Western Digital drives.
i'm still doing research, and need to verify that i can RAID those for a total of 2-terabytes of backup. even with full-bandwidth audio files to back up, and 2 users, that should be enough space for the foreseeable future. And it looks like Time Machine setup is relatively painless.
i think it'll work completely wirelessly, so i can chuck it in a closet and not have to worry about running an ethernet cable between it and my (aged) Linksys router.
2 comments:
Matt O got ReadyNAS (from Infrant, before they were acquired by Netgear) and recommended it. He tested both hot-swapping and having different sized disks in the box, and it worked as advertised.
I use timemachine with external lacie disk, which is unsatisfying and now making lots of strange noises. I will ultimately go with a separate RAID box -- ReadyNAS would be top of the shortlist for me in the absence of updated research or recommendations.
It should all be easier than it is, I agree.
Do you have any plans for offsite backup? Physically swapping out drives regularly to offsite backup?
good, that (i.e. Matt's endorsement) makes me feel better.
no immediate plans for offsite backup, though that is a good idea.
i'll maintain a good portion of my current schemes, which does include uploading of some data to the, ahem, "cloud".
Post a Comment