Storage for Family Music/Videos/Pics

[curley]

I have a problem and I don't know how to solve.

I have a client with two desktops. They are both at the end of their storage limits on their hard drives. I set them up to backup their data up to Carbonite but Carbonite I learn does not backup from external drives nor USB drives.

What is the best way for them to backup their data, and have two copies, and also start to remove the data from their hard drives?

Is a RAID configuration in a NAS device the only option? This is quite expensive and they probably won't be too happy about the advice.

Sorry but at a loss....I do wish them to save more hard drive space but to backup their data so I thought the best was to use a networked external drive and then its backed up online to Carbonite but that ain't gonna work.

Thanks everyone and anyone....

[curley]

oh, forgot to mention, that they both have slimline cases and only one hard drive with no expansion ...i thought about adding a secondary drive but of course i can't lol....

[ImaNihilist]

NAS.
Drobo.
Do it right, or not at all.

I don't know why people like to be cheap about data. There isn't a hard drive I have that isn't worth at least $500. This person has TWO machines? Spend a few hundred dollars and get a decent external/RAID NAS storage solution.

People like to be cheap about backups for some reason, and then cry and moan when they lose all their data.

[Colossus]

Drobo is crap. I would go with another solution.

Depends on how much they are willing to spend. There are units like a ReadyNAS NV+ with no drives for about $500. But a simple Mirrored USB or NIC attached storage would work. Granted they might not need a full 4 SATA port RAID 5 array.

There are some cheaper network with 1 or 2 drive options that would be cheaper. Even a PC running an NAS OS with a couple of drives would be a backup. Then you can export to Carbonite.

[ImaNihilist]

Why do you say Drobo is crap? I've used it, and it's pretty freaking impressive. For people who don't even want to know what RAID is ... it's just about the best storage solution I've ever seen.

[curley]

thanks for your comments....anyone else have recommendations / comments?

appreciate the feedback.

j

[vertices]

I've messed around with a Drobo. Wasn't impressed. Slow, weird. I don't know. I didn't like it. It looks cool, but that's about it.

[Colossus]

For the same reason Vertices have mention, and also for all the limitations of the hardware and configurations.

But the really really SLOOOOW NAS performance is what takes the cake. When USB 2.0 is faster then your NAS on gigabit copper. You have an issue =D

[ImaNihilist]

Hmm. I guess I can see how that would be an issue for performance peeps.

[Colossus]

When you are pushing 15MB/s with a large array. Yeah you can see how performance is key =)

My ReadyNAS Pro will upload at about 95MB/sec so yeah its much nicer =D

[James]

When you are pushing 15MB/s with a large array. Yeah you can see how performance is key =)

My ReadyNAS Pro will upload at about 95MB/sec so yeah its much nicer =D

NAS performance is a huge issue, especially if you ever plan to access the system from multiple devices at the same time.

+1 to something with more power. I've been quite taken with the QNAP NAS systems as of late. They seem to get the concept right. Fast access to large amounts of redundant storage.

[curley]

can anyone provide a cost effective solution.....they will not likely spend into the thousands for a NAS solution.

thanks again all!

[vertices]

NAS performance is a huge issue, especially if you ever plan to access the system from multiple devices at the same time.

+1 to something with more power. I've been quite taken with the QNAP NAS systems as of late. They seem to get the concept right. Fast access to large amounts of redundant storage.

It's not a big deal for just bulk storage, but I sure wish the QNAP NASs would support RAID10. Being that they support iSCSI and NFS, it'd be nice to store some VMs on there and I only put VMs on RAID10. I'm really liking those things besides the lack of RAID10.

[curley]

i do appreciate the discussion but my question is, is there a cheap NAS solution...i did review the D-Link http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GK8LVE - any thoughts?