Home networked data storage question

[djs134]

Hi all. I have a wireless network at the house and no way to backup my files (music, photos, etc). I'm looking into a storage system that can connect to my wireless router and be accessed by any computer on the network.

I don't know anything about mirroring or RAID. Not sure I want to get that involved. And I'm not really looking at off-site storage, although if the drives are removable I could conceive of storing one in a Safety Deposit box and rotating it out once in a while.

I guess I'm looking at a basic hard drive rack and drives?

Any thoughts, info or lessons learned would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[earnold25]

well, if you're not looking at fault tolerance to a high level, why not an external hard drive (usb, etc.) You can hook that up to a machine that will be powered on all the time, and simply share that hard drive through windows. Any pc should be able to get to that hard drive if you map to it. Pretty simple process, and not that expensive.

 

[djs134]

I thought of that, but we both just have notebooks. I do have an old Gateway desktop tower, but it's not that reliable. I upgraded the original ME and it never really worked that well after that.

 

[earnold25]

ok. next step is there are external hard drives that actually have a network port (some even wireless) or just this purpose. Let me see if I can find an example for you.

 

[djs134]

How about this one?

Western Digital 1 TB Remote Access

I looked at the CentralNetgear Storage but the reviews I read really panned it!

 

[caudio51]

I think this should help you out. You could in theory have 2 Terabytes of storage.

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&pagename=Linksys/Common/VisitorWrapper&cid=1175233152539

 

[dpricenator]

How about this one?

Western Digital 1 TB Remote Access

I looked at the CentralNetgear Storage but the reviews I read really panned it!

The reviews on the Wesren Digital don't inspire me to purchase that one.

 

[earnold25]

i also hear bad things about the WD. The one caudio mentioned might work, but looks to be way more expensive.

here are a few I found. Search and see if you can find any reviews.

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=1123611&cm_sp=Product-_-Overview-_-Main+Tab

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=1321720&cm_sp=Product-_-Overview-_-Main+Tab

 

[djs134]

Tom's suggestion turned out to only be about $130, but is only the "rack" (albeit with software capable of mirror or RAID). A Seagate 500 GB Internal HDD would be about $140, so for less than $500, it would be a 1TB backup system. Not bad.

I like the two you suggested as well. Cheaper. Not expandable, but I don't know that expandable is necessary......

Good suggestions, thanks!

 

[earnold25]

you could rig your extra system for less than $500, i'd imagine, to be a "data server" that would suit your needs.

 

[Clinton]

Take that old Gateway computer and install FreeNAS. Won't cost anything unless you need to get a bigger hard drive.

 

[cvm4]

How about this one?

Western Digital 1 TB Remote Access

I looked at the CentralNetgear Storage but the reviews I read really panned it!

Be careful, you might get tiles with that WD from BestBuy :santa:

http://consumerist.com/consumer/fraud/best-buy-sells-you-a-box-of-bathroom-tiles-instead-of-hard-drive-wont-refund-315873.php

 

[djs134]

Damn! I hope not, the wife 'll want me to buy more so she can re-do the bathroom! LOL!

 

[cvm4]

LOL, just put it on the "honey do" list.

 

[joshua]

Theres these suckers: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822154170

Or this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822155003

 

[no_substitute]

Stay away from those Buffalo Terrastation things...have burned thru 4 of them

 

[blessednxs65]

Take that old Gateway computer and install FreeNAS. Won't cost anything unless you need to get a bigger hard drive.

This too would be my suggestion, However, depending on your ISP, they may have a remote storage solution that is economical and allows you access to your data via Interent connection.

Just a thought.

 

[earnold25]

speak of the devil...just found this

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=733&t=642646

 

[caudio51]

That's only good for drives up to 250 gig and not SATA. Data transfer will be a bit slow but it is a good price.

 

[earnold25]

I don't think satas gonna make that big a difference going over ethernet. 250gb limit might kill it though.