| Forum Home | ||||
| Press F1 | ||||
| Thread ID: 137705 | 2014-08-10 06:27:00 | NAS / data backup solutions? | Chikara (5139) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1381347 | 2014-08-10 06:27:00 | Hi all, I've been procrastinating about my data storage setup for a long time, but I need to finally do something about it as I'm running out of hard drive space. Looking here for some advice and guidance, please. Firstly, here's my current set-up (about 4 years old now): CPU: Intel Core i7 860 6GB RAM HDD: C drive for OS: 1GB capacity, about half full D drive for data (seperate physical drive): 1.5GB, nearly full external drive: 2GB, data from D drive Win 7 64 bit PC is running OK but a little slow, as I often have many programs running at the same time. I may try a RAM upgrade to fix that, otherwise I might need to consider a new PC next year. Currently, I have my data backed up automatically from D to the external drive, daily. So far that system has worked quite well. However my D drive is getting full. What I'm wanting to achieve: I'm looking to upgrade to a longer term, larger storage capacity data system - something that should be able to meet my needs for the next say 5 years at least, and hopefully beyond. I really want to increase my data storage quite substantially, because I also want to rip and store a number of DVD's I own physical discs for, so I can stream them - I want to rip them in near full quality so I know that I will need a large storage capacity. I also have a quite a number of old home movies that I want to transfer from tape to the PC and edit and then store, in full quality. I don;t know quite how much space I will need but as I said I'd like something that can last me many years into the future, and preferably be upgradeable too (eg add more storage later). So I guess for all of this, I probably want at least 10TB and maybe even more. I am quite keen on the idea of a NAS setup using RAID (RAID 1?? RAID 6??) to provide the backup automatically, rather than doing a seperate backup once a day to an external drive. I realise that this will double my available storage requirement though. I've read a bit about some of the Synology NAS solutions, and their "Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR)" setup which sounds quite good. I like the idea of just pluging in drives, and then just hot-replace them if any fail and have everything managed automatically for me. File transfer speed is also important but not absolutely critical. I also travel a lot, so I'd like a solution also that will give me secure, web access remotely to the NAS drive, if possible. Does anyone have any recommended solutions bearing in mind the above? Thanks in advance! |
Chikara (5139) | ||
| 1381348 | 2014-08-10 23:05:00 | I also travel a lot, so I'd like a solution also that will give me secure, web access remotely to the NAS drive, if possible. If you really want secure , then you dont want remote access . Just look at the recent synolocker debacle, where users had all their NAS backups encrypted by hackers. |
1101 (13337) | ||
| 1381349 | 2014-08-11 01:13:00 | Which is why you set up VPN rather than just exposing SMB to the internet. It's not like there is no secure way to remote access things. BTW, buy an SSD for your desktop as a boot drive, it will greatly increase performance. |
Alex B (15479) | ||
| 1381350 | 2014-08-11 01:40:00 | Which is why you set up VPN rather than just exposing SMB to the internet. It's not like there is no secure way to remote access things. And they previously had a VPN vulnerability . So if you are truly serious about security, why expose backups to the internet ? www.cvedetails.com |
1101 (13337) | ||
| 1381351 | 2014-08-11 12:05:00 | I understand the risk. The synolocker issue only affected people who were running older versions of the software. Proves the point, yet again, to update software when vulnerabilities are fixed. Putting that issue to one side for the moment, does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions bearing in mind what I'm trying to achieve? |
Chikara (5139) | ||
| 1381352 | 2014-08-11 21:18:00 | Guess the big questions is whats the budget ? I've put in a few Netgear NAS units, have a look at their site: www.netgear.com (www.netgear.com) All the units I've put in have the ability to allow web access, although I've never set one up for external Access other than Over a LAN. If you are using a NAS as a Backup, that's fine, BUT if you are using a NAS as a main storage unit, keep in mind to be safe you really need a second option as backups. At the end of the day they all have HDD's and can fail just like any other HDD. There are Actual NAS drives available, one is marketed byWestern Digital RED NAS Drives (www.wdc.com). At the moment the largest my suppliers have are 6TB Drives ( they are NOT cheap) |
wainuitech (129) | ||
| 1381353 | 2014-08-11 22:13:00 | Guess the big questions is whats the budget ? That would be the issue and, if you went down this path woodel.com - time as well. I did and for my requirements, it works very well (although getting the job done was definitely not trivial). To access the server remotely; I've created a jailed user and can connect, using SFTP Net Drive Free -www.eldos.com Also I use a dyndns address. A lot of work, if one can be bothered - but it works and I'm really pleased I gave it a go. With your undoubtedly better Singapore internet speeds, it'd work a dream. |
jcr1 (893) | ||
| 1381354 | 2014-08-11 22:37:00 | At the end of the day they all have HDD's and can fail just like any other HDD. True that - our NAS's HDD failed just the other day. |
pcuser42 (130) | ||
| 1381355 | 2014-08-12 00:26:00 | I have one of the cheaper Netgear units with 2 drive bays and intended it to be for scheduled backups of my PCs, that didn't work out and I'm very dissapointed with it. The software is slow and clunky, transfer rates are terrible, and there is no way to store an image of my OS automatically. Turns out windows 7 needs to be the pro version to back up to a network drive (no Idea about 8) and netgears software doesn't do imaging. If you use the official software to back things up it goes at less than half the speed of just using windows networking to copy files to the same NAS drive..... which is still very slow. I'm sure there are ways to make it work but the whole experience was so dissapointing I just took the drives back out and installed them back in the PC. I think to get a decent performing NAS you either need to spend quite a bit of money or re-purpose a PC for the task. I've had much better results using a 4 bay external USB 3 drive for backups myself, the NAS sits on a shelf doing nothing. If you plan to use RAID for backup purposes don't. It protects from drive failure only and is not a backup solution. The cheapest easiest option - replace your 1.5 TB drive with a 3 or 4 TB one (or keep both) and buy a matching capacity external drive for backups. Also your specs are still good, if it's running slow maybe it needs a clean out or as suggested an SSD. 6GB is plenty of RAM for most home use. |
dugimodo (138) | ||
| 1381356 | 2014-08-12 01:08:00 | I use active@ dugi as win7 home doesn't do network backups | gary67 (56) | ||
| 1 2 | |||||