Maximum PC

Hello again MaxPC! I'm in need of a good backup solution. I've been doing piecemeal manual backups to an external drive for years and it's time to actually get serious and stop neglecting my backups.

I currently have 3 1TB hard drives and 1 700GB drive I want to back up, so that's 4TB of storage I need. But in addition to that I'd like to make all of those redundant with some RAID 1, so that makes for a need of at least 8TB. (Yeah yeah, RAID 1; warning about viruses and accidental deletions goes here.)

I'm thinking some WD Caviar Blacks for the actual storage. (My 3 1TB drives are Caviars.)

On top of that I'm planning on using full-drive TruCrypt encryption on the entire shebang.


At first I thought just an external enclosure or NAS box would do the trick. Maybe something I could hook up to my Netgear WNDR3700. However the QNap TS459 Pro+ NAS box in MPC's best of the best list seems to be way above what I actually need, with features I would never use.

But then again I've always kinda wanted to set up a home server box for my storage duties (not just a backup but as in my primary storage).
I like the idea of only having to deal with one centralized storage location and not having to synch files between multiple machines, but at the same time I don't like the idea of not having access to the files if I move my desktop or laptop to another location (i.e. on a trip perhaps).. although I could just use a remote desktop or hamachi type of login to get the files through the Intertubes, but that of course assumes that I have Internet access at the other location. Admittedly though that is probably a fringe case and 99% of the time I'll have them both in the same location. And even then, I probably won't be needing to transfer several GB worth of data when I'm away anyway. *Grumbles about data caps*


If I go the way of a server box I have a copy of WinXP Pro that I used to use in this desktop before I switched to Win7. I've also got a spare keyboard, mouse, and monitor but I know that aside from initial setup I won't even need that stuff after I shove it in the closet (network control, remote in, whatevs). I have none of the other needed hardware though.


And can anyone recommend some good backup software? I know there are a lot to choose from and some are great while some others are extremely mediocre.
And what are the pros vs cons of choosing full drive image backups vs regular file backups? TBH I'm not even entirely sure of how a full image even works (1 massive file?)
Aaand of course if I end up with a server, what is some good remote-control software, both local network and from the Intertubes?

(p.s. Chumly is awesome. hint hint)

What is your budget for this whole shebang?

Oh right that would probably be a good thing to mention.

How does $600-$800 not including the actual storage itself sound? Ideally not more than $1200-$1300 including the storage, but since the whole point is the storage I'm giving the price tag of the drives themselves more wiggle room and would go over that if need be.

Just an idea, but, instead of running in RAID 1, why not have your backup regimin include fully backing up your original back up right before running the backup to overwrite that first backup? This might be confusingly worded, but I hope you get what I'm saying...

So you mean chaining the devices together?

i.e.

[Desktop] -> backs up to -> [Backup drive one] -> Backs up to -> [Backup of backup drive one]

Exactly. The second backup can of course just be another (set of) hard drive(s) in the server, but this way you have the redundancy (although not immediate) and a bit more protection in case of viruses or accidental deletion, as you mentioned.

Typically I would say a RAID 5 setup would work since if there is a drive failure then you can just take that drive out and pop a new one in. I do however not think that I would do it that way my self because like CompuSmith stated I would go the route of backing up the back up so that I have true redundancy though maybe not up-to-date for every second of the day should still be very very close.
I am sure that you can add software that will allow this function to be performed on a scheduled basis so it should take the guess work out of it. Though since I haven had to do on this scale yet if you would need to hide the secondary back-up drive so the data isn't seen twice on streaming devices or maybe just not mark those drives as shared.
I also wanted to mention that while i understand the use of true crypt on the drives encrypting the whole drive might take a lot of time I think it took about an hour (best guess) for my 500GB external drive over USB. I do really like true crypt though!

Acronis True Image is inexpensive and does a great job of doing scheduled back ups so that you don't have to relegate yourself to do the that task. http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/pr ... /#overview

For the build itself do you have any preferences hardware wise?
I have a preliminary build put together over at the Egg http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Publi ... r=16515992
See what you think. It can still be tweaked.

I had also read somewhere the idea of using a number of different drive models instead of just several of one to help protect against failure based on any manufacturing issues/defects.

That looks like a pretty good build. No I don't have any particular hardware preferences, but I am wary of newer large-capacity drives. The denser the platters get the more likely it seems to me that they'll have "teething pains" during their initial runs, be it firmware or manufacturing. I recall that happening when they introduced the first gen of 2TB drives which is why I stuck with 1TB drives for my desktop build.

The HDD in the build are built for DVR and other uses and have been tweaking for reliability and 24/7 running. I can understand your hesitance on the matter but 2TB drives IMO just won't give you the storage you are looking for unless you want to run 6-2TB drives to give you 12TB what I gave you was 15TB in 5 drive though formatted space will be smaller. for a 3TB drive i think you will end up with about 2.7TB.
How about grabbing 2 of the 3TB drive and trying them out that way you aren't too far in monetarily and you can still get things started?

Two backup types have their advantages and disadvantages. Let's start with the pros and cons of FB. The main advantage of CA is that you can recover faster than IB.