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Small network backup system

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by ehanner

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I am about to purchase a new computer to replace our older machine and want to set up a system that will run unattended and provide security from a crash. I'm thinking that a RAID 0 (mirror) drive system and a one touch external hard drive system would provide a safe and secure source of data I could backup from. The software in the Maxtor drive unit seems like it can be set to run unattended on a schedule and the mirror would be the primary BU. Am I missing something new out there or would this be OK?

There are 3 computers on this small office network running XP at the moment.

7 replies

by jplconsultant

The first thing you're missing is that RAID 0 is not a mirror, it's striping. In RAID 0 neither drive backs-up or copies the other. You're thinking of RAID-1.

RAID-1 shouldn't really be thought of as a "backup" since all drives mirror each other. So, a changed, corrupted or deleted file will be in the same condition on all drives. A backup allows you to recover from such a condition, by getting an older version of the file.

RAID-1 really is protection against a failed drive. If one drive dies, you're not down and out. You have the data replicated.

As for the backup software, I'm not familiar with the software provided by Maxtor, so I won't speak to its quality. But you may look into a good imaging software. Acronis (www.acronis.com) makes a good one. It will do unattended backups to an external drive, and lets you recover an entire image or selected files/folders from an image.

JPL()

by ehanner

I must have been asleep when I typed 0 instead of 1. Sorry for the confusion. I realize that a corrupted file would be duped on all drives but in my experience drive failure is far more likely to occur than a system crash due to corruption.

I hadn't considered an imaging program however. That might be a good idea as an automated backup. Will Acronis operate in Windows or is it primarily a dos environment tool similar to Ghost?

by alphatech9

As JPL said, RAID-0 is not mirrored, and you really don't want to use RAID as an actual backup for a network.... It's a fail-safe, not a backup.....

by ehanner

Thanks Alpha-Male, I have been watching for the release to manufacturing and it looks like that has happened. HS might be a nice collection of capabilities. I hope it works with the majority of printers and external devices out there. Early adopters of new OS's are unfortunately left out in the cold when it comes to compatability with "Legacy" devices.

by alpha-male

The HP Servers will be available on Sept. 15th...for $599 (500GB) and $799 (1TB).

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