Comment by Jeff Schaefer

December 17, 2007 @ 1:51 pm

I use a Network Accessed Storage (NAS) device instead of plugging directly into the computer via usb or firewire. I have a Infrant Technologies’ ReadyNAS 600/X6.

I have it set to a Raid 5 configuration for maximum redundancy. The machine monitors it’s own drives. I haven’t had one go bad yet. I’ve heard that they are easy to swap when one does go bad.

I’d say the machine is pretty darn reliable… not moody. I might have to reboot the server about once a year for some reason.

It also operates as my printer hub since it has USB ports.

The downsides would be that the access isn’t be as fast as firewire method, and you nead available jacks in the router to expand. (I guess you get around that with hubs?)

I’ve also been told that you’ll save a lot by purchasing only the server box from Infrant, and getting the drives elsewhere.

Good luck,
Jeff

Comment by Amanda Elkins

December 17, 2007 @ 3:05 pm

I actually have that same one! It works good so far…worried about them now!

Comment by Donavon

December 17, 2007 @ 4:09 pm

Get a Drobo, which is an external USB hard drive device that uses multiple drives and spans the data across them in case of failure.

For backups, I use Mozy which offers unlimited encrypted backups online for really cheap!

Comment by B&C The B Half

December 17, 2007 @ 4:39 pm

I agree with Jeff.

Look into a network type device with RAID 1 (I think). We have not made the plunge yet…but we will sometime. We are still using external harddrives as well.

Our IT Department(errr…a friend) has sold us on the idea of having something like the My Book World Edition II. Not only can you access the files from your home network…but anywhere in the world! No more loading files onto the Mac Book to go on vacation! Just use wi-fi to access them!!!!

Do the RAID 1 mirroring thing so that you cannot really lose data if you have a drive go down.

Has Ben fired you as a client? Why are you asking us for advice?

Comment by jess

December 17, 2007 @ 4:54 pm

B….No…Ben hasn’t fired me….but he should have years ago! He’s really not my IT department, though…he is my brother and helps with my IT issues out of the goodness of his heart….but I turn to him for almost everything so I make an attempt to figure some stuff out on my own! He actually found the Drobo thing for me, though, which I think is the best option. I just wanted to get some feedback on what other people in my same position were doing…and other options that might be more affordable!

Thanks for the feedback, everyone!

Comment by scott

December 17, 2007 @ 6:06 pm

Great topic Jessica!
Donavon (and others)..regarding the Drobo…I’ve been considering this solution, but often need to work remotely in the house (i.e., access photo files from upstairs while on the laptop, while the drobo is in the studio downstairs)…possible? work-around?

Comment by David Martinez

December 17, 2007 @ 6:48 pm

Hi Jess,
The Drobo solves your problem as it has the ability to swap drives in and out as they fail or get too full (while running!). The only draw back is you can only use around 60% of your actual storage at anytime as the Drobo needs 40% for data shuffling. Also it is only USB 2 (almost as fast as firewire) and not something you can connect to your network yet (so everyone on your network can use it). Once the Drobo gets ethernet and I can see it from any computer I’m getting one. Again - won’t be as fast as firewire but pretty stable. Just load it up with a 4 500 gig sata drives. Also I imagine it only uses one power cord. Just my 2 cents.

Comment by kjeld mahoney

December 17, 2007 @ 8:08 pm

Jessica,

I use a Fusion D400 and I love it. I have four 750 gig drives in one box connected to a superfast SATA card on my G5 tower. So easy to swap new drives and it’s built really well and the tech support is amazing. Check their products out here:

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/storagesolutions/index.html

I would highly recommend getting one and i dont work for them!

Kjeld Mahoney

Comment by Jeff Schaefer

December 18, 2007 @ 11:05 am

B&C the B Half, brings up a good point about NAS. It’s not only accessable to every computer on the newwork, but you can set it up so you can access it remotely when away from home.

About raid in general…
The Raid configuration does take up a significant potion of your storage space. It think my raid 5 setup has about 2/3 capacity available for storage. But, when a drive in the box fails, I can insert a new one, and I don’t loose ANY data. Well worth the trade off in my opinion.

Comment by Leon

December 18, 2007 @ 11:09 am

Great topic, Jess!

David- is there software that is tied to the Drobo that prevents you from plugging it into say an Airport Express?

Other options I’ve used in the past:

-Firmtek eSATA drive enclosures and BYO Hard Drive. (Fast connection!)

-Western Digital MyBook 500GB USB2.0/FW400&800

Comment by David Martinez

December 18, 2007 @ 1:23 pm

Hmmm, Drobo and Airport express. I’d Google that for sure and see if anyone has tried that as a work flow. I wonder if you can hit the Drobo as a shared drive as long as it was connected to computer wired to your network. Not sure, but please post what you find about Drobo and Airport!

Looks like exciting things are happening with Airport Extreme though I have no personal experience with it yet:
http://www.apple.com/airportextreme/sharing.html

Comment by Callie

December 18, 2007 @ 4:44 pm

I have used the mybook pro addition for a couple of years now and haven’t had any major problems. I actually have tb’s because I don’t want all the stuff on my desk. They are daiseychained together as well which I like, I have them set up as well so they back eachother up.

Comment by Dustin

December 18, 2007 @ 10:54 pm

I use 1TB Lacie Quadra d2’s mirrored. They even make a rack for stacking four of them. With four drives, that’s 4TB’s of storage, or in my case, 2TB’s of storage backed up. I use the built in RAID Utility that comes with all Mac’s to set up two drives in a RAID 1 (mirrored) configuration and have the drives daisy-chained through Firewire 800. The advantage of having the mirrored drives seperate instead of in a housing together, is once they fill up, I can keep one hooked up and store the other off site for security.

Comment by Nathan Rodger

December 19, 2007 @ 8:36 am

so - Drobo & Airport Extreme - possible? yes.. however you need to set it up differently. The Drobo that is — there is info on the Drobo forums about it.

The big thing about the Airport attached storage is that it is always spooled up - which is bad for drive life. I don’t think the Drobo gets around this.

Drobo is great - its “not” RAID - but is in a way - as it takes the advanages of RAID - similar to RAID 5 - where you have a bunch of mirrored storage (same data on multiple drives) yet you also have an overflow drive, and it rebuilds itself. Whilst it is great there are PLENTY of legitmate - secure options.

CalDigit offers a great range of drive options from the FireWire VR which is a basic 2 drive RAID, with USB2, FW400 & FW800. Allows either RAID 0 (striped - two drives of same size eg. 500gb + 500gb = 1TB (apprx) ) or RAID 1 mirrored (500gb with an exact copy on the other 500gb = 500gb available storage.

So options from CalDigit go from a simple 2 drive setup - all the way to an 8 drive behemoth offering a whole host of RAID configurations.

IMHO - get at least the a drive setup. RAID 1… I prefer faster than USB access - so Drobo is out there, so either eSATA or FW400/FW800 are the go. eSATA is faster- but FW400/800 has the convenience of being able to take your drive array to another Mac - and it’ll work. Whereas eSATA doesn’t have that luxury.

So Sonnet, CalDigit or another solution with high speed protected RAID access is my suggestion!!

Comment by Nathan Rodger

December 22, 2007 @ 10:00 pm

And here I go again - found it… to use w/Airport Extreme- guide is on the Drobo Community site right here:

http://www.drobospace.com/article/10425/Share-Drobo-on-a-Network–Apple-Airport-Extreme/

Comment by craig

January 7, 2008 @ 12:39 pm

I use Other World Computing external 750 GB FW800 drives at the moment. You can get Raid 1 Configurations for redundant back-ups.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/

In a perfect world (2010 perhaps) I’ll have a Mac Mini running my back-ups across a gigabit ethernet to few raid 1 OWC 750GB drives.

I have heard good things about Drobo.