Netwark Backup-File Storage
Land Surveying category as it falls to the office end…
I am in need of some sort of NAS for my home businesses. I have separate computers for 2 businesses, + 2 home machines, a media machine, and also a laptop for a non-profit club. Ya way too many machines around here! I don’t want a file server, just a place to automatically backup all of the critical data files, from financials, to business data, drawings & GPS data and also our media files.
I have been doing a little research and I came up with the Seagate Blackarmor NAS: Blackarmor 220
I defiantly want a local solution, not ‘in the cloud’ and I think the 4Tb model will work out decently, configured in a RAID 1 for 2Tb usable space. That will give me 3 total copies, of data. 1 on the original machine, and 1 on each of the NAS drives. I want my backup to automatically check each machine and update any changed files.Anyone have experience with this NAS, or have a better option then this?
- 12 Replies
Some of that was way over my head (not surprising). have you tried Carbonite(sp). I had it when I had my business and it seemed to back up fine. Only had to restore stuff once.
For me I want the ability to be “hot swappable” and LAN support so you can access over a network.
Not familiar with the Seagate but you might also look at these: http://www.qnap.com.
On paper the Seagate’s look awesome, I want the 440, but the recent price spike in drives has almost doubled the price in the last few months. I have also spent quite a bit of time in the BA forums, seem to have a lot of issues??? I still like the design, small, hot swapable drives that easy to access, etc.
For now I am archiving to a USB drive, running Backblaze in the cloud and about twice a month backing up to a second internal drive when I remember to do it.
If Seagate could get some bugs worked out AND drive prices come back down, that is probably what I will get, like I said, it looks good on paper.
SHG
Some analysts are predicting drive market normalization beginning in Q32012, others say not until Q12013. It’s a good time to sit back and wait if you can.
Regarding Seagate drives, I’ve read that their failure rate has gone up a lot in recent years, while Western Digital’s has gone down. These things seem to go around and around, with manufacturers trading off the reputation for reliability problems. I recall a time when WD drives were failing by the bucketload, same thing with IBM. Now it sounds like it’s Seagate’s turn. I think it pays to put an ear to the ground and see what the corporate system managers are saying before making a hard disk purchase.
I know you said you wanted a local solution rather than a net based solution. There are many good reasons to go the way you describe. There are also some good reasons to use a net based solution. I’ve seen a surveyors office burned to the ground. All his data was gone. The numbers of copies he had in the building didn’t matter.
I have seen a surveyors office burned to the ground. Then, two weeks later, the new office was destroyed by a tornado. Again, no on site solution was worth anything to these folks.
Give some serious thought to an off site solution.
For what it is worth, I know these folks are good people. (The company is owned by a PLS whose father is also a PLS.)
Larry P
Network Backup-File Storage
Ya, I had some bad experiences with WD drives about 10 years ago, lost 3 drives in 2 years, and cost $3k to recover what we needed. Brand is not that important to me, like you said they all go in cycles. I have started looking at solutions, more then reliability, I should look at that too. I am new to the network drives, and trying to learn what I need to do. Easy to use, and automatic features are a must. That drive set would only come with 5 copies of the backup software, so I also need to see if the OEM software is good, or find an aftermarket solution.
I don’t think those drives are hot-swappable, but it is on the LAN, and that is what I need to hook into our network. And as far as cost, the 220 with 4Tb storage is $500, so it is doable. Waiting 6mo until the busy season, or another year I don’t think really going to make that much of a difference in the long run. That and I am about to start archiving a ton of old maps, and want more then 1 automated copy.
A local architecture firm just got a similar setup, but are running 4 redundant copies. I will try to get their setup info.
Network Backup-File Storage
Larry, I know exactly what you are talking about, and I know it sounds weird, but I am planning for the multiple problems too. My are really has no problems with tornado, severe weather, flooding or other natural disasters. I am a little worried about fire, but the my biggest fear is HD failure. I currently backup most stuff on an external drive, and put it in my safe, but it isn’t as frequent as I want, and because of the large size of some data, I don’t get it all. Most of the data is housed in 1 building, and I have a wireless LAN to my residence that is about 300′ away, that is where I am going to locate the backup. That way if I lost one or the other I would still have either the original or the backup copy. I have looked at the on-line solutions, and to be realistic they are just too expensive for the amount of storage I need, as I am over 1Tb now (the majority of which is not survey-specific files there are other business also), and I will be adding to that total soon with survey map scanned archives.
I may also get into the ‘cloud’ system with just the most critical data, like financials and master CAD drawings as that would probably be a more realistic size to store, but I still need an automatic backup system on-site for the other data.Network Backup-File Storage
The Seagate BA systems are hot swappable, at least the four drive (4xx) systems are.
SHG
Network Backup-File Storage
Backblaze is $50/year/PC UNLIMITED data, I signed up after reading about it on this board a few months ago, so far it seems to be good.
Might be something to consider in addition to a NAS RAID box.
SHG
Network Backup-File Storage
> I may also get into the ‘cloud’ system with just the most critical data, like financials and master CAD drawings as that would probably be a more realistic size to store, but I still need an automatic backup system on-site for the other data.
We all are getting more and more data built up. The first 10 years I was in business (1990 to 1999) I generated thousands of files but they were all pretty small. I can put all 10 years on one dvd. The next 5 years worth of files take 4 dvds. When our county got new aerial photography I got a copy of the images for the office. Those files alone take up ~650 Gig. Now, I would be hard pressed to get some single projects on 1 dvd.
Data is being generated at a rate that is increasing exponentially. The notion of getting the most critical data backed up off site is something we all need to carefully consider.
Larry P
Network Backup-File Storage
> Data is being generated at a rate that is increasing exponentially. The notion of getting the most critical data backed up off site is something we all need to carefully consider.
Selective backup is the approach that I’ve taken. I have both local and cloud (Amazon S3) copies of all drawing, calculation, source code, correspondence, email, photo and accounting files, but only local copies of most map images, video files, GPS data and software application files. I maintain a temp folder on my boot drive that gets all the miscellaneous expendable files that accumulate during normal operations, and that doesn’t get backed up anywhere. (My intent is to clear that out periodically, but I never seem to get around to it.)
Network Backup-File Storage
Besides Amazon, other clouds include I-cloud, Google, Yahoo,
and others at no cost. IBM and Microsoft are selling cloud
time at about $50/month. I do not think that will last long.Hopefully robot and gps manufacturer will start having direct
interfaces to cloud computing.Cloud computing will hopefully release Google clamp on the
mapping data and there will be other competitors.
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