External HD as Backup

Discussion about software such as GSAK, OziExplorer etc, as well as all things hardware, GPSrs, laptops, PDAs, paperless caching, cables etc
Team GeoCoopers
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Post by Team GeoCoopers » 15 October 06 11:38 am

orac7000 wrote: I decided that the redundancy of RAID 0 looked like an attractive solution.
Hi orac7000 just a quick note that RAID 0 is actually "AID". Eg NO REDUNDANCY :!: :!: :!: Purely striped data across multiple drives. If one of the drives in the array fails you loose the whole array.

In a loose theoretical sense it gives you twice the IO speed but double the chance of failure.

Best to go for RAID 1 (disks are a mirror of each other) or RAID5 (stripped across multiple disks but with parity) if >2 drives are to be used.

Hmm $6 AUD for some unknown 3rd party to look after my important and confidential files. Not sure that's a winner for me.

A little known about (free) utility is Robocopy (warning it is a command line based tool :lol: ) which can be used to copy/sync/mirror data between locations.
Great thing is it only copies files that have changed since the last copy, so for say gigs of photos & docs it only transfers new/changed files so is very quick. It has many other advanced options than can also be used.
A batch script using robocopy syncs my important files from C: to D: to E: and then across to C: and D: on my other PC (what me paranoid :roll: ) with a handful of DVD DL used for offsite backups.

I also use this Robocopy to keep secondary offsite backups of 100's of gigs stored on servers across the asia pacific region. Where it is perfect for syncing back to the data center over quite slow WAN links.

JUST BE CAREFUL - If you use this util I am in no way responsible if you make a mistake :!:

The Garner Family
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Post by The Garner Family » 15 October 06 9:56 pm

Aushiker wrote:Are you actually using them? BTW it is around $6.00+ per month Australian :-)
Yes, I'm using them... and it's $5/month with a discount code :-)

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djcache
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Post by djcache » 31 October 06 11:50 pm

I've gone for a Netgear SC101. Link here

Image
SC101 - walks softly & carries a big hard drive (or 2)

You can use it with two separate drives as two distinct drives, or you can set it up with two as mirrors of each other - ie. same data on both. That way they both have to fail before you lose your data.

It runs as a standalone device on the network (needs DHCP enabled) and must be on the same router or subnet as the pc's accessing it.

Given that I wireless surf on the laptop in the lounge room I reckon it's the ducks guts, I have access to bulk storage & backup without needing the desktop pc in the study on.

I could even put it out in the shed as described earlier which I must say appeals to my paranoid side.

I use Synchback to run my backups. Works well, only writes what's changed and is easy to configure.

DJ

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setsujoku
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Post by setsujoku » 01 November 06 9:43 am

djcache wrote:I've gone for a Netgear SC101. Link here

Image
SC101 - walks softly & carries a big hard drive (or 2)

You can use it with two separate drives as two distinct drives, or you can set it up with two as mirrors of each other - ie. same data on both. That way they both have to fail before you lose your data.

It runs as a standalone device on the network (needs DHCP enabled) and must be on the same router or subnet as the pc's accessing it.

Given that I wireless surf on the laptop in the lounge room I reckon it's the ducks guts, I have access to bulk storage & backup without needing the desktop pc in the study on.

I could even put it out in the shed as described earlier which I must say appeals to my paranoid side.

I use Synchback to run my backups. Works well, only writes what's changed and is easy to configure.

DJ
I havent heard any good reports about these. The most common and obvious point of failure is that the device doesnt have the ability to allow the disks to spin down, so eventually they go caput. If you expect good read/write times from them, they can be a little under par as well

On the other side they would be great as you can put whatever size hard disks into them that you want

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Post by Team Piggy » 01 November 06 11:34 am

I think Geocoopers were playing with one of these and had some issues as well?

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djcache
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Post by djcache » 01 November 06 1:19 pm

I have a 250gig Maxtor OneTouch also.

At least the Netgear SC101 doesn't have the PITA "Windows Delayed Write Error" issues that the portable hard drive has.

I have nearly thrown that at a brick wall on a number of occasions. (At least then I could take the hard disk magnets and use them for a cache... :shock: )

It's not the drive in it either. I've changed that. It's an issue with the interface in the case.

DJ

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riblit
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Post by riblit » 01 November 06 1:52 pm

djcache wrote:I have a 250gig Maxtor OneTouch also.

At least the Netgear SC101 doesn't have the PITA "Windows Delayed Write Error" issues that the portable hard drive has.

I have nearly thrown that at a brick wall on a number of occasions. (At least then I could take the hard disk magnets and use them for a cache... :shock: )

It's not the drive in it either. I've changed that. It's an issue with the interface in the case.

DJ
Have you tried disabling the write cache for the portable drive?<p>




System - Hardware - Device Manager - Policies, Select optimize for quick removal.</p>

There is a post by 'netguy' the the thread at http://forums.viaarena.com/messageview. ... erthread=y that shows Maxtor's reply to the problem and a suggested fix.
Instructions on the One Touch are 4 posts below.

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Team Red Roo
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Post by Team Red Roo » 02 November 06 11:20 am

At present, I use a 20 Gb 2.5 inch hard drive in a USB case to do my backups and I feel that it's the way to go. Cost was cheap ($15 for the case and $40 for the drive).

20 Gb's is probably a bit on the small side, though it depends on what you feel you need - at present I have around 15 Gb's of maps etc. so I need to be careful of what I put on it.

The beauty of USB though, is it's portability - just plug it into any XP machine and it's recognised. I take it on holidays also, as a backup for photographs on the laptop, just in case something bad happens to the laptop's hard drive.

Wayne

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Post by Bronze » 02 November 06 6:03 pm

Hmmmm - Very interesting thread.

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Post by Phlosten » 02 November 06 6:04 pm

<p>Make sure you have at least 2 backups is my suggestion. I just had an 80GB Seagate HDD fail (another strike for Seagate?) and lost a lot of stuff.</p>

<p>I went and purchased a USB 2.0 to ATA/Atapi/SATA adpater to use for external backups. It cost me $49.95 and if you are like me and have lots of extra small capacity hdd's around, it is a winner. I now have a handful of extra drives that I can copy to. It is also able to hookup a cdrom drive to a laptop that does not have one (or a faulty one) if it has USB.</p>

<p>Works wonderfully well under Linux. I format the drives for Fat32 to ensure read/write compatibility with both Windows and Linux.</p>

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