I'm in need of a 4TB or larger portable/desktop backup drive to be used to back up three computers with both XP and 7 on them....... I see that some of these backup drives require 7 or higher, I'm looking for one that will work with XP on up. Any suggestions computer gurus? I've been taking a chance with these 3 computers for too long.....
same here. need to copy a huge amount of info on this one and keep it updated for the day this puter shits the bed.
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The company that just built me a new computer recommended Western Digital drives over any other. I currently have a 1T Seagate external HD on my XP system, but it is almost 8 years old and doesn't get used much. This company told me that Seagate's quality has slipped the last several years and they no longer have the durability nor reliability that they used to have.
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I have never used ANY drive that was not Western Digital. Just my .02.
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Originally Posted by l921428x
Hard drive in my security system is WD Purple. Just Dandy.
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My new PC I built in December has two, 2 TB WD Blacks running in Raid 1. Raid 1 is a mirrored RAID which means each drive has 100% of the information on each one. Should one drive die, the other already has all the data on it and can run the PC until you plug in a replacement. The only thing is this does not cover you from viruses and malware.
AS to using 1 huge drive to back up 3 PC's, not a good plan is my 2 cents. You are better off having 1 backup for each PC especially with the mixed bag of OS's you're running. Mulitiple drives is better if for no other reason than if the Backup craps you loose all the data off all 3 PC's.
We use a WD My Cloud EX2 at work and we are very happy with it. As Schuetz mentioned, use Raid 1 with 2 hard drives and you are good to go.
http://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Ultra-Ne...=sr_1_1&sr=8-1
What I have (and what I would suggest for you) is a dedicated "storage machine" which is a PC case, motherboard and power supply and hard drives in a RAID configuration.
No need for a video card since the motherboard will probably have some sort of video output and you can also remotely administer the storage machine via SSH.
My box has five 4 TiB drives in a RAID6 configuration (giving me 12 TiB storage space that can survive two failed drives). The box runs Linux server and it's super easy to setup.
As far as Windows, the storage drive looks like any other "drive" in the system. To backup stuff, simply copy it to the storage machine.
Here's what it looks like in a Linux file manager:
(click pic for larger)
It's similar in Windows. Just drag-n-drop stuff from your computer to the storage machine. And, being on your network, anyone in the family can use it, and you can even access it off-site.
If you're interested, I can help you with instructions how to set it up. It's super easy.
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Now that's an interesting idea! Linux server doesn't have any issues with XP,XP64 or 7? I was thinking portable seagate drive, but everyone says seagate quality has gone to shit. Yeah I would be interested in particulars. I'd just want to go with two drives in raid1 for now, don't want to spend a mint on this as I've got to spend some money on HMMWV problems at the moment, but that's a fantastic idea having it right on the network.didn't even dawn on me and I've been building my puters since the 586 ..What I have (and what I would suggest for you) is a dedicated "storage machine" which is a PC case, motherboard and power supply and hard drives in a RAID configuration.
No need for a video card since the motherboard will probably have some sort of video output and you can also remotely administer the storage machine via SSH.
My box has five 4 TiB drives in a RAID6 configuration (giving me 12 TiB storage space that can survive two failed drives). The box runs Linux server and it's super easy to setup.
As far as Windows, the storage drive looks like any other "drive" in the system. To backup stuff, simply copy it to the storage machine.
Here's what it looks like in a Linux file manager:
(click pic for larger)
It's similar in Windows. Just drag-n-drop stuff from your computer to the storage machine. And, being on your network, anyone in the family can use it, and you can even access it off-site.
If you're interested, I can help you with instructions how to set it up. It's super easy.
That looks great too....I'll have to price out Rogers idea and this, I think this might end up being cheaper even though I have some components like a case already. What do you think Roger?
Also, you can find the WD My Cloud EX2 cheaper if you look around. It seems like I bought it on sale for just below $300
The server runs on Linux, but as far as Windows (or any other OS is concerned), your file shares look simply like a local hard drive.
For example, you could have a share named "Family photos" and it would be (as Windows saw it), a folder on a hard drive.
If you look at the screenshot I attached earlier, (in the left hand pane) you see things like "Documents" and "Downloads" and "Music", etc... these are folders (directories) on my LOCAL hard drive. Below those are "shared on storage", "linux-boot", "ssd_250", etc... "linux-boot" is my local hard drive (like C: on a Windows computer). "ssd_250" is a 250 GB solid state drive in my local machine, as is "LinuxUDF" (a re-writable DVD). The other "drive" ("shared on storage") is a REMOTE drive which is my RAID Linux server.
In the larger right hand pane, you can see lots of folders like "brians-files", "jenna-mp3", etc... these are FOLDERS (directories) located on the remote drive.
Additionally, I have a scrap 2TiB hard drive plugged into the Linux file server and it shows up as "external-2tb". This is an external, stand alone hard drive that is not part of the RAID array and is just used to hold junk.
The nice thing is this works the same for any computer (operating system) because they are just file shares... just file data. The concept of "Linux" or "Windows" is irrelevant. It's just data that any computer can access.
The important thing to know is the difference between a store-bought "personal cloud" and a personal server.
The store bought devices need to be administered with their own proprietary software, usually through a web browser and they only deliver certain kinds of file content (data).
The Linux server you can administer with a console session, a web browser, in Windows, in Linux, in MacOS... anything and there are no restrictions as to what kind of data you can transfer. And, being networked, anyone in your home can share and access data, and you can even access your data AWAY from home. Watch a DVD rip in London off your server box? Sure, no problem.
You can also stream and share multiple data at once. You can, for example, have a full HD movie collection and have dozens of people all watching different videos at once and the box can handle it no sweat.
As far as RAID, using Level 1 is a waste. With large hard drives being so cheap these days, the least you should consider is a three HDD RAID5 setup (your capacity would be 2/3 of the HDD total and you could tolerate a SINGLE drive failure with no data loss.). For example, three 2TiB drives in a RAID5 array would give you TOTAL * 2/3, or 6Tib * 2/3 or 4 TiB storage, and being able to survive a single drive failure.
You want any more info or help, let me know.
Gentlemen may prefer Blondes, but Real Men prefer Redheads!
Well, you get tons more flexibility, speed and performance with a real file server, but you will save a few $$$ with a store bought "personal cloud".
And, if you already have some parts (an old PC case, maybe with a power supply) you only need to add hard drives and (if you need one) also a motherboard.
A file server, surprisingly, doesn't need a very powerful CPU. An old Pentium-4 machine would actually run great. And, since you don't need a video card, power requirements are smaller (less $$$ electric bill, no need for a power supply upgrade, runs cool 24/7, etc..).
What I REALLY dislike about store bought "clouds" is that they run on proprietary software. You need THEIR software to administer the machine and the server only does what THEY wrote into their "OS".
On the contrary, a Linux OS based server can do anything, with no restrictions.
My server box is even handy for simple things like my wife will copy a letter or document to the server, then ask me to look at it. I pull it in, read it over, maybe make some edits and then copy the revised file back to the server. It's even easier than a USB thumb drive because I don't even need to get up out of my chair!!!
You should seriously consider a home made server running a regular server OS (which COULD even be Windows server, but UGH! why???). If you ever used one, then compared it to a store bought "personal cloud", you would know exactly what I mean.
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Great info guys. Krupski, One thing I don't understand. You say you don't need any video for the server, how do you install the operating system on the server or make changes? I actually do have a few old motherboards around, cases, power supply. I was building one for dos/win95 but kinda just gave up on the win95 part. Should just use that stuff, but wouldn't there be a problem with an old motherboard being able to recognize/utilize gigabyte drives?
He my be thinking of Intel CPU chips that have integrated graphics in them. There are also AMD APU's that have graphics built into the CPU Chip. DOS is the limiter on how much ram is recognized. I seem to recall a limit to HD capacity as well but maybe that means merely making a partician and creating another virtual drive on a large HD. I personally can't understand why anyone would want a Windows 95 OS anything. It was one wonky bluescreeofdeath after another. Now XP, OK I can see that OS as it was very stable.
Still have a shitload of games designed for dos/95 that I can't get running right in dosbox.
Why not home build a network accessible storage server? That way anything can connect to it and up/download data. Any old pc can be one, just load it with ram and disks, cpu speed should be irrelevant. A linux os would likely be best for this but an M$ os can be made to work.
"And how we burned in the camps later thinking, what would things have been like, if every security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain, whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family?"
Move on, games are much more sophisticated now.
Oh believe me I have, I have 4 gaming machines on my lan, but I still like to reminisce once in a while. I still pull out the C64 and 1541 drive once in a great while to experience those state of the art graphics and games on a TV..... LOL
I've decided for now to go with an 8TB My Cloud Mirror gen2. Just easier to buy and hook up. Eventually I'll build something like Krupski suggested. I know the software WD has for it doesn't support XP according to all I've read, but I'll just map the drive for the XP backups. I will set it to RAID1 so I'll have 4TB and two disks as backups of all my puters.
Thanks everyone for the input. I'll update when I get it and how it works for me.
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