Backup strategy?

ducky22 · Jan 03, 2008, 23:11:24

Acronis gets my vote everytime.

I do daily images to a 2nd hard drive.

I'd recommend staying the hell away from Western Digital. I've found the performance on their NAS/USB products ridiculous. Their support is even worse. I spent 2 hours arguing with them over a slow USB hard drive. They insisted the problem was my workstation, I insisted it wasn't. I proved the enclosure they supplied would only function in USB 1.1 but still they wouldn't give me a replacement :-(.

DeViTTo · Feb 02, 2008, 21:57:17

I use Acronis to, the trouble I have with it if you have a raid0 sata configuration the OS needs the driver installed to recognise the drive. This can be a pain, because you have to restore to a single drive then run acronis from that to restore back to the raid (something for others to watch out for using raid0 Sata drives). You might think that the backup is ok and validates but it doesn't work when you need it to.

I have a SCSI perc/4dc raid0 config and it will restore to that no problem mainly because its hardware implemented.

Anyway back to what other ways to backup. I myself don't bother with system or applications not worth it really, I'm forever reinstalling, but I do keep a copy of my latest fresh install. I also use USB Drives and sticks for my installation files and personal data. I find with Acronis if dual booting I take copies of both OS's so I can restore the boot file correctly.

I use other wise as a backup for files A Qnap109pro which comes with or without a HD, I have a samsung 500GB installed. Its a very usefull device you can run slimserver(excellent player), twonky media, itunes server, ftp, php, mysql, qbackup, Joomla, qget BTorrent program which enables downloading of torrents with computer off (which I dont really use BTW) and many other programs. I use it as a webserver for hosting my website. It really worth considering as a backup device which can do so much more.

Price wise its above the 150 but only slightly depending where you buy as mentioned by the OP.
This is where I bought mine. I went for the pro but the normal one just doesn't have Linux NFS functionality.

http://www.store2go.net/shop/discountstore/p/category/0706104272-QNAP+TS-109+Pro/

1 review:
http://www.trustedreviews.com/networking/review/2007/08/06/QNAP-TS-109-Pro-Turbo-Station/p1

I can recommend it to anyone if your looking for a NAS device and many other features especially backup. It will run on demand and sleep otherwise. It uses I think less than 14w in use and a lot less in standby. I used to run a server computer doing some of these things, but this one does the lot.

btw I do not work for the company, but I do like i nice useful product when I see one lol.

ducky22 · Feb 03, 2008, 02:27:24

What sort of read/write speed to you get to the hard drive on Qnap?

I've a similar device but could only get around 3mbyte/second - its currently sitting pieces somewhere because I got annoyed with it.

DeViTTo · Feb 03, 2008, 22:23:38

Quote from: ducky22 on Feb 03, 2008, 02:27:24
What sort of read/write speed to you get to the hard drive on Qnap?

I've a similar device but could only get around 3mbyte/second - its currently sitting pieces somewhere because I got annoyed with it.

7-8mb read 9-10mb write thats using netmeter to measure throughput. I have just installed new BT Beta and all previous issues have been addressed. Thats with Samsung Spinpoint 500GB drive BTW.

http://forum.qnap.com/

I just find this one of the most useful products i've bought in a while its replaced a computer running as a server. I can highly recommend it

Sebby · Feb 03, 2008, 22:48:57

I read a review on the QNAP NAS a few months back and thought it looked very interesting indeed. I may well give it another look.

Lance · Feb 03, 2008, 23:00:44

I'm on the lookout for a decent Nas box too!

Sebby · Feb 03, 2008, 23:07:32

I was looking at the Buffalo LinkStation; I know this is somewhat hackable and can do all kinds of things. I think the QNAP is a bit more advanced, though.

DeViTTo · Feb 03, 2008, 23:40:25

I can highly recommend the Qnap, but if you dont need Active directory or Linux NFS get the 109 not the 109Pro. I like slimserver and the bitorrent program Qget, also web server in fact I just rate this product as damn useful. Its quite no fans it rocks

Sebby · Feb 03, 2008, 23:54:27

Thanks for the information. I'm also looking at installing Xubuntu onto an old PC I found today and using that for BitTorrent, and so on, so I'm going to have a think.