As said on the title, I need a safe backup solution for my parent's data. I have been reading for quite sometime, and, although there are lot of interesting information concerning file servers, NAS, and etc, there is A LOT of confusing/inconsistent information that confuses a noob like me, as such I would like to ask for help What I need is something that either work as an external HDD or as a NAS (i.e., FAPP appears as a network folder/file system for windows clients) where they can seamlessly place there files, and where I can take care of the rest on the background. It doesn't need to be large ( the initial demand is something like 100 GB, but it will probably be less than 2 TB for any forseeable future), but it needs to be secure. Since it is the backup I'm discussing, the original files are stored elsewhere, but probably there will be files that the only copy will be here. As far as I could see: 1) Consumer HDDs are a disaster waiting to happen. We lost about 4 external hard drives in the last year or 2, and this was what triggered my search for a better solution. As far as I could search, this seems to be a consensus. 2) RAID can be a solution as it can be a problem, it seems a good idea to prevent against hdd failure, but aparently if you have a raid controller failure, you are screwed. Besides, most people said that the cheapest raid controllers are about US$ 200, so not so cheap. I read stories of multi HDD (5-6+) array being completely lost because the HDDs were not appropriate for raid usage. 3) I really don't need performance, as it won't do streaming nor anything like that, but I would like it to be safe. NAS boxes seems to offer some degree of safety, but they seem to have the same kind of problem with raid controller, and that concerns me. So, as far as I could see, the 2 'best' not so high cost solutions would be: I ) Linux server, conect via samba to windows clients, one drive exposed to the web, the other one is filled with periodic copies from the 1st. No raid nor anything, only 2 drives independently configured and manipuled. Note that the OS would be on a 3rd separated drive. The drivers would be something like a WD red(?) or a segate barracuda(?), or should I go to something like a WD RE4 or seagate constellation? II ) Same thing as above, but with the 2 drives in a ZFS system. I have no problem configuring linux, either by graphical nor CLI, if I'm given a proper tutorial. I would like to know if any, or both, this solutions are sound, if not, what would be a viable safe solution for a small home office. Any sugestions are welcome. Thanks in advance
RAID is not solution for a backup. It is solution for either performance or fault tolerance. Edit: I am working in company which develops backup/restore software. At home I did as follow: - placed second HDD for a backups and did not assign drive letter to it (so that it did not show up in Windows) ; - when I feel that backup should be done I boot from recovery CD (WinPE 4 with Win8) and make full (sector) backup with our program, and then remove previous backup image. As for HDD model, WD Black is considered as most reliable among WD`s models, afaik. Edit2: As for external HDDs, I assume that 2,5 inches notebook models are more reliable for external case.
I think you are over complicating (and being a little too pessimistic) the entire thing. Realistically, unless what you are storing is THAT critical, a decent NAS with maybe 4 drives in RAID 1 is almost enough to completely mitigate any failure. RAID 1 works simply because data is mirrored, in the event one drive is dead, you can just pop another drive in and it will be "cloned". At any time, you can also take it out, plug it into another computer, and see the data. To completely prevent data from being lost (realistically, in a low cost method), is to sign up for an online backup service in addition to using a NAS. For security, encrypt the backups (the better NAS solutions out there can install apps/built in functions that do this). Do periodic online backups, and in addition to an on-site system, means to lose BOTH at the SAME time will require something on the scale of WW3, Zombie apocalypse, winning the lottery, or being struct by lightning several times a day. I personally have just used the onboard Intel (software) RAID 1 with just 2 HDDs for nearly 7 years across several motherboards and even through random BSODs (that are not related to the RAID driver), power grid failures, and hard drive deaths, the data on it still survives today. Sure, its not as reliable as a dedicated RAID card or NAS/offsite, but for my uses it works (and has worked fairly well). You need to first evaluate how much you want to spend vs the potential loss in your data. A good NAS isn't cheap, plus you'll want around 3 drives minimum. I used to suggest Hitachi drives, but they are rare now since they got bought out. For a NAS, a WD Black would be slightly overkill and may be a bit noisy/power hungry. I do however, recommend you avoid the WD Greens (cannot RAID) and Seagate's consumer line (I've just had too many failures from Seagate, 4 out of 6 I own from them died by themselves).
