Creating external mirrored HD setup for data backup. Advice, please.

Dinarius

Firstly, I hope that this is the right forum. Moderator, please move if it isn't.

I'm a photographer and I supply TIFF image files to a client on DVD.

This client would like to set up a mirrored storage system that is independent of their main IT server. It would be attached to one computer that is used exclusively for image editing/cataloguing.

However, this computer would also be connected to the main system so that image files could be shared throughout the organisation.

Since the files are large and there are now five years of them, a lot of storage is required now and into the future.

Can anyone recommend a HD setup that would fit the bill?

Many thanks.

D.

ArtyM

NAS with 2 drives, configured with RAID 1, should do the job.

Definition(RAID 1):
A RAID 1 creates an exact copy (or mirror) of a set of data on two or more disks. This is useful when read performance or reliability is more important than data storage capacity. Such an array can only be as big as the smallest member disk. A classic RAID 1 mirrored pair contains two disks, which increases reliability geometrically over a single disk. Since each member contains a complete copy of the data, and can be addressed independently, ordinary wear-and-tear reliability is raised by the power of the number of self-contained copies.

Dinarius

Many thanks for the reply.

So, is this an example of what they should consider buying?

http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=ie&l=en&s=pad&cs=RC1213289&sku=A3157157&baynote_bnrank=0&baynote_irrank=14&~ck=dellSearch

If not, could you point me to a one stop solution?

Thanks.

D.

ArtyM

Hi
That one seems a bit expensive, I think you can get better.
Here are two options that might be worth considering, though I havent used them myself.

Iomega
http://www.elara.ie/productdetail.aspx?productcode=ECE2199117
Cisco
http://www.elara.ie/productdetail.aspx?productcode=ECE1992102

Obviously you will save money if you need less capacity. How much space do you need and how familiar are you with RAID and it's configuration here is a wiki that should help explain a bit more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

I recommend taking a trip over to the server forum - I think you might get some recommendations from regular NAS users over there. I dont use them often enough myself.
Good Luck
Hope you get sorted

Dinarius

Thanks for the links.

I see that one is 8Tb and one is 2Tb. Yet, they're about the same price.

Storage would be a big issue for this client. My files are huge. 130Mb to 1Gb and there are lots of them.

D.

bluferbl

First thing you need to do is determine how much disk space you require. Not much point in recommending a solution without knowing your capacity requirements.