www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

I have a Western Digital 1Tb network drive for back up.

It does incremental back ups as well, all in the background.

I also use cloud storage as a second back up for important things.

Thanks for the replies

I just removed my other back up drive which is also a Seagate 4TB from the fire safe, but this one uses Memeo instant backup instead of Seagate's Backup plus software.

I set the computer last night backing up using the built in utility in Windows 7 but when I got to it this morning it had failed

Maybe the best option is to build a new computer and use these two 4TB drives in Raid 1

Perhaps I'll look at a server in future

Wes wrote:Shut up and take my money BG

How much??

Depends on what you have laying around really. You can make one, re-purposed desktop, etc, but I'm not a fan. It's got an important role to play, so why cheap out?

The idea is that it just runs and runs, with ZERO touching. I usually go with these:

HP N54L - Don't be put off by the price, they ALWAYS come up around £120 via HP cashback dedemption (80 - 100 quid cash back) every few months. Wait for them, don't spend the extra!

Comes with:

- Low power 64bit processor
- 4GB RAM (plenty for what it's going to do)
- Usually 250GB boot drive

Can house upto 4 drives or many external via USB if you already have them.

Next you need drives. I always suggest Western Digital REDs. You can get the size that you want or need. A couple of 2TB's is a nice start.

Long network cable from server to your router.

Operating System. Slightly more tricky for the home user since they took Windows Home Server 2011 out of the market, but if you look around, you can get it for 40 quid boxed with key! It was around 30 just before they EOL'd it.

That's it. A bit of setup, some fettling later and you've got a super reliable, quality network storage/backup/remote access/server. You can do TONS with it more than the stuff we've talked about, but those are the basics.

Money well spent. Many an office or home are running those via me when doing odd jobs for people. I pick them as I NEVER get called back to fix them.

Hope that helps!

BG

I can vouch for BGs policies here (not that he needs my vouching ) as my server is now 8 years old and has never been switched off other than for a couple of blackouts (must get around to wiring it to a UPS ).

It's a poxy old 1GHz, 1Gb desktop that was going to get chucked out but is now repurposed as the server. It's the ONLY PC in our household that hasn't EVER had a fault (dud disk, failure of any sort etc) - the fact that it's always on means it never get stressed and just.......... runs!

It's like I cursed myself. Inlaws had a problem where all their media streaming has stopped working. Got the server home and checked it over - WEIRD behavior. Won't boot, won't start from PXE server or USB without ODD errors.

GAH! Drives are both fine, so data is safe at least.

I've swapped RAM, it's not over heating. PSU good.

A good look over the board and the caps are bulging out.....

It's had a good life....it's been in use for nearly 4 years!

BG

Is it worth your time repacing the bulging caps? I used to crush the old cans leaving the pins in the board and solder new caps to the remaining pins. Lots easier than trying to desolder the caps from the board.

kellys_eye wrote:Is it worth your time repacing the bulging caps? I used to crush the old cans leaving the pins in the board and solder new caps to the remaining pins. Lots easier than trying to desolder the caps from the board.

I think so.....I've not got any more spare servers to replace it with, so it's worth a go for the sake of a 5'er. If I break it, nothing lost.

Hope the others are alright.....

OK, so what is the difference between a NAS and a server ?

I have a NAS with all my music, which plays via my Sonos set up, and a copy of all my photos and documents, so if my HD ever dies then I have a copy of everything.
The NAS has 3 HD's in some sort of Raid just in case one of them fails.

Is a server any different and if so how ?

I've done the server route, I have nas devices (buffalo) what where hard work with, I have just got a synology DS215j all I can say is wow 6 times quicker, the apps just work and the gui is like a server CP (dsm 5.1)

it pulls less the 16w when on and is silent, 1 click raid setup, wake on lan and remote shutdown

anyhoo. back to 4tb drives you will loose a percentage due to formatting (iirc it ntfs on a Seagate) and what is installed at factory

oooo, someone telling BG how to work with HDDs This should be fun.

Git 'im BG

For those of that know what "the cloud" is but don't know how to set up a server, what about This

Would it be of any use to those of us that are not as technical as some?

I have recently ditched my external drives and moved to cloud storage, I pay about £30 a year for and it covers 3 PC's. You install some software, tell it which folders you want backed up and every time you add or change a file in those folders it backs it up. No mess, no fuss and it is their problem to worry about disks being full or backed up.

The first backup took several days because of how much data I have but now it just uploads the off file as and when something changes.

I wouldn't go back to manual backups or external drives again.