New PC Part 2.5

December 16th, 2009 omo Posted in Gadgets | No Comments »

This is not exactly related to my series of hardware upgrade and setup for the new box, but part of the long-term project.

A serious, big-picture look at the IT system I employ at home determined that the next “real” upgrade I should get is a systemic backup. At least, this is something I’ve been thinking about for a year or so. So I ended up buying a ReadyNAS Duo and a couple 1TB drives to go with. Cyber Monday and all.

(Man, did December snuck up on me or what.)

I’ve already done the research on home NAS for some time. And if you’ve understood the average fail rates of consumer-grade SATA drives (and its older relatives), and what data loss really means to most users, it becomes no surprise that Apple would even bother something like Time Machine.

However, backups are still a luxury, not a necessity. It might be necessary to back up important data, but it’s something that can be easily done. A totally computing-illterate person can upload all his documents onto google docs or something, achieving the same practical effect at no cost and some inconvenience. It’s spending on things you don’t really use just in case when something goes wrong.

So if we’re going to spend money, we should do it “better” than just randomly copying file to external drives. What Time Machine and the like does is regular system imaging, which can restore hosed systems easily. It’s automated, so once you set it up, you can forget it. With something like ReadyNAS you are given those capabilities and much more. And in addition you could set up file-based backup from the NAS itself, as it’s really just a Sparc-powered linux box. ReadyNAS Duo is about as big as a shoe box, so it’s quite convenient.

I am still in the process of setting it all up completely, because I’m also in the middle of a switch/expansion for the home network. Once that’s done I’ll set up automated backup for my mechanical drives as well. I have already set up a weekly cron job for the system drive, although in retrospect that drive is not going to fail any time before the other drives I’m using.

Anyways, I think ReadyNAS Duo justifies its price tag. Enterprising buyers can also try for a ReadyNAS NV+ or a used NV, as they are basically 4-drive versions of the same thing, and with more flexibility.