Newbie Storage Solution Question

laktic

Distinguished
Oct 4, 2010
2
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18,510
Hello Everyone!

After ANOTHER barely used WD Passport (320GB) failed last night mid-way through a incremental backup, I thought today I’d look into a better storage solution. I use a Macbook Pro (240GB) and back the whole lot up using CarbonCopy Cloner while archiving past versions of files in time stamped folders, which I usually clear out every few months.

I don’t mind doing this manually (I have a reminder pop-up then all I have to do is plug it in) and I've always thought data is safe because it’s on 2 bootable drives, If one goes I'll use the other and quickly buy a new one.

Which is what I'm about to do because there quite cheap.....Thing is....maybe I do need a safer solution (i.e. RAID) and if I'm going down that route I’d like to also arrange secure backups of my business partners laptop PC.

While looking into RAID arrays and NAS it seems so much more complex compared to what I'm used to. Me and my business partner both use only laptops connected to our own different home networks (Wifi) which have no other devices (of any importance anyway) on these networks.

We don't need as far as I can see instant backup of new or modified files through wifi or any nonsense like that (working with some huge files making constant changes I doubt this works well!) or Media Streaming, Online Access, PS3 compatibility, IP camera, Web server etc...

What we do need is a simple procedure, reliably mirrored, ability to upgrade and swap drives (they always go eventually!). And the ability to have 2 independent partitions (at least 500gb each, so a 2T drive) would be good, so when I plug it in it does my backup routine on my partition and his is unaffected, and when he drops by we can plug his in and it does the same for him....now wouldn’t that be nice!

Any suggestions, tips, devices, advices would be extremely useful; otherwise it’s another 2 WD Passports to rely on again!

Thanks

Ow