Hey all,

After my recent crash issues and near loss of much data, I've decided its time i spent a bit of cash and sorted out my backup solution once and for all. What I have in mind is the following:

1. Buy a high-capacity external HDD
2. Connect both PC and Macbook to ext HDD
3. Syncronise MBP home folder with ext HDD
4. Regular backups to DVD for offsite storage

I'm hoping you guys can offer some advice on the following:

1. External HDD Enclosure
I already have an unused 250gb SATA II HDD that I'd like to use, and would rather use the money saved from not having to buy a new HDD to buy a better enclosure... what I'd like ultimately is Firewire 800 (although I might settle for 400 if 800 too expensive), with ability to connect 2 machines to it at the same time (one via USB2 is acceptable, although both firewire would be best).

Also, i'm thinking one that can house 2 harddrives (RAID a bonus but not completely necessary) would be ideal, so that future expansion is easy.. Also should be well ventilated etc to avoid overheating, and good quality... doesn't need to be portable as i have a 2.5" firewire drive for portability purposes.

Any suggestions?

3. Syncronise MBP with external HDD
After advice on the best way to achieve this... i'd prefer a syncronise to a backup as i need my PC to be able to access that data too, and for the data to be updated on MBP if changes are made via PC, and vice versa.

4. Regular backups
Suggestions for a good backup solution, that will achieve the following:
- keep track of what has/ has not been backed up, and perform incremental backups
- prefer non-proprietary backup format (eg: zip) but not a necessity
- good backup management so i can keep track of what is backed up, where (which disks etc)

Thanks all, looking forward to hearing your advice.. i'm sure many of you have your backup procedures honed to a fine art, so i'm hoping to tap into some of that knowledge

cheers,
Greg

Do a search on these forums for backup solutions.. RSync X. Super Duper and several others are recommended. That will partly answer 3 & 4.

For 1. LaCie is always considered good, but many of us get by with generic enclosures. Any of the perhiperal advertisers on this site will be able to sort you out.

To use it as a server you will really need to go down the NAS path -getting cheaper all the time, same advice as 1.

I'm currently re-sorting my HD's.
I'm buying a SOHOTank which takes two SATA's and it's the FW800/400/USB2 version. I'm getting it for a good price and then I will buy two hard drives @ a time.
The 320 and 500GB drives seem to be the best value from my supplier @ the moment. 750 and 1TB are too pricey by comparison.
The hard drives will get swapped out and labeled when I fill them.
My intention is to use them as a JBOD set-up and back-up only what I need - esp. Aperture.
In other words I'll do my back-ups manually cause there is some info I don't need to be backed up. My choice! It's worked thus far anyway...

Thanks tempestas... i'll do that.

I have a lacie 2.5" drive, but for the 3.5" one i want to use a 250gb sataII drive that i already have, and i'm pretty sure lacie don't sell enclosures without the drives, so i'll probably have to go for generic.

I'll check out the NAS solutions, but its sounding like it could get a little pricier than i was hoping.. but possibly worthwhile if i want to share data between machines i guess (although 99% of the time i'll only be accessing the data from my MBP).

I'm also using mozy for the extra critical stuff (for me < 500MB), all the daily stuff. I haven't had to do a restore yet, but the backups are running nicely in the background

Thanks Blinder... the SOHOTank enclosures look quite good... which one are you looking at, and can you give an indication of the price-range?

Yup i'm using Mozy for critical stuff too - its an excellent service (although the Mac client isn't the best... the windows one is heaps better). I second that suggestion

This one looks awesome ... Wondering if anyone knows if it will work with just 1 harddrive or if it MUST have 2?

And is it hardware or software RAID (I assume its best to stay away from software RAID where possible?)

Anything else i should be looking out for?

thanks heaps
Greg

I'm getting this one for $310.
I'll add 2x320 + 2x500 HD's for $120 and $180 ea respectively.
I want to be able to easily pull out the drives and replace them as needed.
I'm sick of collecting external drives and cases that aren't quick to get back into!!

Looks pretty sweet... only thing its missing is eSATA

Does anyone know if these enclosures that have 2 Firewire ports can have 2 PCs connected at the same time, or if its just for Daisy chaining?