Best hard drive configuration for WHS on a budget?

[CurseTheSky]

As my schedule gets busier and busier and my family gets more and more into the perks of computers, I'm starting to see the need for some kind of automatic backup and remote storage. I have some spare hardware kicking around, so I figured I'd give WHS a shot.

I can afford to spend about $200 between the OS and the storage drives. Right now, WHS is around $90, which leaves $110 for HDDs.

Though none of the data is mission-critical, it would be a headache to replace. I'm looking to make sure if a HDD dies we're still ok. Unfortunately the WHS hardware probably won't support RAID, but I heard it can automatically mirror data across several physical drives. If that's the case, what's the best drive configuration I should buy to give us both decent storage capacity and good data safety? For example, should I get a 1TB drive for around $90 for now and add another one later (probably several months down the road), or buy two 500 GB drives for now and deal with half the storage?

I have a few old 40-80 GB IDE drives collecting dust that I should be able to add in, if that makes any difference.

 

[tomt4535]

If you have a frys nearby and an extra $10 or so, you could get 2 of these: http://www.frys.com/product/5954944
If not, newegg has a 500GB for $50, or like you said, go with 1 TB for now and then save up. Also, with WHS, you dont have to mirror every folder on the drive. You can put in different sized hard drives no problem.

EDIT: It really depends on how much data you think you are going to be storing on it. If there is going to be a ton, get the bigger drive. If not, get the smaller drives and have more peace of mind.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Wow, nice price on that 750GB Green. I wish I had a Frys within 50 miles. 🙁

Initially there won't be a ton of data - probably 5-10 computers with various amounts of data being backed up - so 500 GB would probably be plenty. However, it feels like a waste to get two 500 GB drives for data safety now, when they're almost certainly be dwarfed in a year or less as newer drives are added (can't wait for 1.5 - 2TB to hit $80-90).

Now that I've thought about it more, all of the data will be backed up in two places at the same time anyway - on the computer's normal HDD, and on the WHS HDD. So even though it would suck of the WHS HDD crashes in the near future, it wouldn't be catastrophic.

What's my best option?

Samsung EcoGreen F2 1TB - $79.99
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB - $79.99
Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB - $84.99
WD Caviar Green 1TB - $84.99
WD Caviar Green 1.5TB - $99.99
Samsung EcoGreen F2 1.5TB - $109.99

Thanks.

 

[pjkenned]

WHS is kinda great when you have say one music repository and share it among users. I started up years ago with back-up only NASes but they all ended up a document stores anyway.

I'd buy two smaller capacity drives now. Another thought would be to find some way to get bigger drives... save money for a few more weeks/ mow a lawn or something to get two 1TB or 1.5TB drives. The nice thing about WHS is that you can plug in new drives from different manufacturers and with different capacities very easily when the 2.5TB drives come out and move the 1.5TB drives to current 1TB pricing. At the end of the day, it isn't that expensive to get a second drive compared to the hours upon hours you lose if the single drive dies.

 

[Elixer]

Originally posted by: CurseTheSky
... However, it feels like a waste to get two 500 GB drives for data safety now, when they're almost certainly be dwarfed in a year or less as newer drives are added (can't wait for 1.5 - 2TB to hit $80-90).

Don't think that, since in the event of a HD failure, (yes, ALL HDs will fail) you'll be kicking yourself for not having a backup plan.
Don't know if this will work for you, but there is a linux alternative, but it is a bit more complex to setup but the cost is pretty much your time to learn everything.