Suggest better backup solution

[Red Squirrel]

Currently my backup solution consists of a dedicated server that turns on overnight, runs a job and then shuts off. There are drive tray bays in front with IDE drives.

I have a script that runs, then reads a file on the drive that indicates which job should be run then runs the job. I manually rotate the drives every couple of days. This basically just mirrors using rsync. It's more or less to recovery from a drive failure, accidental delete, etc...

Now the big problem is expandability. The'res TONS of trays like that and they always make new ones and stop making old ones. I can't get more trays if I want to add more drives. They just don't make that model anymore. Also, its IDE. IDE drives are more expensive and harder to get then sata.

This server's sell value is not too high, maybe a few hundred bucks with all the drives, but its decreasing fast. I'm thinking of selling it, and buying one of these:

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/appl...o=3748369&Sku=V13-3300

Then just hooking it up to my main server and then buy sata drives as I need them and rotate them around.

Now internal drives are probably not really meant to be handled that much in the open given the open circuitry and such, is there ways to keep them covered?

Also would you recommend another backup solution?

I've looked at DLT tapes but they're WAY too expensive to consider their size. 50 bucks for a 300Gig tape when I can pay 150 bucks for a 1TB drive, and I don't need a $2,000 drive to put it in.

I want to stay green so DVD/CDs are out of the question (even the rewritables wear out after a while). Any other suggestions? or does my drive dock idea sound good?

Also those docks assume that all sata drives have the power and sata plug positioned the same way, is this the case and is it part of the sata standard?

 

[Roguestar]

SATA power and SATA data are generally always oriented the same way on the drives. I'm not sure if it's a bona fide part of the standard though.

And you shouldn't worry too much about drives being out in the open, seeing as they're normally kept in cases where all the air from the open room and everything it contains is blow over their circuits

 

[Red Squirrel]

Was more worried about the fact of having them moved around and handled and put in a drawer and such, but guess I just have to be careful like anything else fragile. And I should be able to stack them in a drawer without the circuitry taking the weight of the other drives.

I'm really considering this docking idea as it will take less room and be more expandable.

 

[RebateMonger]

i just purchased a SATA dock like you described and will use it for backup drives. I'll be careful in handling, probably putting unused drives in the anti-static bags they come in.

I haven't read a discussion of this technique and its effectiveness and reliability. But it certainly seems a lot less trouble and a lot cheaper than trying to put each drive into its own housing. I'm assuming that cooling will be fine, since most of the drive is fully exposed to room air.

Although I haven't read the SATA drive standard, every drive I've seen has power and data connections in the same location and the drives are the same size. It's my understanding that the WD Velociraptor doesn't follow that standard.

My biggest problem now is that I hardly own any SATA drives. And those are all in external housings.....

 

[Red Squirrel]

I've been adopting sata quickly and trying to phase out IDE by selling off my old stuff for whatever I can get for it. I recently sold my VMware server so I can help fund my new server which will be my main server + vm server at same time. I planed it out for disk space expansion.

Now my only worry about planning for future upgrades like this is stuff changes so fast. Who knows if sata will still be the main HDD storage technology in 1-2 years from now.

Oh and I just ordered it.

Been spending so much money latetly I need to stop this, its an addiction. Future shop is coming to town too, I can spend even more money now!

 

[Roguestar]

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
Been spending so much money latetly I need to stop this, its an addiction.

Ever since I bought a new case a few weeks ago, I've had the upgrade bug; I just bought myself a new graphics card this week as it was so very cheap but now I'm considering trying to justify to myself buying a Q6600 and another 2GB of RAM. Dropping them in to tide me over until Core i7 is a year old and prices are reasonable is a good excuse, right? Right?

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Roguestar
Ever since I bought a new case a few weeks ago, I've had the upgrade bug; I just bought myself a new graphics card this week as it was so very cheap...

I recently acquired a Core2Duo chip that can run the VT extensions, so I'm trying to satisify my "new PC" bug with Hyper V virtual machines. In the "old days", I had so many "real" PCs plugged into my office circuit that my circuit breaker would trip when the motorized garage door was opened.