Re: Western Digital "MyBook" as RAID?

On Sun, 17 Jun 2007 00:15:22 GMT, Joerg
<notthisjoergsch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Robert wrote:

"Joerg" <notthisjoergsch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:JmZci.4385$bP5.4164@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Robert wrote:


"Joerg" <notthisjoergsch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:vyYci.40757$5j1.17789@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Hello Folks,

Looked up and down the web, called the mfg, read all the docs I could
find. Still no idea. Maybe someone else is already using the Western
Digital "My Book World Edition" as a LAN file server and has an idea.
Here's the scoop:

I just bought the 500MB version which contains one HD. They also have a
1TB version with two HD in there but I do not like the idea to rely on
RAID within one machine. Ok, it's Linux based but would share the
motherboard and other stuff. Not so good IMHO, plus they didn't have it.

Now the docs say you can configure even this 1 HD version for RAID
although that only creates two mirrors on the same disk. Doesn't make too
much sense to me. Additional HDs can be connected via a USB port but
there seems to be no information whatsoever on how to use such an
external HD as the second drive for RAID. Any experience?

In a recent thread the Netgear SC101 was suggested. I studied that a bit
and found too many posts on the net where the whole thing had fried up
and none of the disks were readable, which would kind of defeat the whole
purpose of RAID I guess. Anyhow, there aren't too many LAN drives out
there and I want to avoid a big box. Also, there were some warnings in
web discussions that one should decide on the configuration before
actually doing it because it's supposedly hard to undo.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com


Software RAID like you're talking about just duplicates files so if one
gets corrupt you have the other to recover from. Like synching files in
two locations but without the benefit of the two locations.


Yeah, and I've been through a few HDs that literally came to a grinding
halt. One really screeched. All backed up so nothing was lost, but one
still learns from that.



From what I hear from friends working in the IT World "Software RAID"
should be avoided if possible from the many problems it seems to have.

If you just like the idea of duplicate files why not get two Network
attached HD and schedule a script (or tools that provide scheduled
services) to copy files from the "working" drive to the backup drive on a
nightly/weekly basis?


That's what I will probably do if I can't get a HW RAID going between its
internal HD and a USB disk. It would have been nice to have RAID though
because there are days here in the consulting office where a layout is
done and tons of intermediates are created. Those need to be backed up at
least hourly.

--
Regards, Joerg


No reason you can't have the tools do an hourly backup. The network
background traffic wouldn't seem to be a problem for you. And it shouldn't
be hard to set up a one-time task in most of the tools I've seen which would
fire off a "backup now". You could have an icon set to that on your desktop
but you would have to remember to hit that while working in-between your
hourly backups.


No problem, although I am not quite the expert to set this stuff up.
However, it would have to run in the background like RAID. I could
imagine a backup to freeze on me when a file that is just being backed
up is accessed. For example a huge CAD file. That would happen all the
time here in the office, all day long. In fact, that is just the
problem. Right now I back up during lunch and after hours. Kind of a
pain because I have to come back and turn the machines off.


I've tried some backup techniques..
For awhile I was uploading backups to my ISPs FTP server...Encrypted
of course. Nice if computers get stolen or there's a fire.
I've tried rewriting a CDRW hourly.
I've tried burning multisession CD's until it's full..
I've tried backup software with an external USB drive and internal
drive.
I think I tried
http://www.kls-soft.com/klsbackup/
+ other similar software such as..
Webdrive
Handy Backup

D from BC
.

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