Is anyone using any of the USB-attached RAID backup systems? If so, can you share your
recommendations and experienced. Connection would be to a PC that has two external USB2 drives as
the main storage. I'd like to have some WindowsXP-compatible software that is crash-proof, doesn't
hog resources and runs in the background, using idle times to keep things backed up to the attached
RAID array. I've seen 2-HD and 4-HD enclosures, and I'm curious which kind other folks are using? I
can't afford nor do I have the expertise to deal with one of the fancy NAS systems (plus, it would
take forever to back up my studio drives over Ethernet, the backup needs to be via USB).
Input much appreciated. Up to now, I've been manually backing up to a third, bigger USB drive.
There's got to be a better way that won't take down Windows or be unreliable.
BTW, for what it's worth, I signed up for Carbonite for my office PC last year. So far, 9 months
into it, it's only got the PC and external hard drive 30% backed up! So, not a practical solution if
you have a lot of data to backup! I don't run the PC 24-7, but I do leave it on overnight most
nights. To Carbonite's credit, the software prioritized My Documents and the key
system-identification files and those got backed up first. But stuff like my iTunes library, my
extensive audio-documentaton library, my HDTracks downloads, it'll take literally years. Not
practical!
-- Tom Fine
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