Jostein wrote:
Many solutions have been suggested, but none have been priced. It would be very interesting to hear how much people have invested in hardware for their backup solution.
I was just at the "Over Priced Computer Store" the other day and saw 300GB SATA drives for $US170 each. 2 of those could be set up in a simple mirror (RAID 1; no dedicated SATA RAID controller necessary if you use Linux and LVM and ~300GB usable space) and the cost of the linux box is minimal. All you need is enough processing power and memory to handle file operations (moves, copies, deletes, etc.) The "average" person using this for a home solution is doing small numbers of large I/O (a few big files) operations which is perfect for SATA and RAID 1. If you have a large tower PC, you could add 1 more SATA drive and have ~600GB RAID 5; 3 more and have 1.2TB RAID 5. (probably need an extra SATA controller or 2) It really is a decent solution for the cost and shopping around you could get a lower cost I'm sure.
Backups on whatever paranoia level you have (daily, weekly, monthly, etc) are on DVD and stored however you feel is required.
The key is to be able to store the originals of ALL your files online and accessible for viewing, editing, etc.
-- Christian http://photography.skofteland.net
