dummptyhummpty Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 My current setup is such a mess that this is my fourth revision of this post. Any help is appreciated: Currently I am storing: backups (clone of my Powerbook drive and TimeMachine) ripped CDs (ACC & FLAC from Exact Audio Copy) purchased iTunes backup (copied from my Powerbook) TV shows (automatically downloaded with uTorrent) ISOs (Misc) some DV files from my Sony on an a 500GB Mirrored RAID array that I installed in an Acer (AMD Athlon 64 X2, 320GB HD, 2GB Ram, Vista Premium) that I had for access to Windows. Now that I have just purchased a MacBook Pro (and can run VMware Fusion), I no longer need this computer and would like to give it to my mother. I can also keep more stored on the MBP as I have bigger HD. My mother is currently using an eMachine (AMD Athlon 64, 320GB HD, 2.5GB Ram, XP Home) and she has a small iTunes and Photo collection. The Powerbook will be used in the kitchen for web/e-mail. We also have an AppleTV. I would say move the Acer as is to the office, but the connection from the office to the Linksys WRT54GS (DD-WRT) is only 30mbps as I am using a NetGear powerline adapter. The Acer currently has an 85Mbps connection in my room. The two laptops and AppleTV are wireless. Now I could switch the RAID to the eMachine, but I would like to get the extra computer out of here. If this is an issue, I could live with it in here. I'm thinking store our media on our respective machines (except I don't always dock the MBP and want it to be awake and ready to share) and share the media somehow to the AppleTV/other computers. This leaves the backup issue. I do have two spare WD 250GB External drive. I would like to have a TimeMachine backup and HD clone for my MBP. My mom's computer needs a backup of just her files. The Powerbook won't have anything important on it. I'd also like some type of offsite storage by either taking a drive offsite or using rsync to my work. I've simplified this as much as possible and hope it's clear. I welcome any suggestions to make my life easier. THANKS! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swathe Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 Media server TBH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dummptyhummpty Posted February 5, 2009 Author Share Posted February 5, 2009 Media server TBH Thanks for the quick reply, could you elaborate more? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swathe Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 Check out the Network Attached Storage segment is season 2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dummptyhummpty Posted February 5, 2009 Author Share Posted February 5, 2009 Check out the Network Attached Storage segment is season 2. I'll check that out. Thanks. Yeah, i've used FreeNAS. I had a bit of trouble with settings permissions on folders though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeypesci Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 Get some NAS drives and store all your stuff you want to share on those. I have some Buffalo ones. One is for movies and other crap, the other one is for backups. Everyday, Acronis True Image 10 (later versions are shit judging by peoples views) does a backup. It does a full backup of important docs on a Monday, then differential Tuesday to Thursday. Then a full backup Friday. Monday to Thursday backups are the daily backups that get overwritten each week. Friday backup is, however a weekly backup that gets kept for 3 weeks like so Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Then it goes Month 1 (this gets kept for 3 months) Repeats with Week 1 (so the original week 1 now gets over written) week 2 week 3 Month 2 and so on. Not sure if you wanted a backup strategy but that's what we use at work and I use at home, it's quite effective. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dummptyhummpty Posted February 10, 2009 Author Share Posted February 10, 2009 joeypesci, Thanks for the suggestion. I'm mainly looking for the best solution using the equipment I have. I think I have things figured out, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swathe Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 What did you end up going with? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dummptyhummpty Posted February 10, 2009 Author Share Posted February 10, 2009 What did you end up going with? Well I've narrowed it down to two options: 1) Give the ACER to my mom as is and hope that my network is fast enough to access the media from the other computers. I would use the RAID array in the ACER for media storage, time machine backups and use a local external drive (one of the My Books) for a bootable clone of my MBP. 2) Give the ACER to my mom, but pull the two 500GB drives out and connect one to my MBP with an external enclosure. I could use the drive for storage, time machine, and bootable clones. The other drive 500GB can be for offsite backups. I'm not sure which option is better. The benefit of number one is that the computer is always on to access media. It's also always on to download TV Shows over uTorrent. I like number two as I have access to my media when I'm away from the house. What do you all think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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