Hi, Now that external hard disks are cheap, I'm thinking about getting an external hard disk so that I can keep a backup of my data. In fact, I'm even thinking of getting *two* for alternate use so that if the worst should happen and my system dies while backing up my data I haven't toasted both my data and my sole backup..
When it comes to external disks, it seems I have the choice of not only a plain-old hard disk connected via USB, but also the possibility of NAS (networked-attached storage) where the hard disk is connected to my network, and contains a stripped-down OS so that it presents itself as a fileserver (I presume?). Does anybody know how well-supported either of these technologies are in Ubuntu? In particular, I'd also want to format the disk in ext3 format as I have no need or desire for MSWindows filesystems. On the one hand, NAS seems neat, but I don't have a home network, only a cheapo multi-port ADSL modem/router. These things tend to be a bit gnarly (and unfriendly) to set up at the best of times, so I don't know how easy - let alone whether - it would be possible to set the modem/router up to allow my computer to see a NAS disk. And given the horrible potential for unwittingly sharing the contents of a NAS disk with the entire internet, I'd have to be very careful! I gather that it is generally the case that any configuration of the NAS box can usually be done via a browser front-end; obviously any disk which requires Windows software is a no-no. On the other hand, a plain-old USB hard disk seems the simpler option. I would naively assume that as USB is now well-proven technology, these would work just fine with Ubuntu, but is that the case? How easy would it be to automate backups to such a disk? Would it mount with a persistent mount point, or would it change with every unplug or system reboot? Then there is the question of what backup strategy I should actually use. I was assuming that an automated rsync every week would be the easiest, but perhaps there are other possibilities? Something automated, once configured, without requiring user intervention is an absolute must: the whole point of doing backups is that I don't have to remember to do it! I mentioned above that having two external hard disks, alternating between current latest backup and disk being backed-up to, seemed a good strategy, ensuring that I always have one backup at all times. Alternatively, perhaps some kind of mirror RAID strategy would be worth considering, although that would seem to require me to have four hard disks to maintain my "always one spare backup" strategy (and is outwith my budget!). I also don't know whether USB HDs or NAS HDs are RAID-able. Can anybody offer any advice on this? Thanks, David. -- David M. Edinburgh, Scotland. ---- [en,fr,(de) <-- corrections welcome] * Please only quote minimum required for context; interleave reply text. * On-list replies preferred. Please don't 'cc:' list messages to me! * HTML/slug-trails/excess-quoting/no-context/zero-content => filtered! >> Read lists as news: nntp://news.gmane.org info: http://gmane.org/ << -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
