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[Indywar2]

Hi.  I am hoping some of the experts on here can give me some advice and recommendations.
I currently have 1 desktop, 1 laptop, a 1 TB external hard drive and a 2TB hard drive (Seagate) inside the desktop (2nd HDD, other desktop HDD is 500 GB).

I am looking for the best way to manage my data.  Goals: 1) I seem to have drives dying on me at an alarming rate (or so it seems), and want to have a complete backup.  I am buying a NAS (DNS-323) to set up a RAID 1.  2) Backup my data so that it is less likely I would ever loose data again, and 3) I am using PLEX to organize/stream my video and pictures and would like a central repository for those with plenty of space.  I also want to convert my VHS tapes to the HDD for safekeeping.

From what I have read, I could set up a NAS as a RAID 1 (options are standard, JBOD, Raid 0 or Raid 1) for the desired redundancy and to have the central repository for the videos & pictures.  I would like to "backup" the desktop and laptop to the NAS and then have 2 exact copies in case another drive crashes on me.  I have also read that another HDD should be used and stored off site in the event of a fatal NAS error (hardware, viruse, etc.).  I have the 2 TB HDD which I have in the desktop, and I have a external hard drive case I could use it with.

I have ordered a new 2 TB WD red drive.

Questions:
1) What risk do I have if I use the DNS-323 in RAID 1 with the 2 - 2 TB HDD (WD & Seagate), and in the near future add another 2 TB as an external HDD to backup the NAS (monthly?) and keep it off site?  Is this overkill or appropriate?  Other/better ideas?

2) If I connect a HDD via USB to my PC, will I be able to backup the data on the NAS 2 TB HDD?  I thought I read somewhere that when a NAS died, you couldn't simply stick the drive in the desktop and read the drive, there was some conversion step need.  Would this also prevent me from easily backing up the NAS files?

Please let me know if I am way off base here.  I am just trying to avoid losing more data.

Thanks,
Rob

[ivan]

All of our NAS are setup as RAID 1 just so we have the redundancy should a disk fail.

The fact you are likely to use two disks from different manufacturers shouldn't cause any trouble.

Because the NAS uses a subset of the linux operating and file system you should have very few problems with virus unless you back one up and then reinfect a windows computer by copying it back from the NAS.

As to backing up your data held on the NAS, your proposed system would work, the only thing you would need to do is work out how frequently you would need to do so.

Should the NAS hardware fail it is possible to recover your data if you are using RAID 1, assuming whatever caused the failure didn't damage the disks as well.  In that event your backup is what will save your data so test it and make sure you can use it should the need ever arise.  We see a lot of people that think they have a working backup but they never test it and when the crunch comes....   As several people on this and other forums say you never have too many backups!

With RAID 1 both disks have an identical copy of the data which should be accessible using a windows PC with the relevant IFS or Ext3/4 format reading software.