Practicality of backing up huge hard drives (was Re: [mythtv-users] Dieing Hard Drive)

[Brian Donaldson]

> 
> You got any good ideas on how to back up, for example, a 2/3 full
> 250GB HDD?

I ran into the same problem with my MythTV video and mp3 archive.  My
video and mp3 archives are on a Windows server that MythTV accesses
via NFS.  A tape drive would be nice, but I still think they're
expensive.  Besides, I needed to backup close to 400GB of audio and
video and my need for capacity is only going to get larger.  I decided
the cheapest solution was just to buy additional hard drives.

I built two identical Windows servers, both with 500GB of hard drive
space.  I just spanned the hard drives in each machine to create one
logical 500GB drive in each.  This way I can easily add additional
space to both machines without destroying the existing data.  The two
machines are connected via gigabit cards and a cross-over CAT5E cable
for fast backups.  The primary machine copies all new or changed files
to the backup server every night.  Both machines are also on a UPS. 
It's not bullet-proof, but it's close enough for me and it solves my
backup problem and my increasing need for storage.  In total I only
spent about $600 for the complete setup (gigabit cards, hard drives,
big power supplies and everything).  Thank goodness for clearance and
rebate deals (i.e. slickdeals.net, dealnews.com, fatwallet.com)

The following USENET thread discusses the same issue:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.arch.storage/browse_thread/thread/b3787ea10f143ae1/6e1ee18b61fecba3?q=author:bdonaldson@hotmail.com#6e1ee18b61fecba3

Any suggestions/feedback regarding my setup would be greatly
appreciated.  Thanks!

> 
> Ultrium gen3 doesn't count.
> http://www.ultrium.com/newsite/html/format.html
> 
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