External Storage Solutions Help Needed

[wowzer]

Hi Everyone,

I want an external storage solution. I want to get at least 2 one terabyte drives into an external storage case. I want the case to be ready (if there is such a thing) for the 'future'. I have a hackintosh with 2 internal SATA one terabyte drives (for a total of 2 TB internally).

I want to use these external drives to store my home photos and videos, which are quickly overwhelming my internal storage (where 1 drive is backed up onto the other via super duper automatically). Needless to say, I want the drives to be dependable (a 5 yr warranty?). I would like to have the external hard drives to be redundant storage so that I may use my second internal SATA as a temporary storage disk. Would you recommend still using Super Duper to back-up the data?

I'd like the case to have fast performance (I&O). I do have USB2.0, firewire, and eSATA on my hackintosh case. The usb and firewire works, but don't know about the eSATA port.

What would you recommend?

Thanks.


P.S. I wouldn't mind buying internal SATA drives and installing myself---but I'd like to know what enclosures you'd recommend for my need.

[Speedy]

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/usb/raid_1/Gmax

Guardian MAXimus

$140

Features:

• Up to 2.0TB + 2.0TB (Mirrored) SATA I/II Hard Drive Storage Solution**
• Up to 64MB Total drive cache*
• Custom Oxford 936DS chipset
• (2) FireWire 800 9 pin ports
• (1) FireWire 400 6 pin port
• (1) USB 2.0 "B" port -backwards compatible with USB 1.1
• (1) eSATA port
• Front panel drive status LEDs
• Thermoregulated Smart Fan for super quiet operation
• Shock resistant design
• US/International 100~240V 4.2A UL Listed power supply
• 3 Year Solution Warranty

[Black]

Get two of these:
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.as...6817153066

[wowzer]

Black,

I forgot to add...I do have 1 TB Seagate in a dock. However, it's a bit odd to use and I don't quite feel 'safe' by having my photos and videos of the kids/wife/family in a dock. My kids are still quite young and they may destroy the drive by a simple act of pointing/kicking/rough-housing/etc.

[wowzer]

Speedy,

Do you have personal knowledge/use of the Guardian Maximus? Also, is this software based or hardware based back-up? Does my computer need to be on in order for the back-ups to occur?

How quiet is the case? I dont want to hear a loud fan running all the time...

[rapayn1]

Wowzer,

I was just looking at this Guardian Maximus on Sunday. DId some research and read some online reviews. As pertains to the fan noise in this case, Ivan Gonzalez left the following interesting comment:

http://terrywhite.com/techblog/archives/661#comments

Ivan Gonzalez says:
December 23, 2008 at 3:39 pm
I bought a Guardian Maximus (1TB x 2) from Other World Computing, it shakes like an old washing machine, the fan is very loud and never slows down. Even it is a RAID solution you need to remove screws if you need to change a drive and the screws are covered with stickers on top that tell you that the warranty will be void if you remove them. The drive could not be dismounted under leopard. Did not keep it for more than 24 hours and still got charged 15% restocking fee, no a god way to earn customers loyalty. (lost $106, $20 shipping x 2 + $66 in re-stocking fees)

I replaced it with a case from oyendigital.com ($114) and bought 2 x 1.5TB seagates 7200 rpm for $130 each. No shaking or rumbling, the fan is whisper quiet, the sata drives are so easy to install. Great solution, kudos to Oyen Digital. Thumbs down to OWC (macsales.com).

[jdc]

Kinda hard to read a review from 2008 and really rate it.

Nevertheless -- ALL 2 bay cases have fans. Fans = noise no matter what.

with 7200RPM 2 TB drives down to $109 -- I would just go that route -- 1TB isnt much cheaper: http://www.frys.com/product/5947254

If you have the space internally thats as easy anything -- although you might need a SATA card.

For external -- eSATA is what you want for speed. FW800 cant touch it.

If you have eSATA ports (one port = one drive) -- this case is as good as any, no fan, get 2: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/EZ%20Quest/N33300/

Or any of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLis...Submit=ENE&N=2010010092%201053807123%201054107131%201054207137&name=USB%20%26%20eSATA

[OWC Larry]

I remember the Ivan postings.... Made nearly identical posts on multiple boards and reviews - easy to do and doesn't make his post true along with his other product endorsement..... 6 months after the last other comment on that TerryWhite review.

Our product is extremely quiet - both the 2008 available Fw800/400+Usb2 version and the current quad model with esata in addition to.

The RAID is hardware controlled via Oxford936.

Long one of our best selling solutions.

[olnacl]

I have two of these for my video collection - one is a backup. Both have 2 - 2TB drives within yielding 4TB storage with RAID 0. Personally, I wouldn't use a mirror setup unless you also have another separate backup. The eSATA connection is easily twice as fast as FW 800.

You mentioned only needing 2 TB, so you could use the single drive version of the one I linked to above. These drives are very quiet although mine seem to run hotter than I really like - Larry, any input on that? When I'm doing large (500 GB or more) backups, I have a Vornado Flippi fan blowing gently across the cases to cool them down.

[volcs0]

I just got a Drobo. I like it a lot - very easy to use. I have about 2TB in there now, but I can go up to 4x2Tb eventually.

http://www.drobo.com/

I guess there is a premium paid for the convenience, etc., but so far, it has been a good system for me.