I don't know how many RAID systems I've seen fail because the backplane

failed. 5? When they go to order a new backplane for the RAID system,

they can't get a replacement because the tech is too old and it's out of

stock. They want to put the drives in a new RAID system but ... HD

technology has moved on and the drives aren't compatible so ... they'll

have to order something. Which means days of down time.

I'm a fan of cheap duplicated redundant simple systems with failovers.

I think the costs come out to be the same, setup and recover are cheaper

and faster. $0.02.

-Kevin

CULLY Technologies, LLC

Michael Madigan wrote:

> I've had to fight excessively to have backup systems and RAID systems because the nitwits always think that RAID means you don't have to do a backup.

>

> I wonder if they argue with their doctors as much as they do with their computer guy. LOL

>

> *************************************************

>

>

>

> --- On Wed, 12/17/08, Gil Hale <gil@gilhale.com> wrote:

>

>> From: Gil Hale <gil@gilhale.com>

>> Subject: RE: [NF] Heads up to Buffalo NAS owners

>> To: profox@leafe.com

>> Date: Wednesday, December 17, 2008, 8:34 PM

>> I have a blend of brands for my external HDD units that I

>> use for disk image

>> and file backup purposes. But not being the trusting type

>> I also back up

>> the backup HDD units to a 2nd set of external HDD units,

>> connected to a Dell

>> 840 Server via eSATA. Since having gone to a 2nd layer of

>> HDD protection

>> (which is backed up weekly to an LTO3 tape drive unit, on

>> any one of 3 sets

>> of tape media) I have only lost one primary backup HDD. I

>> bet if I did not

>> have the backup HDD units backed up at a 2nd level, much

>> less via LTO3 tape,

>> I would have lost a lot more <g>...

>>

>> That said, a friend of mine in SoCal had a Lacie 500Gb RAID

>> external USB2

>> unit. He told me last year that he could never lose data

>> on that unit

>> because of its RAID configuration. "Wanna bet?",

>> asked I. Sure enough, the

>> other month he lost the Lacie unit. He could not find

>> anyone who was

>> willing to touch it for less than $1,000 to try to recover

>> data. And I was

>> not out there to try to help him out. Luckily he moved it

>> from being used

>> as a primary storage device to file backup only, otherwise

>> he would have

>> lost a lot of client video he was storing.

>>

>> He has now gone to the primary/secondary external HDD

>> backup strategy. Once

>> he has the bux to do so he is going to get an LTO4 Tape

>> Drive and start to

>> behave in a responsible manner. Some of the video he

>> shoots is for the

>> medical community for training. Once in a while they ask

>> him to splice in

>> or out changes, then recompile the output file. So if he

>> ever lost the

>> source files used for his compilation he would be

>> "almost" screwed. He

>> tells me he has the original tapes, and can rebuild the

>> projects if he has

>> to. I advised that I would not put that much faith into

>> tape, and pointed

>> out the hours of tape restoring and recompilation he could

>> save by not

>> taking chances.

>>

>> I have been using the Seagate FreeAgent External HDD units

>> for the past year

>> (5 year warranty) with good results. If you want to use

>> these with anything

>> other than XP or Vista you will need to connect the HDD via

>> US2 to an

>> XP/Vista machine, then run the Seagate software to turn off

>> the sleep mode

>> (default = 15 minutes, I set it to never sleep, gets saved

>> in the HDD

>> firmware). That way on a Linux/Mac/Windows Server 2003

>> machine the HDDs

>> never "disappear" when they go to sleep. It is

>> the only flaw I have

>> experienced thus far with that model. BTW, I found their

>> utility software

>> works fine with USB2, maybe with Firewire, but certainly

>> not with an eSATA

>> connection.

>>

>> Gil

>>

>>

>>

>>> -----Original Message-----

>>> From: profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com

>>> [mailto:profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com]On Behalf Of

>> Kevin Cully

>>> Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 7:47 PM

>>> To: profoxtech@leafe.com

>>> Subject: Re: [NF] Heads up to Buffalo NAS owners

>>>

>>>

>>> Thanks Michael. I've got a Buffalo LS (250G)

>> that's been running

>>> reliably for about 5 years now. I'd hate to lose

>> her.

>>> -Kevin

>>> CULLY Technologies, LLC

>>>

>>>

>>> Michael Madigan wrote:

>>>> I just had a problem where my NAS wasn't

>> recognized by the

>>> network anymore. I could ping it, but I couldn't

>> see the shares

>>> and I couldn't get into the web admin.

>>>> In my case, and I suspect in many cases, the

>> flash memory got

>>> trashed. By just running a firmware update downloaded

>> from

>>> Buffalo, that fixed all my problems.

>>>> Keep that in your memory banks.

>>>>

>>>>

[excessive quoting removed by server]