External RAID solutions?
External RAID solutions?
Anyone know of any (non-insanely-expensive) external RAID solutions? Got a 200GB drive that will likely soon be getting too full, and of course that much data is hard to effectively back up (except onto lots of DVDs or a same-size/larger drive), and I was wondering if there's any small-RAID (up to 4-drive) solutions that would still perform well but not break the bank. Computer's only got 2 internal slots that would work for HDDs, and the only current external port type is USB 2.0. Not sure how well USB 2.0 enclosures would work on speed, however, and DVDs are currently recorded off images on this drive.
I'm partial to 5, myself, though I'd be open to anything that provides a level of error recovery from a single extra drive. 0 is out, since with that much data, it's difficult to back up and the loss of one drive means a loss of everything. 1 might be an option, but it does get increasingly more expensive as the storage requirement goes up; possibly a better performer than 5, though.
I might also be able to go internal, either by putting together an enclosure and sending the cables into the computer, or else by putting together a dedicated machine pretty much for the sole purpose of housing these files. That may not necessarily be much more expensive (or possibly cheaper) than going external, depending on what I find out there.
I might also be able to go internal, either by putting together an enclosure and sending the cables into the computer, or else by putting together a dedicated machine pretty much for the sole purpose of housing these files. That may not necessarily be much more expensive (or possibly cheaper) than going external, depending on what I find out there.