Dual Hard Drive Enclosures

[lamborgini8]

Has anyone got or used one of these? I have two SATA hard drives and a server with no back up system... I was looking for enclosures and came across this...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2-Bay-Dual-SA...es_HardDriveEnclosures_RL&hash=item2eab661577

Has anyone used one or know if it can be powered by mains instead of USB? Or know of any other decent enclosures... That one caught my eye as it would be perfect for backups seeing as the server is running 24/7.

 

[McBunny]

Re: Duel Hard Drive Enclosures

is it to the death ?

its not powered by usb its powered from mains i wouldnt trust it tbh i take it this is a personal server not a corporate one ?

 

[lamborgini8]

Re: Duel Hard Drive Enclosures

Well its for a work "server" there's only about 8GB of files on a shared folder to be honest.

They were using some £50 a year online backup service before and that expired recently, there's just 2 hard drives laying around from an old server that would be perfect to use for backups. My idea is to use that and alternate between the hard drives daily for backups so there is always 2 separate backups no more than 2 days old.

 

[McBunny]

Re: Duel Hard Drive Enclosures

my god are you insane !
the backups need to go off site other wise your screwed in event of a fire remember you also need to back up the OS and application files really
are they running exchange ?

his needs more thought than your giving it imho

 

[lamborgini8]

Re: Duel Hard Drive Enclosures

Ah, that is a good point actually... The place I used to work had their server in a cupboard away from everything behind a locked fire door and backups were made daily on 5 different usb hard drives, there's a cupboard but not sure if it will be able to be moved into there. That is a problem that can be resolved though...

The "server" is just running Windows 7. As far as I know there is no Windows 7 server, so I think its just running a shared folder.

Edit: The OS isn't too much of an issue as its not needed as such, any old OS can be installed or even stick the hard drive on another computer and share it from that.

 

[Glos182]

Re: Duel Hard Drive Enclosures

IcyBox enclosures are amazin!

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/product.aspx?code=SKI-U352SU&af=50

 

[McBunny]

Re: Duel Hard Drive Enclosures

right so its not a server then id backup to tape every night (different tape every night) on a 4 week rotation but really its down to how much they want to cover their asses

 

[McBunny]

Re: Duel Hard Drive Enclosures

IcyBox enclosures are amazin!

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/product.aspx?code=SKI-U352SU&af=50

i can vouch that that one isnt very good i had it its now in the bin power cord kept falling out and the fan gave up after only a short while now i use a netgear stora at home

 

[lamborgini8]

Re: Duel Hard Drive Enclosures

IcyBox enclosures are amazin!

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/product.aspx?code=SKI-U352SU&af=50

That looks pretty good actually, the backup button would be handy.

right so its not a server then id backup to tape every night (different tape every night) on a 4 week rotation but really its down to how much they want to cover their asses

Not a server, just used as if it was a server.

Tape is one option but I really wouldn't know where to start with that.

i can vouch that that one isnt very good i had it its now in the bin power cord kept falling out and the fan gave up after only a short while now i use a netgear stora at home

I guess that's where modifying stuff comes in handy haha! I could easily change the fan and im sure the power cable isn't a huge problem.

 

[McBunny]

Re: Duel Hard Drive Enclosures

its a huge problem when it falls out when copying data lol

buy an external tape drive connect it run the windows backup software job done

 

[lamborgini8]

Re: Duel Hard Drive Enclosures

Yeah that would be a problem...

What's the advantage of tape over hard drives? They are like a usb stick just 10x the size and take a lot more effort to use.

 

[Glos182]

That icybox was just the first result that came up. i've got a 2.5" one, the build quality is very good. 10x better to previous enclosures i've used. But if you've had bad experience with that one then fair enough. I just wanted to point out the Brand name tbh. They might do more than one dual enclosure.

 

[McBunny]

oh they do
id say qnap and people for decent boxes


a tape is a decent cheap way of backing up data i mean you could use a pen drive every night really but it would need to be a different one to be safe

it really all depends how much they want to protect their data

 

[lamborgini8]

Right well I bought the first original idea in the end... after fiddling around with the damn thing squeezing it all in the small enclosure I have hit a somewhat huge problem...

Both hard drives work, however neither work when they are together... They both don't have the FAT32 format option so I am having to do them both in NTFS, the strange thing is when they are both connected it sounds like one of them cant spin the hard disk. It sounds like its starting to spin, then stops, starting, stops... etc.

Im formatting the 2nd drive now which seams to act as two separate drives for some reason.