I lost a HD the other day and whatever data was on it. I think I had most things backued up but there was still some data that is gone forever. This got me thinking about how to better protect ALL devices in my house.

Storage is cheap, but I don’t want 2 HD in every machine. And some machines like the laptops can’t use 2 HDs.

At the same time I need to re-evaluate the NAS solution in my house. I’m currently managing two systems. An UnRaid computer for archival storage and a Nas4Free machine for a faster access of data.

Steps:

1. Add an SSD drive to UnRaid as a cache drive to speed up write functions on the UnRaid system, and compare network read/write speeds with the Nas4Free box. See how different the two really are.

2a. If speeds are very close, take apart the Nas4Free array and move the two 2TB drives to the UnRaid system.

2b. If speeds are not close buy two 2TB drives and replace the two 1TB drives in the UnRaid system. This will increase the array capacity by 2TB.

3. For all computers set up some software that will backup the working files of all computers to a backup folder on the UnRaid system. Have this backup be done once a day (probably at night). A scheduled rsync operation (that also mirrors deleted files) should suffice. I don’t want an ever growing amount of data. Just a mirror copy of the machine’s HD in case it fails.