Backing up to HDD wirelessly - DROBO or TIMEMACHINE

[Eatsnax]

Hey friends! I have a question for those who may have the answer. I have a really sweet deal on a DROBO FS if I want to take it. Basically I can get it new for half the price! Of course I will need to buy HDD's which will boost the cost.

I edit in my basement. Running a MAC PRO and editing mainly off of 3 EXTERNAL HDD's. I have...

1 - 500GB Mirrored
1 - 1TB Mirrored
1- 2TB Mirrored

So thats a total of 3.5 TB of storage I have access to, 7TB overall.

I feel really safe having this many drives that are mirrored. But I want to have a backup of all these drives in another location in case something goes bad in the basement.

On the 3rd floor of my house, my girlfriend has a MAC MINI, which is also where the MODEM and WIRELESS ROUTER is connected to. My MACPRO in the basement connects to the net WIRELESSLY through it.

If I were to get a DROBO, hook it up to her MAC MINI via USB and have it connect to my MAC PRO in the basement, will this be a good backup system to back up those externals? I know the USB will slow the backup down?

Or should I just get TIMEMACHINE to do it? I'm thinking that the DROBO route will be much better and cheaper, since I would have to get 3 HDD's to match my other 3 HDD's to get TIMEMACHINE to do it.

Any suggestions or advise?

 

[nyvideo]

Mike, it sounds like you're thinking about all the important issues. Mirroring is great, but it's not the same as having a backup.

I purchased a Netgear ReadyNAS Pro a year or two ago and I'm very happy with it. It's got 6TB configured as RAID. We have a bridged wired and wireless network with several Macs.

The ReadyNAS is connected via Cat 6 cabling to a gigabyte switch and everything on the network (except an old Mac Mini) is running at gigabyte speeds.The ReadyNAS is so fast it usually feels as though it's just another hard drive on my system.

I've heard mixed things about the Drobo. I know they are spending a lot of money on R&D and the product line is much more robust than a few years ago.

But, I think you're going to find the wireless connection to the Drobo - or to an Apple Time Capsule, for that matter - frustratingly slow. 802.11n, though much faster than the former 802.11g, is quite fast, but it won't give you anywhere near the throughput you can get from a fast wired Ethernet system.

Is there any way you could run an Ethernet cable from the 3rd floor to the basement?

The other part of your question had to do with Time Machine. I use it for my data files on one of the hard drives in my Mac Pro, however, I don't use it for large files that change often. For that I find that one of the backup programs that will automatically synchronize two or more drives/directories, at intervals that I can set, gives me more control and I worry less about it. This way, using Finder, I can look at the drive and see that my files are there. I don't have to run another program (Time Machine) to see them.

Good luck in your decision. I'm sure you'll get good advice here. I'd also suggest that you post your question at the Apple site to get some other perspectives.

 

[Eatsnax]

Mike, it sounds like you're thinking about all the important issues. Mirroring is great, but it's not the same as having a backup.

I purchased a Netgear ReadyNAS Pro a year or two ago and I'm very happy with it. It's got 6TB configured as RAID. We have a bridged wired and wireless network with several Macs.

The ReadyNAS is connected via Cat 6 cabling to a gigabyte switch and everything on the network (except an old Mac Mini) is running at gigabyte speeds.The ReadyNAS is so fast it usually feels as though it's just another hard drive on my system.

I've heard mixed things about the Drobo. I know they are spending a lot of money on R&D and the product line is much more robust than a few years ago.

But, I think you're going to find the wireless connection to the Drobo - or to an Apple Time Capsule, for that matter - frustratingly slow. 802.11n, though much faster than the former 802.11g, is quite fast, but it won't give you anywhere near the throughput you can get from a fast wired Ethernet system.

Is there any way you could run an Ethernet cable from the 3rd floor to the basement?

The other part of your question had to do with Time Machine. I use it for my data files on one of the hard drives in my Mac Pro, however, I don't use it for large files that change often. For that I find that one of the backup programs that will automatically synchronize two or more drives/directories, at intervals that I can set, gives me more control and I worry less about it. This way, using Finder, I can look at the drive and see that my files are there. I don't have to run another program (Time Machine) to see them.

Good luck in your decision. I'm sure you'll get good advice here. I'd also suggest that you post your question at the Apple site to get some other perspectives.

Thanks for the info. I will look into that Netgear thing. I don't know if you understand what it is that I want to do. I do want to backup, but I do not want to work off of the backup drive. I want to work off the drive on my tower, then hopefull have Timemachine backup that HDD, to another HDD attached to another Mac, in another room.

But good info nonetheless.

Thanks

 

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

Thanks for the info. I will look into that Netgear thing. I don't know if you understand what it is that I want to do. I do want to backup, but I do not want to work off of the backup drive. I want to work off the drive on my tower, then hopefull have Timemachine backup that HDD, to another HDD attached to another Mac, in another room.

But good info nonetheless.

Thanks

The max speed between wireless units is far less than what can be achieved via a wired connection.

If you have the ability to run a program called 'iperf' on your two target devices, the Mac in the basement, the Mac on the 3rd floor, you can get a number for 'how fast'.

'how fast' is something to know when you are backing up significant amounts of data, as video projects are storage eaters.

It sounds seductively easy... look ma no wires... but it may results that are less than desirable.


Since you are using Macs, here's the data you need to look at. It is found under the System Profiler, and select the AirPort option:

The number that is circled in red is the strength of the signal received. So you use this on your machine in the basement to find out what is the signal strength at your Mac.

The next image shows a data speed performance test I did today:

The number in red indicates the M-bits/sec performance... around 54 Mbits/s (remember that's mega bits, not mega bytes...).

A couple of things to remember.

The as the signal strength goes down, the signal is more likely to have noise/interference and that will lessen the maximum effective bit rate you can get.
If the signal strength is something like -70 dBm or -80 dBm... for get using this as a 'fast' transport. You'd be quicker transferring your data on to a transfer disk, and running it upstairs...

Also, the upstairs Mac has to be 'wire' connected to the Access Point... other wise if it is not, and you can transfer between the two Mac's over the air, you have effectively halved the bandwith available for either one of you... that is as you transfer a packet over the air to the AP, the AP then has to retransmit that packet over the air to the receiving Mac... and you can't transmit while that is going on.

For something like this, I'd opt for running a copper cable either through the house somehow... or going outside via a basement window, and into the floor where your AP is. I'd still connect the destination Mac wired as well.

That essentially is how I've wired my house. The only thing that does 'wireless' are the iPhones and the iPad...

 

[Eatsnax]

Dude! Thanks so much for the detailed info. I will do this, hopefully this weekend. I'll get back to you. Thanks again for taking your time to do this. Have a great weekend!