Hardware

I couldn’t be without my USB key these days if I’m honest, I bought a 2GB one about 12 months before our wedding and it has been my absolute life saver on a number of occasions (and I’ve only left in the office just the once!!!).

Up until today I thought the best thing on it was my WOS server (Webserver on a Stick), but looking at Tiny USB Office it might just have some competition on its hands – does anyone use this software? If not, what do you have on your stick?

photo credit: bbaunach

Glenn threw a real spanner in the works just before I went off to buy this damned USB Hard Drive as a backup device!

We both bought external hard disks around the same time, and would probably both do it differently if we were to do it again!

Original photo by Topato

So where do we start?

Glenn’s advice was to get a cheap desktop (circa £200) and stick 4 HDD’s in it and RAID-5 them, this got me thinking – I have my old desktop and I’ve promised Emma I’ll buy a new desktop (that doesn’t have wires hanging out and is in a terrible half working condition) when we move.

Here’s the problem – I’ve not built a PC in years, and I know NOTHING about RAID.

Glenn sent me this article, which discusses RAID in some detail and how to achieve it under Windows. To be fair, I really didn’t want to looking at yet another Windows license.

Expensive “Out of the Box”

So I started looking around at the various “out of the box” solutions that would just require me to populate them with hard drives. Ultimate Storage seem to be the people for this, but the prices are high when you consider I’m likely to be buying four hard disks to put in them! It would be very easy to price yourself out of the market and into a high end solution with this project.

Another Requirement – Futureproofing

That’s another point, looking at hard disk prices, 1TB disk drives are supremely expensive, but that won’t always be the case – I’d be better off with 4 x 500 GB and then upgrading later, so whatever solution I go for should support that potential need for more space, and upgrading the existing space I have.

A Little Project is Born!

The’s when I stumbled across Tom’s Hardware and his Cheap, Fast, DIY RAID 5 NAS box…. This looks like a cunning plan, and we’ve found a card not dissimilar for just over £100 (the 8 port version is probably more aimed at the corporate/server world and hence it’s price hike!). 4 x 500GB Hard disks come in at around £70 including VAT. So providing my old desktop and case can take the pain – I might be able to do this for circa £400.

Just Backup Space?

I know the question most people are asking if you RAID 5 these 4 500GB disks, and you’ve got 1.5TB of data, are you really going to use it as backup space?

The answer is no, it’s likely to become a file server, a huge one at that! but with the four disks in, if one of them goes wrong I can quite easily replace the drive (using Tom’s “sane” method) and be up and running again with no data loss. Why would I then need a backup device?

Offsite backups have to be the next question I guess (but at the bare minimum I would expect to leave a DVD drive in the file server so I can backup data and take the CD’s elsewhere?). I’ll discuss that in another post.

You would think just a second hard drive would be enough to suffice for something like this wouldn’t you? This isn’t so, neither for the server or home use!

Home Backups

I bought a Netgear SC101 a year or so ago, put a 400GB HDD inside it and it runs like a dream, I’m only using one slot of the two available, so it’s not RAIDed or anything. On recent duplicate file scan I discovered that I’m not actually using it as backup device, it’s simply become add-on storage (and lots of it!). I clearly need to backup the data on that as well! You ought to do a scan yourself, you might find you have exactly the same problem!

Fact: I need backup space for all of my hard disk on both laptops (and probably the wife’s as well), and also for the whole of the SC101 storage device.

• Option 1 – 2nd Drive (A)
  Get a second drive, copy all the data back to my laptop (not sure it would fit, but we can cross that bridge later), RAID the existing HDD drives in the SC101 for redundancy, copy the data back to the newly RAID’d disk and I have a secure device.
  Pro’s: All I need is a second HDD of at least equal size.
  Con’s: I’ve read some absolutely abysmal reviews of the SC101 under RAID conditions recently. I’d also still be using the SC101′s proprietary file storage system, so couldn’t just stick the drive in another machine to get the data off, if the box ever blew up I’d need another one to make it work and get the data off.
• Option 2 – 2nd Drive (B)
  Get a second drive, add it to the SC101 copy all the data to it from all the machines and the SC101. Remove the disk and store it somewhere VERY, VERY safe.
  Pro’s: All I need is second HDD of at least equal size, but at least I won’t be using the badly reviewed RAID capabilities of the SC101. I’ll also be able to have it copied over in a day without any major headaches of moving data.
  Con’s: I’ll need to store the drive safely, and it still will be in this proprietary format that means I can’t get the data off without another SC101.
• Option 3 – USB Hard Disk
  Largely similar to option 2 in that the data is on a USB hard disk that I can unplug whenever I feel like it and store it away, alright it’s in the house, but I can probably live with that!
  Pro’s: No RAID headaches, plug it in the laptop overnight, stream the data, can even use syncing software to get the data across, it’s not plugged in all the while, nor is it in a proprietary format.
  Con’s: I can’t actually think of any, except that the data on the USB isn’t RAID’d, but as it’s a backup that shouldn’t be a huge problem (how many failsafe’s can you put in!!?)
• Option 4 – Another Network Disk
  Again largely similar to option 2, but it sounds/feels more permanent than a USB disk, yes I know thousands of people use them everyday, there’s just something I dislike about USB!
  Pro’s: Use syncing software to get the data across, it can be plugged or unplugged when necessary, and it isn’t in a proprietary format. I could even RAID it with the right type of disk.
  Con’s: Probably an increased cost vs option 4?
• Option 5 – Online Services
  Something like JungleDisk, or the online backup service from my own ISP? This is putting my data in the hands of someone else, and paying for how much I use – not something I’m particularly keen on!
  Pro’s: Offsite, way, way offsite!
  Con’s: Data security, integrity, internet latency etc. etc.
• Option 6 – My own Online Service
  This doesn’t actually exist yet, but may well do pending the outcome of a future post on server backup data services.

Which would you choose?

I had the power problem on my laptop fixed (sorted of), I offered the work to several companies.

Philips X53 CORE DUO T2050 80GB PC

• Two companies never replied to my email.
• One company declared they needed the laptop for at least 7-10 days.
• The final company reckoned I could have it back next day if I dropped it after 4pm (it would therefore be first in the queue the following morning!).

Reluctantly I popped out the Hard Drive (I’ve not had time to back it up and it contains a lot of customer data), and took it down to them.

The guy who would actually be working on it had a look at it and said he thought I’d need an entirely new DC socket and it would be 4-5 days minimum before I could get my machine back. Nevertheless I let them have it, and trundled off, safe in the knowledge that most of the data that I use daily is on my USB memory stick!

Surprisingly the next day I receive an answerphone message that my machine is ready for collection!

I get it home and trial it for an hour or two, seems fine but I do have it on a desk.

About 10pm I discover that a push upward on the cable still results in a power outage – Not Good!! I emailed them – slightly annoyed.

It took another 3 days to get a reply, they now need it in for an extended period of time to order an entirely new DC socket (why didn’t they take note of it when they were repairing it, that way they could just bring it in when they actually have the part!!).

I guess it’s time to backup the data and get it onto the old 17″ lappy, the little one is going to be out of action!

The power keeps flickering on my Philips X53, in the past I’ve gone for the time honoured tradition with older laptops of the “Cable Wiggle”, but on this occasion that doesn’t seem to be the problem!

The DC pin inside appears to be loose – to the point where I can wiggle it up and down with a pen. Clearly this is on the otherside of the motherboard so probably a heft job to replace, anyone who has done this on a Philips X53 / Freevents, please get in touch below!

Well, I pulled my finger out after my earlier posts today and headed off to PCWorld to buy my Philips X53. I did have to think twice when I saw that the Toshiba with fingerprint scanner AND PCMCIA had been reduced. But the 512MB of RAM compared to the 1024 on the Philips X53 sold it to me!

I had to wait what seemed like an age before I could attract the attention of a member of staff to unlock the demo for me. He tried to (and failed dismally!) before we agreed a reboot was required. He left me playing with it for a while. I hasten to add I wasn’t hassled once (which totally surprised me, and aggravated me at the same time). When I finally attracted his attention I was informed a queue was in place and he’d get someone to me ASAP.

He was as good as his word, but this was some 40 minutes later – by which time the security guard had walked past me three times and must of thought I was on the fiddle. Many other people (who may or may not have been in the queue) were loitering around the store – must be every security guards nightmare!

Anyway I parted with my cash and brought the shiny new lappy home. I left it charging for a while before dinner and only sat down to play with it around 8-8.30.

The battery went only 10 minutes ago!!! I’m shocked, amazed and thrilled all at once! It’s now on the kitchen table charging in “Battery Calibration mode”, lord knows what it does – but it’s got the fan on full and BIOS seems to be playing with the battery. All in all a nice toy!

Already installed:

• Firefox (Wouldn’t be without it)
• Thunderbird (Never used it before!)
• Putty (Couldn’t live without it)
• AVG Free (Very good free anti-virus)

I’m sure more will come but at least that’s the basics on there!

Right, I’ve been debating this laptop for weeks now.. Most people know my deliberations on it… I want something small (that’s the first time I’ve ever said that in almost any context!), but functional. I’ve got to be able to run the business from it. But still be able to throw it into a small bag and walk out the door.

My current Laptop (an Aspire 3610) is fantastic and used as my main machine day in, day out. But after the recent security scares I found it pushed the very limits of hand luggage!!

So, I like the Sony Vaio (doesn’t everybody!?!?), I don’t like the price tag. The iQon from Tesco is nice, but never heard of the brand and doesn’t seem to have very good battery life.

PCWorld have a Philips Freevents X53 which looks bang on the money – so I’m off to play with it now.

My biggest reservation is it not having a PCMCIA card slot, just an ExpressCard. This worries me as there are no ExpressCard 3G data cards yet…. It leaves me with very few options:

1. Don’t buy the laptop (I’ve looked at the Dell range and they’re fitted with this slot now, so it tells me this is the way forward!).
2. Buy the laptop and a 3G ExpressCard (I’d probably wait a while, the 3G card from Expansys is pre-order only at £235ish at the moment).
3. Buy the laptop and an adapter (I’ve found one company who sell a USB to PCMCIA adapater (essentially a PCMCIA box on the end of a USB lead, not an idea I particularly like, especially at over £150 when buying a £800 laptop!!)
4. Buy the laptop and live with it, I can bluetooth to my handset and use 2.5G/GPRS and look at the ExpressCards when they come down, or even buy a 3G phone that is unlocked that I can put my USIM into and network from that!

Number 4 looks the most obvious solution at the moment!