Aaron Bell

As a laptop user without the ability to expand my computer’s internal memory system, I am forced to add external storage units in order to gain more space. I also discovered, to my terror, that very little of my data is backed up in multiple places. In fact, much of my data only exists in one place… A single drive failure is a rather scary possibility. I discussed about this with my friend Matt, a happy owner and proponent of the Drobo system. Any time you have a backup and storage system in which a single point will result in massive data loss, you are in danger. For me, right now, if any one of my external drives failed, I would lose some important, irreplaceable data. This is, well, pretty much unacceptable. In addition to this, my laptop started acting up with graphics problems, leading me to worry I will need to send it in for repairs. As Apple will most likely wipe the drive in the process, it is important to get a good backup system.

Now, the best thing is to set up a system of redundancy with no single points. Anytime there is a single point, you’re in danger. This can refer to a single array of drives, a single drive or any one point that will bring down the system and cause data loss. RAID, or “Redundant Array of Independent Disks,” is a system involving multiple hard disks to duplicate and protect data. There are different sorts of RAID systems (see the wikipedia article for more info) that ensure different levels of data security. One bad thing about RAID systems is that they can be a bit finicky, fragile and are generally difficult to set up, especially for someone with little IT knowledge.

Drobo is a system that is based on the concept of RAID but uses a proprietary system (BeyondRAID) to manage data in a way to maximize space while still managing single drive failure. It allows you to insert 4 internal hard disks of any size and the system will just take care of it. In addition, should one drive fail, you can simply replace it with a new one and let the system rebuild the drive from the remaining one(s). There are some down sides to this system. Should multiple systems fail at once, you’re in trouble and since BeyondRAID is proprietary, should the Drobo itself fail, you have to buy a new one or pay the company to recover the data for you. In addition, it is rather expensive, but you are paying for the simplicity. For someone concerned about data security but without the technical knowledge or money to make a much more advanced system, the Drobo is a pretty simple and easy way to protect your data. Of course, to better protect your data, you should get two and mirror one onto the other. That way, even if one totally failed and all the data on it was lost, the other one could be used to restore data.

I originally wanted to get a Drobo system since it is one of the best and simplest means of protecting data, despite its flaws. However, the cost for it was prohibitive to me. Part of the problem was that I wanted to get a setup that had a number of accessories in addition to the drobo itself. The cost ended up being a lot higher than I could manage. So I put it off.

However, I was still lacking ANY data backup. This was troubling.

The next option I had available to me was to buy a simple external hard drive. It wouldn’t be fancy, but it would be space and would provide opportunity to back up all my data. Now, when buying hard drives, it is important to pick well known brands that have a reputation for quality, because really you don’t want a drive to go down. As Canada has Boxing Day sales and January sales, I went out to various stores hoping to find some good deals. Turned out that Best Buy was selling the Western Digital (WD) Essential My Book 1TB (their base model) for $150 CAD, which is quite a good price. However, Best Buy was totally sold out… and so was Futureshop… So that was a bit disappointing. Since the brick and mortar places failed me, I went online.

Checking out Tiger Direct and Newegg, I managed to find the same WD drive for $160, but wanted to see what other options were out there. The fact that the WD one only offered USB 2, which while the most versatile, is also one of the slowest modern technologies for transferring data. Sadly, not too many drives had Firewire 800 (the next fastest) or eSATA (the fastest) and the ones that did were significantly more expensive (at least $100-$200) for equal amounts of storage. So those didn’t work out, but I did find something otherwise interesting.

It seems that last year, something called a “Hard Disk Dock” or “Cradle.” These devices are docking stations for internal hard drives.

These “enclosures” are designed to accept internal dark drives via a top slot kinda like a toaster. This poses multiple advantages. First is that with the same base dock, you can swap in multiple drives. Apparently they are even hot swappable. Second is eSATA compatibility. While there are cheaper options for USB only docks, the ones that include eSATA are not much more ($50). Furthermore, the docks actually include an eSATA cable, unlike the WD ones I saw. In addition, any hard drives I buy to use with this thing I can REUSE should I ever get a drobo or similar setup. This is also true of the eSATA expresscard I would need to make the whole thing work.

So where does that leave us? I could pay the $160 for what is essentially a one-time memory boost or I could pay around $270 for a system in which every part is exchangeable and upgradeable as my needs change. Do I need more space? Swap in a new drive. Storage unit failure? Buy a new one (they’re cheap!). Do I need a different storage unit (ala drobo)? Copy my data onto the new device and then swap in the old drive. Do I have eSATA for if I buy other devices that use it? Yes!

All in all, the speed boost (about 10x faster than USB 2) plus the options for future upgrades really make the HD dock seem like an extremely good combination. Admittedly, it is more expensive by about $100, in the process I am purchasing a 1.5TB drive and eSATA expresscard that are both reusable in later drive setups as well as a dock that can be used with (hopefully) any sized internal drive, which are cheaper than externals w/ enclosures.

So, as a short term expenditure, it is higher, but as a long term value, it is also higher in terms of speed, re-usability and upgradability. In any case, my order from Newegg of the drive and dock should be arriving next week sometime, so I’ll be sure to let you know how it turns out!

In the grand scheme of things, it is extremely difficult to create a perfect system. One needs multiple drives in multiple places and a means of mirroring data regularly and reliably. However, that tends to be an issue for larger corporations, companies and colleges to resolve. For the rest of us, we just do our best. The question primarily comes down to how good we want our backup system to be and how much we are willing to invest to make it happen.