Best backup option for me?

[zolo]

I have 1.7TB worth of stuff that I don't wana loose that were stored in 4X500GB HDDs that I just replaced with 2X1TB WD green drives (less clutter inside the case). I moved all the stuff to the new drives, now I want a way to do auto. backups but I'm kinda of nervous that I might loose my stuff in the proccess somehow. The way I always do it: every month or so I'd open up the case, hook up the hard drives that I use for backup, then copy over the stuff, remove the HDD's, store them somewhere safe.

I have an old P4 system that's collecting dust I wana put to use. Should I go with windows home server? Would it be the best option for me? It's gonna cost me some $$, OS+ Gigabit switch+Gigabit cards. I'm alright with spending the cash if there's no other cheaper option for me? Should I buy some USB or e-sata enclousers? ( It's annoying trying to figure out where to store this, or should I divide this folder so it can fit, a month later I don't remember which is which.

I just spent the day trying to figure out the best option for, and I'm getting tired man.

 

[techmanc]

I currently have a slightly bigger backup I do on my system and what I did recently was buy 4 seagate 1.5tb drives. 2 of them I mounted to 2 Antec MX-1 ESATA/USB2.0 enclosures that act as my main data drives. I also bought a Thermaltake BlacX ST0005U External Hard Drive SATA to be used for the other 2 Seagate drive swapping them as needed to used as a backup as I am scared of losing a drive with that much data on it. Then I use SyncBackPro to do different syncing of the drives to have my drives synced. This way was Ifor me the best and easiest way to keep the 2 data drives and the 2 backup drives with the right data on them. You may need a controller card and with my nvidia chipset the BYTECC PCIe SATA II 300 worked well for me. You can also look at my rig link to see my setup for more info.

Links
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822148337
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817153071
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16815283005
http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/sbpro.html

 

[RebateMonger]

If you are a bit lazy about backups (and everybody is), then Windows Home Server is ideal. Backups and backup management are automatic and if there's a problem it'll tell you immediately. Plus, you can back up ten computers automatically.

If your old P4 board doesn't have SATA ports, then you'll need some for your old 500 GB SATA drives). Temporarily add a DVD drive for the install process, install Windows Home Server ($100), and add your three other 500 GB drives. Installation takes about an hour and it takes about ten mnutes to associate each client PC to the new WHS box.

If you have any old IDE drives laying around, you can also add those to the WHS storage pool. WHS will format them and trasnparently add them to your 2 GB pool.

 

[zolo]

Thanks guys for the sugestions, I think I''l go with the WHS option, hopefully it woun't destroy my stuff in the proccess somehow :/

It's a Gigabye motherboard with 4 Sata headers so I should be covered