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Want some advice on extending the storage of my existing pc. I have a Quad core processor. The system is quiet old but works really well. I had just recently installed 8GB ram on it and it is working fine. It has 1TB storage. I had a regular size cpu case. I am willing to add around 3 to 5TB of storage space. This system will be running on Linux for data backup purpose only. But I am not having enough space inside the cpu case.
You can buy 2TB drives. But see properly that your motherboard is capable of reading that. Most of the boards comes locked with 3TB capacity. It will not detected any additional space above that. You can upgrade your case and buy a bigger one. It is quiet cheaper. Good cases comes with removable drive bays. That means it has simple holders through which you can add and remove drive.
There are external drive bays available. But there are no internal choices. Most of the cpu cases are different. There is no common standard for storage thing. You have to two choices here. First you can simply go ahead with high storage space drive and second you can buy a good external storage solution like NAS. Where you can add upto 8TB of drive easily and it is a entirely separate unit.
I was not aware about that. I thought the internal drivers will be more stable. I do not want a large capacity drive. Because if something happen the data will be loss. I am planing to add atleast 4 drive of 1TB each so that data can be properly replicated in each of them. This increases the recovery chances. I
want a bit more information on those nas storage. Can I configure that on my pc itself. That will be a bit money saving.
You can do that through a NAS OS. Like FreeNAS. You have to add few drives in your system and then you have to install this OS. The OS can be accessible through ip address. It has a simple interface. This OS needs a separate storage. On which ever drive it is installed will not be available for usage. So just add a small size drive for it. You can make a simple lan nas storage through this.
If you are using your pc for making a NAS storage solution the it is not a effective solution. Here your backup stuff will be interrupted when your system is off. Better buy a dedicated nas device. 1TB solution here is cheaper, while 2TB and 4TB are most costly. But they are reliable and recommended for backup. Here you can use your internal drives in the storage. Just check on web.
The best thing you can do is buy a few drive and a new cpu case. A good one is Antec One S. This case has all things that you need to make a decent pc.You can add multiple drives on it and make a standard pc with powerful backup solution. Use a Linux OS to get faster accessibility and reliable output. Just checkout the case first and see what you think about it.
For reliable backup you have to look on the overall hardware. You cannot just rely on the cpu case or the hard drive only. You have to see what board you have, what is the lan adapter capability of transferring data, etc. A slow rpm drive can reduce the entire backup process. You have to see whether the board you own has a raid support or not. If not then you have to upgrade that also. Then only you will get a optimum output.