Wireless or LAN?

[gbjack]

I bought an iomega iX2-200 after reading this website on NAS. Installation was very simple. I connect the NAS from my router wirelessly. However copying files and even dragging iTunes playlist to iPod seems so slow and intolerable.

My question is should I connect this to LAN instead to improve the performance?

And the default disk setting is on RAID 1, how can I make sure the files are properly mirrored? I am seeing 2 hard disk... "public" and "backups" (see attachment) The "backups" hard disk should not be used as it is for mirroring, am I right? Though I am not see anything in the hard disk, do the files really are secure?

Thanks

 

[thiggins]

You should be connecting to the NAS via Gigabit Ethernet for best performance. But even a 10/100 Ethernet connection will be a big improvement.

Those are network shares that you are looking at, i.e. shared folders, not individual drives.

Be aware that RAID is not the same as backup. You should have a backup of any files that are stored only on the NAS. Smart SOHOs Don't Do RAID

 

[gbjack]

Can I delete the RAID and use 2 individual disk and copy file A into each disk? Is this a workable backup option?

 

[thiggins]

Can I delete the RAID and use 2 individual disk and copy file A into each disk? Is this a workable backup option?

Not really. You need a physically separate device for backup. This can be a networked computer, USB drive or another NAS. Backup to CD/DVD or online backup service is also valid.

You don't want data you can't afford to lose on only one device.

 

[gbjack]

Thanks I know what you meant now.

Since that is the case, can I use the iX2-200 without any raid, with 2 disk space (2,000GB) and buy another 2 TB USB disk as backup? Since the idea is not to back up on the same device. In this way I can maximise the storage of the iX2-200 and does backup to the new USB Hard disk.

 

[thiggins]

Yes. That would work. Even better would be two USB drives and alternate them, taking
one offsite. Also, don't forget to occasionally check that the backup is working properly.

 

[gbjack]

Ok, I remove the RAID 1 and the disk turn into a 1.8TB folder in JBOD mode. I wanted to use it as 2 separate hard disk, too risky using JBOD as any 1 disk failure means all data gone. But I guess that is how iomega NAS works. So I am back to RAID 1, hahaha Overall I am pleased with this NAS and it can backup stuffs to external disk automatically.

 

[gbjack]

Bought a Samsung 3.5" G3, reconstruct the iomega to RAID 1 and backup to Samsung G3 using Copy Job schedule on alternate days. Computer to NAS will backup daily using Retrospect HD.

I hope there will be an easier way to backup technology in future.