eSATA

[OrcishIncubus]

This is for future reference for me because I'm thinking about getting an eSATA backup drive sometime next year.

My mobo has two eSATA ports, and I looked on Newegg for what my options were, the average price range and average storage size.  A lot of the eSATA drives I found (around 80-90% or 100% of the ones that were in my price range) said they were for DVR boxes.

My question is, if I bought an eSATA drive that says it's for DVR, would I be able to use it as a backup drive on my computer?  Is there anything special I would need? I have Windows XP Pro SP2.

My mobo is MSI K9A2 Platinum.

[frankthetank]

Did a little digging since I've been considering improving my backup situation- it looks like the DVR boxes out there are simply hard drives with software for talking to your digital video recorder. Format these puppies and you should be good to go. However, I didn't find a shortage of straight-up eSATA drives out there... wouldn't it be simpler just to grab of one those (so you know 110% it'll work)? The concept of eSATA intrigues me (fast speed, low CPU usage), however for my purposes I think I'll be sticking to my original plan of getting a NAS.

Since I like the idea of not having to pack it with me everywhere I go (even tho sacrificing some speed to do so), RAID redudancy, able to FTP in, as well as a built in Torrent app and media center (to play nice with xBox 360, PS3, etc)- I think I'll be snapping one up any day now.

Let me know how your eSATA adventure pans out! I'll do likewise.

[frankthetank]

I ended up with my NAS and couldn't be happier. I've considered installing some third-party firmware on it so it will play nicer as a media server, but as for storage, it is great. What did you end up going with for your backup drive?

I've been thinking of overhauling my backup solution since I have a small business. I have a business partner who works from his home, and me from mine and we are looking for a practical, redundant way to backup our client files as well as redundantly back these up (possibly using something like the NAS I just picked up?) Any ideas?