The main problem with that might be the internet connection of the place. You would need a fairly hefty connection to do the first backup - though after that it is just a question of some 100 mb's a day I believe. And it would probably take days to download the backup from the online storage. What we are looking for here is something which would keep the garage running, even in the event of a failure.
Depends on the size of the system. If the work is several TBs, then a backup takes days. Especially if it is an off site backup. RAID setups like this just allow continued working in case of drive failure.
when you do make proper backups (not raid) but sure to keep them off site encase there is a fire so that you don't lose your computer and the backup
If we look at the requirements from the OP - it is clear that the computer will be used for simple word and excel work. I'd be surprised if they ever got above 100gb of data.
Friggin auto data is quite system demand intensive it does load alot of data but nothing a decent multi core cpu shouldn't be able to handle. At my mates garage all he does is autodate, outlook, Excel and word for invoices etc most of the greasemonkeys are not too clued on on pc's so anything too specy is just a waste of time.. I suggest a SSD is a bit too far fetched for a workshop pc but using your old parts will be more than enough with a decent 500/750gb hard drive with a back up of some sort anything more is way too fan boy suggested, my mates pc is just a standard HP bought in the shop about a year ago for like £300/400 i can assume without looking at the specs its no bigger than 200gn tops, they have lots of invoices/customer contacts/orders/emails etc they do not want lost if something goes wrong but nothing that needs lots of space at all they just want a reliable system. Your stuff second hand into a rig will be more than enough spec wise..again if not slightly overkill for what its going to be used for.
Sounds like you need a bogstandard office machine with raid and some form of autobackup. Id imagine alot of the records are going to be fairly minimal in size. Could even use a online service for that? i7's and ssd's ??? lol
What is your relationship to the garage? Is this a friend asking you to do this? The reason I ask is selling them your second hand kit to fund your upgrade does not sit well with me. If they are using this for a business then I would buy new just so you have warranties to guard against equipment failure. If it was me I would point them towards a cheapo dell system with a decent warranty and set up an external NAS or equivalent for back-ups. This is a business critical PC for them.
I'd be looking at something like a Dell with a 3 year NBD warranty in this type of situation personally. I'd also go for an external hard disk with a automated backup routine and a online backup service in case of fire or theft.
Yeah, I realised that. Also if something goes down, it might not always be easy to get a replacement part.
Nah, what I'm saying is that Alldata and similar services are almost entirely internet-based, so no actual information is stored on the hard drive, making a big hard drive and RAID pretty unnecessary.
The only reason I mentioned i7's was because I have one. I don't usually cut my sandwich in half with a machete !
i would do something like a simple dual core system, 4gb ram, decent integrated graphics. set up 2 hdd in the computer with an every other hour incremental back up and a tape drive that the boss can take home at night. then i would set up a couple of cheap dumb terminals out in the garage for the mechanics.
We've already established that it won't be several TBs. As most people don't even have more than a couple of TBs disk space anyway, we can rule that possibility out. Even if he had, a back up that size wouldn't be a complete back up anyway, it would be run as differential or at least incremental. There's no logical argument to suggest that having no back up is ever a good idea in any situation. There just isn't. RAID isn't back up and you shouldn't rely on it to be so. What this person clearly needs is a fast back up system with removable storage to take the back up home at night. Garages are common targets for thieves, both for obtaining personal details of people with expensive cars, to stealing MOT certificates, or just for the tools and equipment. This is just the most logical solution to the problem. Fast, removable back up.
