I seem to have one that will kill them in 24-48 hours

The discussion of MTBF data and the like is important, even if o/t. Personally, I think that MTBF is possibly misleading, and it depends a lot on the test design and sample size how good it is.

Amanda, I'm not saying you're wrong or anything, but I've never seen a laptop case that actually had sufficient drive enclosures to mount 2 HDs, and still allow you to use a floppy or an optical drive.

In my opinion, MTBF is definitely misleading to your average consumer.

Amanda, I'm not saying you're wrong or anything, but I've never seen a laptop case that actually had sufficient drive enclosures to mount 2 HDs, and still allow you to use a floppy or an optical drive.

You've never come across an Alienware or a Dell XPS laptop then?

You've never come across an Alienware or a Dell XPS laptop then?

Well no. I wasn't even aware of Alienware doing lappies, and tend to think of Dells as basic corporate machines.

I'm looking at a NAS Raid solution myself.

Bit torn between the ITX route Mark and I were talking about, or have seen that Linksys and netgear do their own caddies that simply need drives and off you go.

No looking at mega bucks, just a central place to store the music and pics so everyone can access them without needing multiple PCs on or temperamental sync partnerships

Both have, what i personally would say are problems.

If I recall correctly they are:

Netgear, this uses a proprietary file system so if the box dies but the discs are good you can't get your data. (assuming this is the one I think it is)

Linksys, I will have to look it up but I know there is an issue that put me off.

You got model numbers?

Worth checking the "cheap" ones because they often require a client installation on each PC. In other words, they're not trues Windows file sharing NAS boxes. Not sure if this is what Mark was referring to, but be aware of that too.

There was a thread I started a few weeks ago about the whole NAS issue.

Because I want the flexibility of having multiple services running, including torrents, the cheap and cheerful NAS-file-sharing-only box won't do it. You then get into the more sophisticated boxes, such as the Thecus stuff, but it ain't cheap. I'm sure you could build a mini-itx system with decent RAID controller for less and it would offer you a lot more possibilities.

I have raid on my PC.

I recently had a software clash (thats what I was told, dont ask me to explain) The upshot was that XP locked out & couldnt be sorted without going back to the previous days restore point. I lost a complete days work. I now have an external hardrive that I back up to every night.

External drives can also be taken elsewhere at night & at weekends when your not using the PC. If your PC is nicked or the place burns down you still have your data.

I have raid on my PC.

I recently had a software clash (thats what I was told, dont ask me to explain) The upshot was that XP locked out & couldnt be sorted without going back to the previous days restore point. I lost a complete days work. I now have an external hardrive that I back up to every night.

External drives can also be taken elsewhere at night & at weekends when your not using the PC. If your PC is nicked or the place burns down you still have your data.

RAID isn't meant to replace a good back up solution. It's there to prevent data loss due to hardware failure.

RAID isn't meant to replace a good back up solution. It's there to prevent data loss due to hardware failure.

If it was the intel driver you could get around that but it was a bug in one specific driver and caused the drive to show as faulty. I just run without a driver as it isn't needed and all is fine.

Like I said RAID 1 to deal with a dying hard disk, backup to deal with data loss.

I've seen a few toasted raid 1 arrays where drive 1 failed due to heat and as drive 2 was right next to it it cooked soon after. That is why you want backup

RAID isn't meant to replace a good back up solution. It's there to prevent data loss due to hardware failure.

Yeo, Agreed its was abrand new workstation, only had it a few days & was getting the hard drive that weekend, just unlucky I guess.

Both have, what i personally would say are problems.

If I recall correctly they are:

Netgear, this uses a proprietary file system so if the box dies but the discs are good you can't get your data. (assuming this is the one I think it is)

Linksys, I will have to look it up but I know there is an issue that put me off.

You got model numbers?

Found them here - NAS Chassis from Broadbandbuyer.co.uk