Shopping for NAS with automatic backup

[leah_kushner]

<p>I am shopping for a NAS with automatic backup. We have 6 computers on our family network. I work from two of them, sometimes the same files. Ideally, I would like a NAS with automatic backup and one that can network my two computers into the same folder. I frequently work on the same documents from two different computers and want to avoid redundancy. I have had to send the files back and forth and have many version of the same document. This goes for photos as well. I work on two different PC's and a Mac in a photo lab. Does anyone have any ideas of how I can achieve my goals. </p>

<p>I looked into the Drobo but am not sure it will achieve my needs. We would like something we can grow into but then again the technology keeps changing. I was looking at 3-5TB. It would be great to avoid having to may for an automatic backup service such as carbonite. Is there something I am missing? Thanks so much all.</p>

<p>Leah</p>

[bruce_rubenstein]

<p>Automatic backup is done with software. Some NAS's ship with backup software. It might be best to shop for software that best fits your needs. For instance, my understanding is that Time Machine will probably do everything you need on the Macs. You just have to make sure any NAS you get will support Time Machine as a target. For Windows machines, I would recommend backup software that not only backs up files, but also supports <em>bare metal restores</em> this permits restoring the entire computer to a new hard drive.<br>

Many NAS's permit adding hard drives to existing arrays to increase storage space.</p>

<p>A very good source for NAS info is: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/nas</p>

[huperetes]

<p>I just bought a <strong>Thecus </strong>N8800PRO with 10TB and I am reasonably satisfied. It has some backup software and allows replication to other Thecus NAS.<br /></p>