What is the cheapest way to add additional storage to a network? USB, extra pc etc?

[justsexxx]

I'm almost running out of diskspace. So all 700 GB all are almost full. Most of the storage is taken by content pics and movies.

I'm looking for a way to get those files OFF HHD's on my computer, and on some other device.

I saw some LACIE bigger disks, 1000GB for 1000 EURO, connected by USB on my own PC.

What is in your opinion a good way to increase diskspace and don
t spend thousands of euro's. Maybe building a cheap PC with disks, or maybe something else, where a n00b like me has no knowledge over at all(yet)

Fill me in

I'm running a small network(100Mbit) so network devices are okay. 100MBIT is fast ebough for me..It's just for storage

Thanks

Andre

[justsexxx]

[tical]

I have 5 250gb drives for 1000gb raid5 (basically a huge E: drive)

If any of the drives crash/fail, you won't lose anything and you can just replace the bad hard drive with a good one and it will add the fault tolerance again.

Thats probably your best bet if you have a spare machine around... (or you can stick them in your current machine but you'll probably need a new case) hard drives are cheap and a raid 5 card isn't too expensive

[Mike Panic]

unless you have ALL day to wait for even usb2.0 stuff to transfer, stick to the network.

first you need to figure out how valuable your data is. that will deterimin what the next corse of action will be.

once you figure that out, figure out how accessable you need the data to be, and to how many computers, and where each of those physical computers is located.

ok... got that figured out - move on.

if its valuable - consider buying a LOT of cd-r's and / or dvd'rs and burn everything to disk, preferably to 2 disks of everything. keep each disk in a differant physical location. i do not mean in differant rooms in the same building - i mean in differant buildings, like home and work, home and the bank, etc.

other thing i would consider getting is a server that can be expandable over your perdicted growth for the next 1-3 years. do you need a server w/ 10k rpm drives? do you need one w/ faster drives?

if not, you can stick to large 7200rpm drives which have dropped in price a TON as of late - to the point where 250gig drives are about 75 cents per gig. if all your doing is storing data, you can throw 4 into almost any computer from the last 3-4 years or so (put a 10gig partition on the primary master hdd for the o/s) and you'll have a terabyte of data storage - do it in raid if you need it to be more secure.

for an o/s - that really depends on the computers uptime. if 24/7/365 is needed - id prob run redhat. otehrwise, win2kpro or winxp will be fine

[gideongallery]

Personally NAS and SAN are my best alternatives for me

Snap appliance