I wanted to share a multi part post about building a computer that backs up all your photo, music, files.  It will store at least 2 copies of everything so if one hard drive fails, then I’ll have a second copy of it backed up.  Not only will it back up files, it will make a nightly backup of my laptop so when its hard drive dies, I’ll be able to restore it very easily.

This can be all done with Windows Home Server.  There are tons and tons of reasons why I’ve chosen this over RAID.  If your interested throw me some comments and I’ll get back to you.

You can either buy a pre-built server, or build the parts.  When you build it, you’ll end up getting much much more bang for your buck!!!

Here’s a list of what I got

• ASUS Black SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model DVD-E818A3T BULK – OEM
  $20.99
• ASUS M3A78-EM AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard – Retail
  $65.99
• CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply – Retail
  $94.99
• CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400C4 – Retail
  $39.99
• Microsoft Windows Home Server 32 Bit 1 Pack (Power pack 1) – OEM
  $99.99
• AMD Sempron LE-1200 Sparta 2.1GHz Socket AM2 45W Single-Core Processor Model SDH1200DEBOX – Retail
  $26.99
• Western Digital Caviar SE WD5000AAJS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive – OEM
  $57.99

Total price with Shipping:$418.53
- Rebates  ($65)

TOTAL $353.53

2TB add on will cost me another $194.00

If you’re like me you already have a case laying around so that’s not needed unless you want to create some hot-swap thing.As soon as the parts come in I’ll get to Part 1, the actual setup.