This sounds like a tailor made fit for a Drobo S... SATA, 5 bays for drives. http://www.drobo.com/products/drobo-s.php Not free, but possibly best solution. Kris Browne kris dot browne at gmail dot com -- Sent from my Palm Prē From: Randy Clarksean <rclarksean at arvig.net> Date: Jan 9, 2010 13:21 Subject: [tclug-list] SATA External Storage To: tclug-list <tclug-list at mn-linux.org> I am looking for suggestions on a “cheap” storage system. I would like it to be + RAID 5 or 6 capable + easily used as backup for Windows / Linux + form factor does not matter (i.e. 2U vs. Tower does not matter) + want to use “cheap” SATA drives + sits on network or attached to dedicated server + capacity of 1+ TB minimum (nearly 500-750 GB of useful information for backup at present) Yes … I know I want everything and do not want to pay anything. This is for a home office type environment, not a production or high availability server environment. Everything runs over Gigabit network. I have too much information to back up via burning a DVD, etc. I have looked at Dell and HP storage solutions and they are a BIT pricey to say the least – even used. I have a Dell SC1425 with ESXi on it that I can easily attach it to as needed. Thoughts or suggestions appreciated. Thanks in advance. Randy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mailman.mn-linux.org/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20100109/77eb1310/attachment.htm