I know that SATA / RAID solutions aren't foolproof, but I'm hoping that along with gold DVD-R backup that a dua-bay SATA setup in RAID it will be a good archive solution.

I'm currently looking at the Wiebetch SilverSATA II with 500GM drives. It uses Firewire and USB (univeral options) or eSATA. Trouble is it looks like you can only use the Wiebetech drives in it as far as I can tell (2x pricier drives). A 2 bay setup is $832 w/ Firewire version. Additional drives would be $310.

I also came across an enclosure by Firmtek called the SeriTek/1EN2. It is also a dual bay, hot swap SATA enclosure. You can use any drives (Seagate Barracuda, for example), but it requires a eSATA PCI host adapter (faster than firewire but less univeral). A 2 bay setup is $660 with additional drives at $170.

Anyone have any thoughts on either of these options?

No personal experience with either of these, but I'm always a little wary of proprietary systems (you must buy OUR stuff) at least until I decide whether or not there's a valid reason behind it. I took a quick walk through the Firmtek site. One of the downsides of eSATA has been, as you mentioned, a less universal connecting strategy. Was intrigued by this: http://www.firmtek.com/seritek/seritek-2sm2-e/ however.

Mike.

I have the 2 bay firmtek SATA enclosure for my macbook pro and I use the express 34 card to plug it into the macbook pro. Simply, I love it. The bare kit is $300 for the case and card. Go to newegg and get a few 500 gig drives for about 130.00 each, maybe cheaper and you are off and running. Getting a SATA card for a big mac, a G5 or a MacPro is about 100 bucks. It depends on what you want to do, I am looking for fast storage, I do it take it on the road and I do have more than 2 drives and I bought a few more bays. I love it, it is faster than firewire 800. You can't share the drives with everything but do you really need to? If you do, then getting a firewire 400/800 drive is for you. I had to take a look at my 6 lacie drives on my desk and I had enough. I have sold all but 2 lacie drives. Check out the theDamBook site, there is a forum section that deals with storage....

Best of luck.

Ken

I hear ya on the propriety systems. What if they go under plus their prices are twice as much.

I'm in the same boat with Maxtor and I saw a good writeup on the Firmtek. Glad to know it's serving you well.

Scott

And that's not a typo! It's http://thedambook.com/

Mike