My Win7 network has been very reliable. It took a bit of tweaking to
make it happy with my XP and Linux boxes, but not all that much.
I've been using my USB HDs for backup because my NAS drives are too
small, but the advantage to a network drive is that any computer on the
network can use it as long as the router is working.

Interestingly, Win7 won't back up to a network drive unless you have
Pro, Enterprise or Ultimate, so you'll need some software unless you
have one of those.
Cobian does network backups, but I don't have much experience with it:
http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [PCBUILD] Network Backup Drive
From: Tom Waddell <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, October 07, 2010 6:40 pm
To: [log in to unmask]

I posted previously about an external HD for backup. Thanks for the
replies. I discovered there are fast ethernet network HD that connect to
your router. The advantage is speed and the ability to backup all
computers on the network.

I have 2 desktops and a laptop running Win 7. My concern is network
reliability. I had a network setup under Vista with a NetGear router but
it never worked that well. Have changed to Win 7 and got a Cisco router.

Two questions: Besides cost (the unit I am looking at is $150) what are
the pros and cons of network backup drives.

Anyone have network reliability issues with Win 7?

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