It sounds like a geeky gift – compared to jewelry, it certainly is – but almost everyone needs a backup server. Online backup is nice but only if you have a couple gigabytes of data to protect; I’ve got 2 terabytes (2,000 gigabytes) each of photos and videos, a lot of music, and several hundred gigabytes of data including scans of every document of significance since college. (Hey, I’m a Type A.) That calls for a home backup server, personal file server, or NAS (network attached storage) device. Three names, same thing: One device automatically backs up (and shares files among) every PC, Mac, notebook and netbook in the house. A long-running pcmag.com favorite has been the HP MediaSmart EX series (see pcmag.com review) and you can’t go wrong, especially for sharing photos online. (About $515 direct with one 1.5TB drive and three bays empty.) I’ve thrown my lot with the Synology DiskStation four bay series that isn’t quite as idiotproof on setup and remote access as the HP, but the prices are sensational, as low as $375 for a diskless box, then shop for the best deal on hard drives. Add four 2-TB drives at $100 apiece and with the magic of Synology’s RAID 5 controller, your 8GB of drive space effectively gives you 6 TB of redundant storage that survives the loss of a hard disk (which happens sooner or later). With HP’s technology, you get redundancy by using a second drive.
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