Where do you hide your backup drives/NAS?

D

dylanharbour

Member
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
29
Reaction score
0
Hey Ladies and Gents.

I'm wondering where the best place would be to hide my NAS?

The obvious worry in SA is that our hardware will be stolen. I plan to have an off-site backup strategy, but this will be at least 1 week old and could still result in some data loss if my computers were to be stolen.

I plan to hide my NAS so that if someone were to steal my computers, they would not find the NAS with all of the backups.

My roof is too hot, so I'm gonna rule that out (unless someone can convince me otherwise?) and every other place that I can think of would be too obvious for a thief to find.

What are your suggestions? I'm planning on running a gigabit ethernet line, so I'd prefer to keep it on the main house building and not put it in any outbuildings.
 
Our one customer raw bolted the Nas into a wall bracket. One power failure and we were drilling it back out as it died lol. But it was good practice for non-It folk.
 
Murlin said:
Our one customer raw bolted the Nas into a wall bracket. One power failure and we were drilling it back out as it died lol. But it was good practice for non-It folk.
Click to expand...
Raw bolt a cabinet to the wall that can be unlocked, have the cable go in there :P But I like reading your story :)

I personally plan to have my file server cabinet in the garage, which at my house is a separate building, so going to run the network cables through pipes underground.
 
*Rawl bolt

Tinuva's idea is best imo. It'll be easiest to camouflage in the garage....by a long shot.

Else any kind of messy storeroom in the house is 2nd best.
 
Use a cabinet with a dust filter. Just remember to change the filter when it's clogged.
 
Ive seen people put them in thick metal braces that are bolted and welded to the floor.
 
ghoti said:
Ive seen people put them in thick metal braces that are bolted and welded to the floor.
Click to expand...
That would work too. Concealing it would be a cleaner solution though. With bolts etc its just an invitation to break out the crowbar & that won't end well for the NAS.
 
Interestingly enough in Somerset West I noticed many companies whom have their mass storage units within a cash box bolted into the wall inside their vault as per extra security (probable employee tampering)... Seems to be one IT company in the area advising on this solution.
 
HavocXphere said:
That would work too. Concealing it would be a cleaner solution though. With bolts etc its just an invitation to break out the crowbar & that won't end well for the NAS.
Click to expand...

I remember going to get tires at HiQ in Bruma one morning. The shop was in a frenzy, they had been cleaned out the night before. In the waiting room there used to be a flat screen TV with a sign saying something like "Warning: This TV is fitted with an Anti-Theft lock and cannot be stolen". The "anti theft lock" was still in place, but the TV was gone. I agree with HavocXphere, any anti theft bolts / cages will make it look more inviting.

If my garage wasn't separate from my house, I'd buy an old broken geyser from a scrap yard, fit it in between the trusses and cut a hole with dust filter in the top. But alas, I'm too lazy to dig up my garden and make that happen, I'd rather keep it in the house.
 
We need some clever industrial / furniture designer to come up with something that can hide a NAS in plain sight, maybe a false wall or a piece of bulky, non moveable furniture. Something non-descript or pretty enought that my wife would allow me to put up in the house while still being safe.

I guess, something along these lines (but much bigger!) would be great
http://www.security-store.co.za/buy/mascot-double-socket-plug-safe-789818
 
Yeah. Wherever you want to hide it, three things need to be kept in mind :

1. Accessibility (to replace broken/defective parts).
2. Cooling
3. Dust

If (2) wasn't a problem, a cavity in the floor, and covered with a suitable trapdoor would work well. Problem then is getting power and network to the device.
 
I've got mine bolted under a desk. You can't see it, the only way you would know it's there is due to the sound.
 
All my important stuff is stored on a separate external hard drive away from the NAS.
 
One place i like is if you remove, the bottom drawer of a kitchen cabinet, and lift the board at the bottom, and put in in that box at the bottom between concrete and bottom of cupboard.
 
gfmalan said:
One place i like is if you remove, the bottom drawer of a kitchen cabinet, and lift the board at the bottom, and put in in that box at the bottom between concrete and bottom of cupboard.
Click to expand...

I like that way of thinking. As long as there are no water sources nearby it could work pretty well. Power and Network cables may be an issue but it could definitely work.

If I ever re-do my kitchen in future, I'm going to take this into consideration. Lay down some conduit and power sources and have a little data stash secret cupboard. I'll go poking around the kitchen tonight and see if anything looks useable.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X