Ideas for backing up my QNAP 509 Pro data

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

Hi

I got a QNAP 509 Pro with a single 1tb Western Digital Black Caviar sata hard drive ( unfortunately this isn't the raid edition ). I need some ideas how i can back this up.

I know ideally i would get another QNAP 509 Pro, with the same amount of space then make that as the backup server, but unfortunately i am not that rich >-<;

Anyway i have a spare single external hard drive case with a 1tb hard drive in it. It has an esata and usb port for data transfer.

I've tried the usb 1 button push to backup and it's pretty nice, but i was wondering if there was a better solution. I want to keep backup of my data but not have it occupy the same amount of space. Are disk image backup realiable and is the backup size compressed smaller ?

The reason i ask is because i want to eventually migrate to 5tb total of raid certified drivers onto my Nas. The backup space i would then have would be 1tb external hard drive. Is it possible to keep compressed backups with that much space ?

By the way the 5 x 1tb drives would be in raid 6 mode, which should mean the only useable space would be roughly 60% of the total space ?

 

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

Need suggestions for my Nas configuration.

1. Pc ( no media stored here except new downloads i have yet to store into my Qnap 509 Pro, applications and games )

2. Qnap 509 Pro Nas ( this stores all my media, including pc backups ). The config in mind i had was 5 x 1tb drives in raid5 .... The drives i use are raid certified by the way.

3. A new Nas to be backup from my 509 Pro Nas automatically on a weekly basis or when i manually prompt it. How many bays should this be? And how many drives at what capacity and should i bother using raid or not? and if so what raid mode?

Objective: A FULL 1:1 ratio backup of my Qnap 509 Pro in the mentioned settings. I need to do this without going over my budget if possible.