The new 500GB replacement hard drive for the server arrived while I was in hospital, but I haven't had time to fit it yet. I also finally got around to sending the DOA RAM back that I originally got for the backup server this week. eBuyer have confirmed it was DOA and have issued a replacement which should arrive either today or if not, next week (due to the Easter bank holiday weekend). I hope it comes today, since then I can have the other 2GB of RAM back out of the server for my desktop PC, which I originally bought it for!

The upside to having the new 500GB replacement hard drive is that when its been fitted, it will reduce the overall power usage of the server. The USB drives are very power inefficient because of their external power supplies, so they waste a fair amount of power (about 5 watts). It doesn't sound like a lot but when you're running that load 24 hours a day, it does add up. 5 watts actually costs 2p a day to run, when you add that onto a quarterly bill, thats £1.49 of electricity wasted. In a time like now, with the economic crisis, every saving you can make, whether pennies or not, helps a lot.

I'll let you all know when the replacement RAM arrives, as I'll fit both the new hard drive and the RAM at the same time to avoid downtime on the server.

That's great, but i have an 750 GB external HDD and 450 GB are already in use

Wow, seriously...externals cost that much to run? I had two externals running for about a year and a half, then they both died. These days I just buy externals, rip them apart and throw them in my rig. Better transfer times, but less backup sources.

Well, the replacement memory came in the post today, which I didn't expect. That means I can now get on with fitting the new RAM and the new hard drive. I hope this memory isn't DOA, that would seriously take the biscuit! Its only cheap memory with it being my home server, I don't need performance, just a working system. I was going to replace the DOA RAM with better memory when I first discovered it was bad but by the time I came to sending it back, the 30 day money back period had expired, so I could then only get a replacement for the same product. That annoyed me, but I suppose its fair.

I'll update you when the changes are complete.