Q: I have a computer in my studio and use a laptop as well. I’d like to have one RAID hard drive as a central backup point. Can I do this?
A: Yes, there are several ways to do this. The easiest is just to manually connect the drive to whatever computer you want to back up, and copy files to it (or use an automated backup program such as Apple’s Time Machine, which comes with OS X). When you want to back up another computer, use “sneaker net” to manually move the drive to the next machine. Though easy, this method gets old fast…
Or, if you’re on a network, hang the drive off one of the computers. Then, mount the drive on whatever computer you want to back up, and copy over the files (or use an automated backup program).
If you have a wireless network/hub that supports the proper connection for the drive (such as an Airport Extreme, which has a USB 2.0 connection), then you could connect the drive to your wireless router and back up whatever computers/data you want wirelessly.