Calling Computer Nerds...

Lowell_M

For those who are bigger computer nerds that I am... Here's my situation..

I built a PC that I use for itunes in my HT and internet, etc. but also have started using it for video editing, so I will beging to have big chunks of space taken up by video files.

Currently I have a 1Tb SATA drive in the computer and back up to a 320Mb Extermal that I had sitting around. I fully expect to run out of space on the 1Tb drive eventually and need to add another... So, I'm looking at options of what to do to make darn sure I have things backed up. Options I would like opinions on: (or do you receommend something else for that matter)

1: Get a 1Tb external... then when I need to expand get a 1Tb internal as well as another 1Tb external

2: Go with some kind of RAID array. I've been researching RAID but don't really know the ins and outs. Looks like RAID 5 with 3 1Tb drives in the array... So I'd will have 2Tb of storage that can re rebuilt should one drive die. Or just go RAid 1? Another RAID strategy?

3. Something I haven't thought of?

Thanks! Aaron

Sherardp

I would run one 320gb internal drive or smaller or OS and programs. From there I would run dual internal 1tb drives. And of course 1tb drive for back, you can actually buy larger but it will cost you. I would even back up the backup drive as well, but that's just me.

Sami

Lowell_M wrote: »

3. Something I haven't thought of?

A fileserver with RAID config, most likely RAID5. Then schedule automatic snapsnots (with hardlinks), not just 1:1 backups. Make the snapshots read-only.

Might be overkill but also store once in a while the latest snapshot into a hard drive that you store in a safe place. You said you wanted to make sure you don't lose your data...

heiney9

Hey A1,

Blake and I have been talking about this same issue for my music server. For Raid 5 you need a minimum of 3 drives. I've been looking and good NAS systems that do Raid 5 are a bit pricey. The one I'm looking at is by QNap and the nice thing is it supports the Logitech Squeezebox music server alone. But I'm looking at $449 plus the drives. Even other brands start at about $349-399 plus the cost of the drives.

Raid 1 IIRC, is just simply a mirror drive and if one drive dies you're done, there is no parity.

Sami

heiney9 wrote: »

Raid 1 IIRC, is just simply a mirror drive and if one drive dies you're done, there is no parity.

The mirror is still there so you just replace the dead disc and you're good to go. RAID 0 failure would screw you but RAID 1 is good as long as you replace the dead disc before the other dies as well.

heiney9

Well, there you go..............I'm no computer nerd. My brother is the computer nerd (used affectionately). He has led me to believe a mirror drive isn't a good choice for my situation..............perhaps I don;t understand it as completely as I thought I did.

H9

Lowell_M

I was thinking RAID 5 partly because I know I will need more storage in the future, so I might as well add 2 drives instead of 1. My MoBo will support RAID control, but I've wondered how that will effect performance since the processor will take care of the RAID and not a separate file server. I don't want to go too crazy here... If nothing else I will just add hard drives to the PC when I need more space and just buy externals to support the backup... BUT... Seemed like RAID would be a lazy way to go should I have a hard drive fail. If I put in 3x 1TB drives with RAID 5 I'd have 2TB of usable space and if a drive fails I just swap it out and all is good... right?? I was wondering what the risk of data loss is with RAID and what kind of performance I might lose.

Lowell_M

Of course... I just built this computer 6 months ago and would have to rebuild it... or copy the hard drive image to another drive and recopy back to the RAID array to get back up and running again.