Comments

Former user wrote on 6/3/2010, 4:33 PM
I'm always harping on about Drobo, but I'll do it again. I have a basic 4-bay Drobo. It's like a self-managed RAID array. It's housing all my footage and I have to say, it's exactly what I need (4 1TB drives = 2TB of self-managed storage...if any one drive goes, all the data is still stored on the other 3, but it no longer is a backup. If you pop in a new drive, it will manage itself and, voila, back to live redundant storage).

~A
farss wrote on 6/3/2010, 5:00 PM
I use a Thecus 5200 for "nearline" storage. I'll possibly upgrade that at some stage. Based on multiple user reports of loosing everything on a Drobo I'd avoid them.
Everything else is on offline SATA drives, sitting in a cupboard, typically 1TB Samsungs.

Everything is cataloged using WhereIsIt? and again thanks to John Cline for putting me onto that program.

Bob.
Xander wrote on 6/3/2010, 6:55 PM
I too use the Thecus N5200 in RAID5 mode. Just upgraded the 1TB disks to 2TB disks - did it one at a time - took about four days but didn't lose any data. I then backup the N5200 (really important stuff) to removable drives which I keep off-site.

Should always have at least two copies of something and they should be geographically separated.
Laurence wrote on 6/3/2010, 7:25 PM
On the other extreme, the ultra-cheap solution that I use is one of http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&rlz=1B3GGLL_enUS362US362&q=blacx+duet&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=12356700050516533378&ei=P2MITLXEGsKC8gaCppC5AQ&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=image&resnum=3&ved=0CDIQ8gIwAg#these.[/link] You just stick one or two SATA drives end-wise. Over eSata I can only use one (because to run two drives via eSATA requires a "multiplier card" which I don't have) but over USB2 I can use two at a time.

farss wrote on 6/3/2010, 7:33 PM
" Just upgraded the 1TB disks to 2TB disks "

Just be careful. I know you've got it all backed up elsewhere but this is worth repeating.
With RAID 5 if one drive fails and you replace it and then there's an Unrecoverable Read Error during RAID rebuild you really have a problem. The risk of you hitting a URE increases with disk size i.e. with 2TB disks you've doubled the risk compared to using 1TB disks.

Bob.