cost of storage and the like? (1 Viewer)

[Atomic7431]

Im in a dilema which is not unusual for me lol.

I currently have all my movies in mkv containers, both blu ray and dvd, taking up around 5 TB in space. My issue is if one of my hdd were to die as we say, i would have to re rip a lot of discs.
Now if i setup another pc as a server somewhere in the house and set it to mirror my drives so i have an active backup of all existing data, the cost is quite a lot.
What i want to know is what others thoughts are on an active backup solution and the costs involved vs just re ripping if a drive were to die (and the time factor involved).
At present i have a machine in the living room serving as the client and server in one (specs are up to date in list) just wondering whats the best option, hell im not closed off to the idea of going back to a blu ray player because of costs involved in keeping and maintaining a setup, but going back to discs again im just not sure.
So what peoples ideas on this and thoughts of do you actively backup a drive 1:1 etc.

I would still use mepo for my music, and in debate about tv side of it as well.

 

[erichzann]

Hi,

I used to spend a long time thinking about this as well. In particular whether to go for a raid solution etc.

My current solution which I am very happy with is as follows:

I have a main server running drive bender so all my drives are pooled into 1 5tb (approx) drive. Drive bender is great software because the drives are still intact even if the pool collapses.

I then have an HP Proliant Micro Server as my backup (slightly older version than this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/ProLiant-N40L-2GB-U-250GB-MicroServer/dp/B005LRCASM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367660380&sr=8-1&keywords=hp micro proliant)

These are great value and normally I build my own machines but am glad I purchased this. It can hold 4 drives so in today's world of 4tb drives that would give 16tb. I run windows 8 on it but have run ubuntu in the past.

I have another copy of drive bender running on this server to pool all the backup drives and the folder structure on the backup matches that of the main server.

I then run a program called Synchredible https://www.ascomp.de/en/products/show/product/synchredible on the Backup server.

The backup server is set to wakeup at around 1.00 every night using windows task scheduler and synchredible starts on a schedule a few minutes later, backs up my main server, emails me, and then shuts down again. Synchredible lets you do all this.

I backup documents every night and then also Movies on Monday, Photos on Tuesday etc.

I like synchredible because I don't want to compress my backups and I also don't want some kind of proprietary backup file structure that means my backup is hard to get to.

The profiles I have on synchredible are to copy everything from the main server to the backup and not delete any files from the backup that may not be on the main server any more, otherwise this would defeat the point of the backup!!!

I then have 0 sync profiles set up in synchredible which I run once in a while to delete all redundant files from the backup server.

If a drive fails in either machine then I simply replace it and run the sync in the correct direction to restore the files.

I am really happy with this setup. It does mean that once in a while I need to add a drive to both servers but drives are getting cheaper. Certainly cheaper than the cost to me having to rip all my movies again.

Thanks

 

[Atomic7431]

What spec is your main server for serving up hd content etc? just curious.

 

[erichzann]

My main server is a core 2 Quad Q8400 running windows 8. Nothing too flashy but it serves up 2 clients and a couple of nexus 7s running aMPdroid.

It has a dual DVB-S TBS card, a dual Peak DVB-T card and a DVB-T2 USB tuner.

 

[porky996t]

Hi Atomic,

Just my two penn'orth - I use 1:1 mirror backups on my server. I was just a little wary of using RAID, and just wanted something simple to understand (and restore shoudl problems occur). I have movies on 1x 2Tb drive with a 2Tb mirror backup, TV Series on a 2Tb drive with a 2Tb mirror back up and Music & Photos on another 2Tb drive with a 2Tb mirror backup. I use a simple backup program that backs up the movies on Monday morning at 2:00am, then backs up the TV Series ar 2:00am on Tuesday morning, and then finally the photos and music at 2:00am Wednesday morning. The backup software runs in the background and a backup takes place each week. The disks are set to spin down when not in use.

It works flawlessly, and I do forget the backups are there.

 

[Atomic7431]

which software are you using out of interest? and its also interesting to hear everyones way of setting things out and how people are or are not using back software, so again thanks for the input.

 

[porky996t]

Hi Atomic,

The software I use is called Second Backup - IIRC, it was recommended to me by Paranoid Delusion. I think I used a trial version first and then bought it once I found out that it did what I wanted. It certainly wasn't expensive and it just 'ticks' away in the background until needed. You don't realise it is there, or is doing anything either until you chack your backup drive and there it all is, backed up!