Netherlands
My current MP 1.0.1 installation is working absolutely fine (many kudos for the development team), so I need a new project.
I'm using an old Dell GX270 as a Media and TV server. The Media server side is a bit basic. It is just has four 500GB external USB drives connected that it shares over the 1GB network. As said, it works perfectly, but it is a bit basic. Only the most critical stuff (i.e. home video and pictures) is backed up from one disk to another.
So I was thinking about upgrading this setup and would like your educated opinions.
I would like to get a chunk of a tower case with a half way decent MB and plenty of space for HDDs. I would want to run XP Pro SP3 on it (because I have a licence available, and it does the job). I want to add a number of HDDs:
I'm thinking of s/w RAID5, which can be set up under XP with a simple hack that can be found on the internet. Or should I go for a h/w RAID controller?
The advantage I want to get of the RAID array is redundancy and seeing the collected discs as one volume. I understand that the redundancy is such that if one of the four discs fails I can fully recover. Right? The advantage of the single volume is that I don't need to decide which collection of media goes on which disc and therefore can use the disc space more efficiently.
One thing I find anoying is that to set up the RAID array the discs must be empty. So I can't use the discs I have, because I don't know what to do with the data meanwhile (about 1.5 of the 2TB is actually used). Of course it is a good excuse to go to 1TB drives but it is costly. Any suggestions?
If it all works well I would also move the tuners and TV server to this setup so I need only one PC running all days.
Any other suggestions?
VdR
I'm using an old Dell GX270 as a Media and TV server. The Media server side is a bit basic. It is just has four 500GB external USB drives connected that it shares over the 1GB network. As said, it works perfectly, but it is a bit basic. Only the most critical stuff (i.e. home video and pictures) is backed up from one disk to another.
So I was thinking about upgrading this setup and would like your educated opinions.
I would like to get a chunk of a tower case with a half way decent MB and plenty of space for HDDs. I would want to run XP Pro SP3 on it (because I have a licence available, and it does the job). I want to add a number of HDDs:
disk 0: three partitions, two for dual boot (XP Pro, XP Pro) so I can experiment with upgrades and then just switch, one for data.
disk 1: mirror of disk 0 for redundancy
disks 2, 3, 4 and 5: 4x 1TB in a RAID5 setup (this gives me 3TB effective storage right?)
disk 1: mirror of disk 0 for redundancy
disks 2, 3, 4 and 5: 4x 1TB in a RAID5 setup (this gives me 3TB effective storage right?)
I'm thinking of s/w RAID5, which can be set up under XP with a simple hack that can be found on the internet. Or should I go for a h/w RAID controller?
The advantage I want to get of the RAID array is redundancy and seeing the collected discs as one volume. I understand that the redundancy is such that if one of the four discs fails I can fully recover. Right? The advantage of the single volume is that I don't need to decide which collection of media goes on which disc and therefore can use the disc space more efficiently.
One thing I find anoying is that to set up the RAID array the discs must be empty. So I can't use the discs I have, because I don't know what to do with the data meanwhile (about 1.5 of the 2TB is actually used). Of course it is a good excuse to go to 1TB drives but it is costly. Any suggestions?
If it all works well I would also move the tuners and TV server to this setup so I need only one PC running all days.
Any other suggestions?
VdR
