Couple of things.Brah wrote:So, going forward, a redundancy / backup plan based on what I have and what I need to get.
I have:
. 1 500gb disc drive, >6 years old, no issues, has legacy data I rarely access
. 1 2tb 2-disc RAID 1 NAS >5 years old, no issues, has multimedia data I rarely access
. 1 2tb 2-disc RAID 1 external drive >4 years old, at lease one disc has errors, I (used to) access this daily or weekly, but not since it stopped working and I haven't fixed it or got the data off it yet, if I even can
. 1 2tb 1-disc external drive, 3-4 years old
All of these are separate units. All are over half utilized with different data.
In hindsight, I don't think I really need anything RAIDed, just backup.
I thought to get a multi-bay chassis to house 4 or 5 discs and RAID 5 that, but given all of what I already have, and being on a limited budget, need to make the most of what I have.
I am open to suggestions.
If you don't want any centralized / raid based solution just buy external drives to pair with each of your storage unit and make additional copies. Somehow less safer but more practical solution would be to buy 1x4TB external drive and use it to back up all your existing drives. For very crucial data I would back up it also to optical disks, preferably BDs.Brah wrote:So, going forward, a redundancy / backup plan based on what I have and what I need to get.
I have:
. 1 500gb disc drive, >6 years old, no issues, has legacy data I rarely access
. 1 2tb 2-disc RAID 1 NAS >5 years old, no issues, has multimedia data I rarely access
. 1 2tb 2-disc RAID 1 external drive >4 years old, at lease one disc has errors, I (used to) access this daily or weekly, but not since it stopped working and I haven't fixed it or got the data off it yet, if I even can
. 1 2tb 1-disc external drive, 3-4 years old
All of these are separate units. All are over half utilized with different data.
In hindsight, I don't think I really need anything RAIDed, just backup.
I thought to get a multi-bay chassis to house 4 or 5 discs and RAID 5 that, but given all of what I already have, and being on a limited budget, need to make the most of what I have.
I am open to suggestions.
Thanks for that Steve. Well, I am on a bit of a budget but I clearly have to do something, and fast. You're too kind to say my strategy is weak - at this point it's non-existent....Steve1960 wrote:Couple of things.
I back up to four places for important files. Maybe overkill but I don't want to lose photographs, video and my movie collection. Not sure about a 5 bay array of drives as they are all still in the same physical location. It feels like your backup strategy is a little weak. I have:
1 & 2) WD multi bay with two 4TB hard drives Raid 1
3) 2TB USB hard drive hanging off a router on the network
4) Something you might consider for very important data a 1TB drive stored in a small fireproof safe we also use for jewelry and stuff
Secondly your drives are all getting old now. I appreciate you said this is on a budget but it's risky.
I wish this had come up a few weeks ago, I sent my daughter back to the UK with a couple of new 500GB USB hard drives I had no use for and I doubt she will use anyway
Ok, I do have to consider an array like 4x1tb. Do you have any suggestions? Buffalo, Synology, other? Is 5x1 better than 4x1? What would you do, if money was not a huge factor and still being somewhat practical?x9200 wrote: If you don't want any centralized / raid based solution just buy external drives to pair with each of your storage unit and make additional copies. Somehow less safer but more practical solution would be to buy 1x4TB external drive and use it to back up all your existing drives. For very crucial data I would back up it also to optical disks, preferably BDs.
I have no personal experience with multi-bay commercial NAS/ES (I run my own, custom built) but I believe most of the products coming from well established companies should be fine. I would just pick a model and search Internet on what people have to say about it.Brah wrote:Ok, I do have to consider an array like 4x1tb. Do you have any suggestions? Buffalo, Synology, other? Is 5x1 better than 4x1? What would you do, if money was not a huge factor and still being somewhat practical?x9200 wrote: If you don't want any centralized / raid based solution just buy external drives to pair with each of your storage unit and make additional copies. Somehow less safer but more practical solution would be to buy 1x4TB external drive and use it to back up all your existing drives. For very crucial data I would back up it also to optical disks, preferably BDs.
Plus when you get drives for such an enclosure, or really anything, do you look for specific models within brands, such as WD Red vs. Blue, etc.?
There was a time I considered a Drobo since I have such a mix of drives (not to mention handfuls of 2.5 unmounted drives that either went bad but still are quasi usable or were replaced in laptops), but I seem to remember after reading reviews I declined out on that.
Re the OD, that is interesting to hear as I didn't think anyone did that - do you? Is this still a viable option? Do they last long (probably longer than hard drives..). I haven't thought about ODs for a long time forgot all about them.
Long ago I considered ripping my rather large music collection lossless and to put it on ODs. But that is a very separate conversation.
Sorry, lots of questions.
I chose the raid array from a limited list as I wanted an Apple compatible Thunderbolt connection. WD seemed to get good reviews particularly the fact that the drives were very quiet in operation. I am happy with 2 x 4TB as it gives me ample space even in raid 1 configuration and as I say I prefer to have separate additional back ups which are not in the same physical location.Brah wrote: Thanks for that Steve. Well, I am on a bit of a budget but I clearly have to do something, and fast. You're too kind to say my strategy is weak - at this point it's non-existent....
Question - how confident are you with that 2xRAID 1 setup? That's basically part of what I have and I don't even know if I can recover the bad drive (but have been too lazy to try yet).
Ok, I do have to consider an array like 4x1tb. Do you have any suggestions? Buffalo, Synology, other? Is 5x1 better than 4x1? What would you do, if money was not a huge factor and still being somewhat practical?
Plus when you get drives for such an enclosure, or really anything, do you look for specific models within brands, such as WD Red vs. Blue, etc.?
There was a time I considered a Drobo since I have such a mix of drives (not to mention handfuls of 2.5 unmounted drives that either went bad but still are quasi usable or were replaced in laptops), but I seem to remember after reading reviews I declined out on that.
Re the OD, that is interesting to hear as I didn't think anyone did that - do you? Is this still a viable option? Do they last long (probably longer than hard drives..). I haven't thought about ODs for a long time forgot all about them.
Long ago I considered ripping my rather large music collection lossless and to put it on ODs. But that is a very separate conversation.
Sorry, lots of questions.
Saw this on RSS news this morning:x9200 wrote:As of the logical structure I would definitely go for 4x2 / 5x2 or even ..x3 architecture with Raid5. 1TB drives are being phased out and are only slightly cheaper comparing to 2TB drives. 2TB WD green/red is ca S$125; 3TD WD green is ~S$140. A 4 bay enclosure (WD, Synology, Thecus) could be bought for S$600-800. You could start with a 4 bay NAS enclosure with 2x3TB or 3x2TB drives and later expand it.
OD. I have some Verbatim CDs from, I believe, 1993 still readable without any problems. What I don't like in any hard drive based solution is that is enough to drop this solution on the floor and you are in trouble. Optical discs are not that resistant neither but offer an alternative that may have a a better chance to survive (depending on the damaging factors).
Besides, there are also some special discs designed to last. They are called M-disc (http://www.mdisc.com/) and can be bought from Amazon. More expensive but still cheap enough.
Steve1960 wrote:I chose the raid array from a limited list as I wanted an Apple compatible Thunderbolt connection. WD seemed to get good reviews particularly the fact that the drives were very quiet in operation. I am happy with 2 x 4TB as it gives me ample space even in raid 1 configuration and as I say I prefer to have separate additional back ups which are not in the same physical location.
As for recovering the bad drive, do you want to? I would be inclined to junk it and replace you still have the mirror image on the other drive.
That's if I can get the data off - all I care about is getting the data off either of the 2 drives and then trashing one or both of them.
Then there is the question of what use the WD enclosure is after that - if they can not accommodate new drives as the chassis become obsolete every few years, there has got to be a better solution.
I am not sure this is the case but seem to remember a discussion with WD Support that you can't use new drives in the old enclosure because of configuration issues.
And so my question from this morning to you remains - do you trust a 2-disc / RAID 1 setup, and if not and are simply relying on your backup devices, what is the value of RAIDing?
[/quote]Brah wrote:
That's if I can get the data off - all I care about is getting the data off either of the 2 drives and then trashing one or both of them.
Then there is the question of what use the WD enclosure is after that - if they can not accommodate new drives as the chassis become obsolete every few years, there has got to be a better solution.
I am not sure this is the case but seem to remember a discussion with WD Support that you can't use new drives in the old enclosure because of configuration issues.
And so my question from this morning to you remains - do you trust a 2-disc / RAID 1 setup, and if not and are simply relying on your backup devices, what is the value of RAIDing?
I would not wait for the 4TB hdd price to drop significantly. This is going probably to take 1-2 years. Besides, do you really need such capacities?Brah wrote:Seagate has started shipping the first-ever 8TB desktop hard disk, doubling the 4TB capacities that seemed huge just a couple of years ago.
http://www.engadget.com/2014/08/26/seag ... ard-drive/
That should push the 4tb prices down.
So I may go with 2tbs instead of 1tb drives, but maybe consider 4tb depending on their price. I used to be against larger drives than the average since there is more at risk, though if RAIDed it is supposed to protect you from that, I guess only certainly if it is RAID 5, I lost confidence in RAID 1, or at least, any RAID setup with only 2 drives. Or do I have that wrong?
I'm going to look into the M-disc.
I think this weekend just for fun (if you can call it that!) I will remove the primary drive from my array and see how easy it is to access the mirror drive. It may not help you specifically as I run Apple hardware and software but it could be a useful exercise anyway.Brah wrote:Thanks Steve and x9200.
@Steve - since I have had an issue with a 2x RAID 1 maybe you can learn from my experience, as soon as there is something to learn. I thought I could simply get data off the other drive if one failed. That may prove to be the case, but when I read up on this a while back I saw that many people had problems with this and there are no guarantees with this kind of setup.
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