[DC Steve]

ok, i'm more than intrigued by computer audio. but what happens when your hard drive fails? you have to re-rip everything? if you're using a laptop, do you backup your files every so often? how do folks deal w/ this. i've heard a laptop is preferred over a desktop because of it's power supply is external (according to steve nugent).

[tanchiro58]

i've heard a laptop is preferred over a desktop because of it's power supply is external (according to steve nugent).

What if your laptop got crashed or infected by a trojan viruses?

I have a music server that my friend built for me to use with SB3+DAC. It has two hard drives one is used the other spared. I use my laptop just like a wireless remote control.

[opaqueice]

Backup your music files - hard drives are cheap!

As for external power supplies, it's possible there's something to that if you're listening to music with a soundcard analogue out.  Certainly the sound quality out of my MacBook is far better than out of my Windows desktop.  But with either a Squeezebox (which is what I use in my main system) or something like a Benchmark DAC, there is no way what is going on in the PC will have any effect.  With the SB you could put the server in the basement or a closet, so long as it's networked.

[Greg Erskine]

hi DC Steve,

I use a USB hard drive as backup. Every so often, I just syncronise between my internal drive and external drive. Very easy. Ideally the USB backup drive should be stored off site.

BTW: Thanks for reminding me to do a backup. There are probably a half dozen CDs that I haven't yet backed up.

regards

[JoshK]

I have a RAID 5 system, which adds some security should one of my HD's fail in the array (4 discs), but I just bought an external HD for backup as well.  A 500gb external WD was $120. 

[DC Steve]

OK, sounds easy enough.

I'm thinking of getting an Infrant server. I know, expensive, but not nearly as expensive as the esoteric transport i was goin to buy. how much space do i need, and what RAID setup should i use? also, how do i install slimserver on this box... do i do this through my laptop? or do i not need any software on the server, and only on my laptop?  the setup i'm imaging goes like this:

laptop --> wirelessly connected to --> infrant server --> USB out to Offramp --> into a wadia dac

does that sound right?

[andy_c]

I'm thinking of getting an Infrant server. I know, expensive, but not nearly as expensive as the esoteric transport i was goin to buy. how much space do i need, and what RAID setup should i use?

For computing the needed space, 500 MB per CD is a safe figure to use.  So 500 MB * total_CD_count = space required if WAV is used.  If you use lossless compression such as FLAC, a safe bet is to multiply this number by 0.65.  As far as RAID is concerned, the Infrant uses RAID 5.  In general, with RAID 5, the capacity of an array of N discs of identical size S is:

capacity = (N-1)*S

So if you needed 1200 GB of space, one way of doing this would be 4 400 GB discs in the array (that's (4-1)*400).  Basically, one disc's worth of parity data is used up by the array itself, spread among the N discs.  This allows recovery if one (and only one) disc fails.  The minimum value of N for RAID 5 is 3.

also, how do i install slimserver on this box... do i do this through my laptop? or do i not need any software on the server, and only on my laptop?  the setup i'm imaging goes like this:

laptop --> wirelessly connected to --> infrant server --> USB out to Offramp --> into a wadia dac

I'm confused a bit here.  If SlimServer is used, that implies you're using a Squeezebox (unless you're planning on using the somewhat flakey SoftSqueeze software Squeezebox emulator).  If you're talking USB audio, SlimServer isn't necessary.  If you're thinking of using a Squeezebox, consider not putting SlimServer on the Infrant NAS.  The reason is that scanning your library (building up a database of albums, artists, songs, etc.) is reported to take hours when SlimServer is installed on the NAS.  If it's installed in a server computer, it should take about 10 minutes.  That's how long mine takes on a server with an Athlon 3000+ processor.

[Levi]

When your HDD dies, it is not the end of the world. 

If money not an object, you can send it to a facility that can recovery your data.  I know a couple that will do it.

Here is a good example: We used a HDD facility lately to recover a laptop HDD.  The HDD has a broken spindle, you can see it as a drive letter but was unable to spin the plate.  It costed $2500 and a week turn-around time.

It is not the end of the road and for some, you just might get lucky and have all your data in a week. 

Levi

ok, i'm more than intrigued by computer audio. but what happens when your hard drive fails? you have to re-rip everything? if you're using a laptop, do you backup your files every so often? how do folks deal w/ this. i've heard a laptop is preferred over a desktop because of it's power supply is external (according to steve nugent).

[mcullinan]

Always back up your important information on another drive... ALWAYS.. did I say always.
Mike

[DC Steve]

sounds like i wont be using slimserver then. i'm using empirical audio's offramp. which i guess means i'll use foobar. i think that's what steve recommends.

i actually think the infrants come w/ RAID 0,1,5 or what they call X-RAID, which lets you start off with one or two drives, then lets you add more drives as you want, adding backup capabilities (if you're starting w/ 1 drive) or more space if you already have 2 drives. sounds like a good setup.

[nathanm]

1. Swear
2. Cry
3. Learn
4. Buy

You can probably skip 1 and 2 if we're only talking about digital music.  You've still got the discs I assume. 

Wow, I can almost hear the guys laughing all the way to the bank at the disc saver places.  Desperate, distraught people who are completely at their mercy.  If $2500 doesn't put the fear into ya about getting that backup drive I dunno what would.