[akatora]

Hello!

I have a Modwright transport (www.modwright.com) and I want to use it as a source and want to buy either a NAS, with 4-5 2GB HDD to store all of my FLAC files, or build a standard server with a bunch of disks.

-What drives are preferred for quality / reliability?

- Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARS 2TB 64MB is very cheap in Sweden. I read that this disk does not support TLER, which makes it impossible to drive in the RAID context, is it true? What other options are there?

-Is there any noticeable disadvantage of running HDD over 1TB HDD? The question regarding speed, 5400rpm vs 7200rpm, when it comes to my goal, will it works well with 5400rpm HDD?

- I am very keen to retain all the FLAC files, then I sold all my original CD, so how the data backing you up? Good enough to run with RAID5 or is it better to burn the music on Blue-ray discs?

All tips are welcome!

[skunark]

All hard disk drive brands, speed and capacities can be used in raid environments, but generally you would want the same brand and should favor the enterprise models as they carry longer warranties and generally for not much more in cost.   For storing music, it's fine to go for the slower drives, and will save power as well.   If you had a true hardware raid card costing $500 or more, then you might be concerned about the drive features. For software raid which is a safe bet on what you have or would get even in those dedicated raid enclosures, it's not going to matter.     

Personally I wouldn't consider a RAID with all the cheap solutions for online backups.   Just one or more large drives for the tunes, online backups, and then you can go the extra mile and still do local backups.    You can do all of that cheaper than a basic raid5 setup and I would argue much more sound backup solution.   The only next step is to backup the original cd.   

Keep in mind that a raid solution isn't a backup, just a way to increase reliability and minimize down time.  Its a great solution for extremely large libraries but as drive capacities increase they just become expensive.   

Also I think an online backup solution is cheaper and easier. 

[mitch stl]

Keep in mind that a raid solution isn't a backup, just a way to increase reliability and minimize down time.

I agree. The primary usefulness of a RAID is in systems that need to be up and running 24/7 in support of operations that cannot afford down time. Most home systems don't have that level of urgent need.

In fact, there are any number of situations where a RAID is useless - a theft where the whole box is stolen, fire or water damage, a power surge and so on. Any of these scenarios will almost certainly affect both drives in a RAID.

You're far better off having one or two backups that are kept separate from the main PC and powered off when not in use. I keep two backups of my music and one is at a physically separate location.

The main problem with the online backup services is the transfer speeds over the internet are relatively very slow which makes backup and recovery a very time consuming affair. For some it might even run past data transfer limits and incur extra charges.

[skunark]

The main problem with the online backup services is the transfer speeds over the internet are relatively very slow which makes backup and recovery a very time consuming affair. For some it might even run past data transfer limits and incur extra charges.

Most services can actually throttle the upload data rates so you don't blow your transfer limit.  I have a reasonable connection with *cough* "unlimited" data transfer limits, but I do throttle the app so it doesn't impact other activities on my network like VOD.  I throttled it so the initial backup would take several weeks.

There clearly are disadvantages for the online services, i.e. move the iTunes directory, globally change a tag, etc is rather expensive for any backup solution but is much more expensive with online solutions.   Restoration will require some patience as it's hours to recover a terabyte of data with a local backup and days to recover that much as well.   Online storage probably isn't for everyone but if you do have patience it's a very reasonable alternative.   

[whanafi]

You can buy any number of Seagate FreeAgent Go portable USB drives for the price of any other solution. 

I actually have a ReadyNAS NV+ as my primary backup, but also have jobs running nightly that mirror to internal hard disk, and two FreeAgents.  One goes in my briefcase, which is my travelling music server, and one goes as much "offsite" as I can manage without it actually being outside the house.