External storage High Capacity

[zoobernut]

I have seen people mention Drobo several times in the forums in various places, how well do they work? Do you like Drobo? Does it work well with XP and Windows 7?

What other alternatives or ideas do people do for high amounts of external storage solutions? I need a server to store digital pictures on.

Thanks.

[Takedown3]

how much storage are you talking about? i dig my WD mybook collection, no issues other then having to reboot once in a while when the connection seems to get wonky.

never had any data loss but not sure how it would work in a server environment

i know you can get up to 1.5 TB and with a quick search on newegg im pretty sure you can find something 2TB+

[zoobernut]

Initially I plan on starting with 1 or 1.5 TB but I would like to expand to the 10-15 TB range eventually.

[guartz]

Initially I plan on starting with 1 or 1.5 TB but I would like to expand to the 10-15 TB range eventually.

Just get stackable HDD enclosures. Probably the least expensive way to go. This way you can just expand 1 HDD at a time.

You can try NAS enclosures, but only if you want it networked. If you are looking to go 15TB range, definitely start building a server box now.


HDD enclosures very in price, typically, a 2tb stackable enclosure will run you 40 bucks. (+200 for the actual harddrive), price increases if you want mirroring or any other raid functions, or what type of connection. USB being the cheapest.

[guartz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-rK--3gSuM

lol, tigerdirect is crazy with these videos

[zoobernut]

I would really like some sort of setup where I could have four 2 TB HD's in an enclosure where 2 of them were redundant backups of the first two and when I hooked the whole thing up to my computer it saw it as one 4 TB HD. Something along those lines.

Does that make sense?

[bungiefan]

Build a server with a RAID controller and set the drives up to be mirrored RAID to they'll automatically be copies of each other, that or find an external RAID enclosure. Otherwise, you can set Windows up to maintain a software RAID, but then you really want a computer just dedicated to being a file server. You can also set Linux up as such if so incluned and you learn to do so.

[zoobernut]

so what is the easiest way to approach building a server and setting up a RAID controller? Are there any good external RAID enclosures?

Are there any good guides anywhere on how to set up a server like that?

[guartz]

so what is the easiest way to approach building a server and setting up a RAID controller? Are there any good external RAID enclosures?

Are there any good guides anywhere on how to set up a server like that?

whats your budget? I'll tell you what you can get.

[guartz]

better yet, goto newegg.com type in NAS in the search field.

[fussel]

http://www.buffalo-technology.com/pr...e/linkstation/

The LinkStation Quad can do what you described above, but it ain't cheap.

[Kryssan]

I have a Quad, it works nice enough. The Linux on it can even run as a media server for streaming and torrenting, but I haven't used those features on it so I don't know how well they work in particular. The raid controller at least is well laid out and its at least as decent as any of the lower grade Areca/3Ware web interfaces.

[Blabj]

Drobos are really cool little devices. I don't have one personally but I have used one before and they're great. If you want complete ease of use, ability to expand the RAID at a later date and have multiple different connections, Drobo is a great device if you can stretch to it.

Otherwise, building your own server with RAID in it is a good idea, using something like FreeNAS. Only problem with this is the initial cost, if you don't already have components lying around. To build something completely from new, you might as well get the Drobo, and save yourself the headaches. If you have an old computer lying around and don't mind an afternoon of messing around with various aspects of the build then go for that!