Home · Register · Join Upload & Sell

Moderated by: Fred Miranda
Username  

  New fredmiranda.com Mobile Site
  New Feature: SMS Notification alert
  New Feature: Buy & Sell Watchlist
  

FM Forums | General Gear-talk | Join Upload & Sell

  

Archive 2014 · Advice on external storage solution

  
 
Todd A
Offline

Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Advice on external storage solution


My storage hardware knowledge-base hasn't been updated in ~5 years, so I'm basically clueless. Hoping to get some help before spending money in the wrong place.

What I need is some RAID 1 external storage for my old (2009) Mac Pro. At least 2TB, more is better. My long term backup solution has been S3/Glacier for a few years now (and I'll be sticking with that), but I've let my procedures lapse and I need to reorganize. My internal HD space is in disarray and I need to move big chunks of stuff off of these drives while I work, and with my schedule, the project could take weeks, or, realistically, months. So I have to have RAID 1, because what goes on the external will not be redundant with my main machine. Much of it's backed up in the cloud, but some is not. I'm not overly concerned with speed, because I won't be working from the external.

There are just a lot of options, and I don't know if I should be looking at buying a complete system, or buying an enclosure and drives separately. A set-up-out-of-the-box system does have some value to me, in saving time. What I'm looking at now is the NewerTech Guardian MAXimus from OWC. I can get a 3TB + 3TB setup for $418, which apparently includes the drives, cables, everything I need to just plug it in and go. That seems like a great deal to me, but like I said, I've not been thinking about or researching this stuff for a long time.

If there's a better solution, or a similar product for less money, I'd love to hear about it. Thanks!



Apr 06, 2014 at 12:41 PM
EB-1
Offline
• • • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Advice on external storage solution


RAID 1 is not a substitute for a backup. I'd look at a single external drive or array and then backup offsite or use a 2TB portable drive and take that offsite.

For large storage needs I prefer Synology NAS, but also look at QNAP and others. It's not needed if you only have a few TB of data.

EBH



Apr 06, 2014 at 01:28 PM
Todd A
Offline

Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Advice on external storage solution


To the person who sent me the PM about this: thanks! I tried to reply, but apparently I'm not allowed to until I have 25 posts.

I'm sure that won't take long.



Apr 06, 2014 at 05:27 PM
15Bit
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Advice on external storage solution


You have a couple of options:

1. Buy an off the shelf RAID-type NAS from one of many many vendors. Poke around the internet and you will find good and bad reviews for all of them. I suspect they are all as reliable as each other. Most tend to be Linux- or FreeBSD-based, usually with some proprietary extras (web interface, sync software etc) on top. It is often the case that these extras render the disk array to be "non-transferable", meaning that if your NAS hardware fails you need to purchase another from the same manufacturer to access your array. Of course, you should keep separate backups of the array anyway, so this shouldn't be a disaster....

2. Re-purpose an existing old home PC - stuff it full of hard drives and install a NAS-oriented OS like FreeNAS or NAS4free. This does require a little more user skill than just buying a box from Synology or whatever, but can be quite a bit cheaper if you have the spare hardware.

Buy either the NAS-specialised drives or the full "enterprise" models - they have better reliability and have more RAID-friendly firmware. Avoid "Green" or "Eco" drives like the plague. I prefer Western Digitals at the moment as Seagate haven't had the best reliability record in recent years.

Either route you will need to have at least one additional copy of your data somewhere in case the array fails. A NAS is only a backup if it is mirroring data that is held elsewhere...

Personally i host everything on a central NAS (home-built) and also copy it to discrete (offline) hard disks. I am using ZFS for the file system, configured in a RAID 5 type array.



Apr 07, 2014 at 01:56 AM





FM Forums | General Gear-talk | Join Upload & Sell

    
 

You are not logged in. Login or Register

Username       Or Reset password



This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.