Best way to store your music: RAID 1 configuration? Who else has done it?
Dec 19, 2007 at 10:45 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 79
mofonyx

mofonyx

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Hello,

I was just looking the other day at my harddisk and I can feel it coming down on me anytime soon.

So I browsed around, and a RAID 1 configuration would be a good idea to set up a fail-safe storage medium for all my music files.

Having a laptop, I find that a USB RAID enclosure gives me everything that I need.

Is anyone else using RAID 1 for their music storage, and is it the best way to store your music?
 
Dec 20, 2007 at 12:40 AM Post #2 of 79
music is just like any other valuable data and fail-safe is a myth. RAID can be such a pain. you are better off backing it up to an external source.

i had problem with raid 1 when i updated my bios, just ask jude about raid failures!
tongue.gif
 
Dec 20, 2007 at 1:29 AM Post #3 of 79
RAID is the gold standard in use throughout the world. If done correctly it is very easy and requires much less effort than backing up to a different external disk. As mentioned, there is no fail-safe configuration. Multiple disks fail, RAID controllers fail etc...

Buffalo makes some really good external RAID 0,1,5 products.

I highly suggest RAID 5 on one of their products for you purposes.
 
Dec 20, 2007 at 1:36 AM Post #4 of 79
Raid 1 was developed for servers needing immediate access to backups.

Head-fi just lost its raid if you remember.

You are more "secure" to have two hardrives and manually copy your files over.

If you are deadset on the convenience of RAID then don't use a cheap south bridge from your motherboard. Buy a $500 Raid card and hope and pray that in 5 years it will still be accessible by a new card when yours dies.
 
Dec 20, 2007 at 1:50 AM Post #5 of 79
I can't do motherboard or RAID controllers.

I have to use an external USB RAID enclosure.

cconnaker: Why RAID 5 and not RAID 1? It's just music files and I just need one HDD to fall back on the other.

taoster: Backing up to an external source? I'm already using an ext HDD, should I buy another one just to use for backup? How do you do it automatically for each music file. I thought RAID 1 was the idea that each file is "mirrored" automatically.
 
Dec 20, 2007 at 1:50 AM Post #6 of 79
Quote:

Originally Posted by regal /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Raid 1 was developed for servers needing immediate access to backups.

Head-fi just lost its raid if you remember.

You are more "secure" to have two hardrives and manually copy your files over.

If you are deadset on the convenience of RAID then don't use a cheap south bridge from your motherboard. Buy a $500 Raid card and hope and pray that in 5 years it will still be accessible by a new card when yours dies.


In theory manually copying data on to another hard drive is "better." In reality I bet those with RAID 1 or 5 systems lose much less data because we humans get lazy and forgetful.
 
Dec 20, 2007 at 1:53 AM Post #7 of 79
Quote:

Originally Posted by mofonyx /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I can't do motherboard or RAID controllers.

I have to use an external USB RAID enclosure.

cconnaker: Why RAID 5 and not RAID 1? It's just music files and I just need one HDD to fall back on the other.

taoster: Backing up to an external source? I'm already using an ext HDD, should I buy another one just to use for backup? How do you do it automatically for each music file. I thought RAID 1 was the idea that each file is "mirrored" automatically.


RAID 5 gives you more usable disk space than RAID 1.
 
Dec 20, 2007 at 1:53 AM Post #8 of 79
Quote:

Originally Posted by mofonyx /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I can't do motherboard or RAID controllers.

I have to use an external USB RAID enclosure.

cconnaker: Why RAID 5 and not RAID 1? It's just music files and I just need one HDD to fall back on the other.

taoster: Backing up to an external source? I'm already using an ext HDD, should I buy another one just to use for backup? How do you do it automatically for each music file. I thought RAID 1 was the idea that each file is "mirrored" automatically.



I have never heard of USB raid, if it even exists I wouldn't trust it at all.
 
Dec 20, 2007 at 1:58 AM Post #9 of 79
Quote:

Originally Posted by regal /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I have never heard of USB raid, if it even exists I wouldn't trust it at all.


All external RAID, whether USB, FW, SAN, or NAS, just puts the RAID card in the external box instead of internally on the motherboard or in a slot in the MB. Works great.
 
Dec 20, 2007 at 2:02 AM Post #10 of 79
But at the same time if you somehow manage to get malicious data onto your hard drive, it will copy over to your RAIDed drive as well

I dont see why you would want to...i would rather burn to CD if possible, and theres always your portable media player as a secondary....
 
Dec 20, 2007 at 2:10 AM Post #11 of 79
Quote:

Originally Posted by Cata1yst /img/forum/go_quote.gif
But at the same time if you somehow manage to get malicious data onto your hard drive, it will copy over to your RAIDed drive as well

I dont see why you would want to...i would rather burn to CD if possible, and theres always your portable media player as a secondary....


You're definitely right about the malicious data!

If your library if around 1TB CD is not real convenient and no portable media players will hold that much. I can't wait for the 1TB iPod!
 
Dec 20, 2007 at 3:05 AM Post #15 of 79
2 of your three disks can be used for data storage
the third "keeps track" of the other two, so in theory, if you lose any 1 disk, it can be "rebuilt" based on the data contained in the other two.
 
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