• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Large Array Help

W

wpd7

Gawd
Joined
Sep 30, 2003
Messages
891
It has come to a time where my data has grown over 1TB and cannot be stored on one drive and cloned for backup- I'm looking for a setup that will provide:

- Mac & PC support, particularly to use the drive as a backup point and iTunes volume.
- Stream DIVX files to a hacked AppleTV
- Low power usage and low noise.
- RAID5: speed is not an issue, just as long as its fast enough to support streaming above.
- 3+TB RAID or bigger.

I'm thinking of a self standing enclosure NAS, but have been having a hard time finding reviews of them to form a good decision. I am also leaning towards a Windows 2003 Server box with RAID5.

Also, any opinions on using WD's GP drives to populate either a server or a stand alone NAS? They seem to offer a great value proposition if you get in on the sales, but I've read conflicting reports on whether or not to use them in RAID configurations.

Ockie, got any good deals for me? :D
 
My recomendation, cheap box, toss in 3 1tb hard drives on raid 5... done. If you want something that is small, look at a shuttle barebones or something, you should be able to fit all those drives plus an extra in there. That would make it small and very protable.

I would stay away from the GP drives for raid implimentations. They do make raid edition versions, which are great, but more expensive. Seagates can be found for $179 each right now.
 
Stay far away from WHS it is a nightmare, and will corrupt your data.

For some NAS reviews check smallnetbuilder.com


Get a Synology NAS they are awesome, and do everything that you could ever want a NAS to do
 
Ockie said:
I would stay away from the GP drives for raid implimentations. They do make raid edition versions, which are great, but more expensive. Seagates can be found for $179 each right now.
Click to expand...

Why should he stay away from WD GP drives? You can enable TLER on them (which you can't do with any Seagate drives that I've heard of), making them a sort of poor man's RAID edition drives, and they are low noise/power. They are 5400 RPM, but will certainly have no problems at all with read speeds in a RAID5.
 
Ok, skipping on the WHS for now- how about the GP drives? Getting conflicting answers here, just like the net... =)
 
Paendrag said:
Why should he stay away from WD GP drives? You can enable TLER on them (which you can't do with any Seagate drives that I've heard of), making them a sort of poor man's RAID edition drives, and they are low noise/power. They are 5400 RPM, but will certainly have no problems at all with read speeds in a RAID5.
Click to expand...

TLER is voiding the warranty and it's also a duct tape fix to the solution, it works, but it's not the right way to go about it when you have the choice and you are starting from scratch... especially when compeditor drives are the same price or even less!

Yeah, you can't change TLER on the seagates.... They don't have that issue! So your argument is moot.
 
Seagate calls it Error Recovery Control (ERC), and AFAIK they don't have it on any of their consumer drives, only the RAID/enterprise edition drives. Why should TLER/ERC be more important on WD drives than on Seagate drives? If it wasn't relevant to Seagate then Seagate wouldn't bother touting it on their RAID edition drives.

I don't understand how enabling TLER is a "duct tape solution". You're simply getting the most important feature of a RAID edition drive on your consumer drive. I would rather void the warranty and cover the cost my self when a drive fails than increasing the risk of losing the entire array due to not having TLER/ERC.
 
Who says it voids the warrenty? Just disable it again before you RMA it there is no way they will no. Or just leave the drive with TLER enabled they wont check.
 
[LYL]Homer;1032546239 said:
You're doing it wrong then.
Click to expand...

Agreed. WHS has been rock solid for me. Moving data on and off the server is flawless. Key is knowing what you are doing. Only will get better with time like fine wine.:)
 
I think I'll have to go the way of a server as those standalone units are quite pricey!

Can anyone answer this question? Will using GP drives be an issue under JBOD and for backup sake if I have a separate JBOD array to backup the primary?

Secondly, Ockie, can you recommend a 3-5 5.25" bay enclosure that is hot swapable?

Also, is there a windows solution that will allow me to use the share as an OSX itunes volume- meaning that the itunes is running off a mac and using the share as its storage point.
 
Update:

Looks like I'll be going with 1TB WD GP drives as I found a source that can get OEM pieces for approx $125 each.

Will enable TLER 7/7 as recommended by everyone.

Still trying to decide on the chassis, whether to get a standalone that's priced reasonably (still looking) or put together a cheap PC.

Quick question on JBOD- how does data recovery work on that solution, if a drive dies, do you only lose that drive's data or the whole array worth of data?
 
wpd7 said:
Update:

Looks like I'll be going with 1TB WD GP drives as I found a source that can get OEM pieces for approx $125 each.

Will enable TLER 7/7 as recommended by everyone.

Still trying to decide on the chassis, whether to get a standalone that's priced reasonably (still looking) or put together a cheap PC.

Quick question on JBOD- how does data recovery work on that solution, if a drive dies, do you only lose that drive's data or the whole array worth of data?
Click to expand...

Whole array, but if i were you i would use raid 10.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top