Most affordable way to RAID 1?

[demografik]

my media collection is approaching 4TB and i really don't want to lose it so i would like to make it redundant. currently, it is in the form of two 1TB internal drives and a 2TB external. the htpc housing the drives is not big enough to hold more than two internal drives so i need to build a standalone server/NAS. the interface can be either USB into the htpc or gigabit ethernet into the nearby switch. i really like the idea of a NAS because that can be small enough to put in my entertainment center but from what i've seen, the enclosures cost $300+

what are my best options here? a NAS enclosure? build a full on media server out of an old PC? to reiterate, the most key factors here are price and size - with the functionality of RAID 1 and USB or gigabit a given.

 

[Jim G]

If you've got old PC hardware laying around it's not difficult to make a file server out of any number of operating systems... ours at home is Ubuntu-based and has been working beautifully for a couple of years. Linux's mdadm software RAID is quite robust.

Don't forget that RAID just gives you redundancy and it isn't a replacement for a backup... I'd plan for an offsite backup before I'd go for redundancy, personally, particularly if uptime isn't critical.

 

[demografik]

it would take an eternity to upload 4tb and i'm already pushing the reasonable limits of a residential connection. i can live without the media in the event of a catastrophe so i'm fine with redundancy. old hardware, software raid and shoving it in the closet seems to be the way to go. thanks.

 

[hotcrandel]

Then plan an onsite backup with your NAS. One idea might be to upgrade your HTPC with 3TB disks, and buy/reuse a server, with 3 2tb disks. use simple software like syncback or rsync to backup your files from two 3tb disks across three 2tb disks.

the simpler it is the less problems you will have with it.

 

[duoflea]

the most affordable way to raid 1? buy a second harddrive identical to your main one and set up raid 1. you dont need an external server. since your computer is on always anyways why not just set up file sharing?

 

[rive22]

I would use two 3TB disks inside and utilize the rest of your drives into external backup. for now.