Please help me pick out a solution

[jadawgis732]

I have a networked Dell P4 Optiplex functioning as a server, and the MB only 2 SATA slots. Currently the server has an 80GB (OS) and 1TB WD Green (Media). My gaming desktop is running a 750GB WD Green. I'm going to do some upgrades soon. I may swap the Optiplex's MB + CPU to increase SATA ports and for onboard RAID. Here are my needs: SSD for the gaming machine(I'm sold on the x25-m g2 but its hard to find now, unless I want to overpay), and more storage for the server, perhaps some added reliability without the hassles of RAID, which I'm shaky about. (Not because I'm unfamiliar with how it works, just because of the amount of posts I see talking about the nightmares of rebuilding, and truthfully I'd cry if I lost all my data). I'll keep at least a 750GB HDD for the Gaming machine, and I'd like a total of 2TB+ for the server which should have a redundancy of some kind, be it ghosting, RAID, software backups or otherwise.

The only reason I'm considering RAID is because without it I'd have to store stuff on two independent volumes, and access to them would be done independently, right? I mean I know about Windows 7 libraries, which can add two different folders to a single accessible folder, but what other ways could I do access centralize folders from independent drives? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Jonas

 

[[LYL]Homer]

Would an add-in card, like the Supermicro AOC-SAT2-MV8, plus WHS with folder duplication give you the space you need with your current hardware?

 

[jadawgis732]

Sounds like a very good idea. I think going with the upgraded MB+CPU might be easier though, (no hassles of pci add on card). But the WHS folder duplication sounds great. So, if I understand correctly, it syncs the files on one drive, across the others. If it is enabled on each of 4 disks, disk 0's data is spread on to 1, 2, and 3. 1's data is spread on to 0, 2, and 3 and so on,.....? Are the files viewable on the other disks or are they just strings of data to be used in the event of a hdd failure?

 

[[LYL]Homer]

The data is basic data on the disks, duplicated or not, i.e. you can pull any disk and put it in another PC and it will see the data. No odd encryption or anything.

Duplication works by folder, not per drive. A duplicated folder will reside on 2 physical drives. If you have two 1tb drives and 100gb of data in duplicated folders and 500gb of non-duplicated data then WHS will report that the pool has 1.3tb free: 2000gb - ((2x100gb) + 500gb)) = 1300gb (less actually because of formatting, but keeping this explanation simple).

The pool itself is sort of a software dynamic JBOD setup. You can add more physical drives at any time, tell WHS to add them to the pool, and then it's available as server space. I had to see it in action to really appreciate it and I really like the mental overhead it frees up, I don't have to worry about drive letters or drive space anymore - everything is in shares, or folders, like 'Video', 'Photos', etc.

Check out the WHS sticky thread here for more info.