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DubMarc

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  1. I think you have the basic ideas correct. RAID (anything above 0) is good for availability of data, but mirroring the info doesn't really get you 100% backed up. For instance, it won't guard against accidental deletions, if the RAID controller itself goes bad, etc. That said, if you end up going RAID 1, you'll still have about 2TB of storage available, which seems like plenty, even if your library grows a bit. If it is enough, I would go with that. You should still have some sort of offsite backup. If it were me, I would save the expense of online storage, and go with your plan to use the G-Drive for occasional backups, and keep it off-site.
  2. After doing some reading here (and other places), I find that I'm learning a fair amount, but it's also leading to more questions . So, I thought that I'd try to lay out my goals and what I've got right now, and get some feedback. Thanks in advance. Hmm, this ended up being long, but at least I got my thoughts down for my own sake. For music, I've got a Squeezebox Touch in transit, and will set up a Logitech Music Server on some machine. I'm not sure it will impact setting up my storage, but I would also like to stream that music to my iPhone remotely. Serving and backing up music with the best bang for the buck will drive my strategy. Here are some other things I'm considering: Backup wife's photos and videos, which recently cost me well over $1000 to restore, so there's another cautionary tale about backing stuff up. Much higher priority now than it was a little while ago . Wife's music collection (much lower priority for her). Shared active files (mostly Quicken). Already have a clunky solution for this via SugarSync, but nice to have an easier one. Not important right now, but if it doesn't complicate things, I'd like to flexibility to perhaps expand from audio only to a full HTPC. We use separate Win 7 laptops, with non-media files synced (and backed up) via SugarSync. In addition to the laptops, I've already got the following: 3TB external HD. The plan was to use that to back up both of our stuff. External HD with less capacity (500GB?). Enough for all of wife's content if needed, but not enough for mine. An inherited desktop. Was top-notch as of ~5 yrs. ago, although not sure of actual specs. Former owner had it tricked out for gaming. An inherited older media PC. Don't know anything other than it booted to XP Media Edition. For either of the inherited computers, I could hook them up to a monitor temporarily, but they would have to exist primarily without one, although I could remote desktop to them or use a web interface for something like Vortexbox. Assuming I can get them wired. Probably can only easily set up one of them, spacewise. Wireless LAN, with one open wired port. I do have another router, and believe I can daisy chain them. All that stuff is in/would be in the den/computer room. The SB Touch would reside in the family room, hooked up to my HT amp, I assume. Via wireless. I've got an iPhone and iPad. Mentioning it because I assume whatever solution I come up with for music will be controlled by them. Plus, remote streaming of the library to them. Initially, I thought I would archive everything on the external and load the music server on my laptop. I would also use the laptop to store mp3's for iTunes, and that's how music would get to the iPhone. After poking around, I thought that I would add a simple NAS to this, something like the Synology DS212j, and turn the 3TB external into my remote storage option. Smoother solution for backups, could store some shared stuff, and it would still work well with the SB Touch. Plus, it would also be the most energy efficient/would not require my laptop to run all the time for remote streaming purposes. After poking around some more, I thought maybe a better route would be to take advantage of the stronger inherited computer. I could possibly get an internal HD (or two), and still use the external for remote storage. Or, I could use the external, and sign up for CrashPlan, or some other cloud-based backup. It would be cheaper (in the short run) than the above option, still allow me to stream remotely without running my laptop all the time, and provides a little better sharing option with my wife than we have now. So....do I have this pretty much right? Am I missing anything big? Still need to figure out: Vortexbox worth it (assuming I want to serve the music up from somewhere else)? If NAS, then should I also be looking at unRAID?
  3. Thanks for writing this up...I'm trying to form a server/backup strategy, and this is good food for thought. I hadn't much considered an online backup. I thought that I'd periodically freshen an external HD I plan to keep at the office. This is similar to an approach I used before with a rotating set of CD-RWs. As you said, those plans usually result in not doing the offsite piece enough (or at all).
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