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I found some old stuff laying around and I'm thinking about building a large media server that my family can access. I'm thinking about 4 1TB hard drives in RAID 5. Can anybody think of a reason this isn't a good idea? Also, would Windows Server 2008 be the best choice? Or should I just toss XP Pro on it and enjoy good old fashioned easy access? This box won't be used for anything but media storage. Not really interested in a NAS, but the thought did cross my mind. If somebody can give me a reason that one of those would be better, I'd be open to considering it..

TIA!

eGo

how much storage space will you actually need? it won't be about performance as much as data loss prevention. if you don't have too much and are set on RAID, maybe a mirrored setup with larger drives would be the way to go?

Well, I have A LOT of DVDs that I want to copy to the server and I'm also going to look at ripping my BluRays to the server as well. Photos and home movies as well. And probably recorded TV. So I can see the storage requirements growing quite a bit from what they are now. Right now I'm sitting at around 1TB scattered around various drives. I just thought the Raid 5 would be the "easiest" way to have the loss prevention as when a drive dies, the system keeps going and I can just shut down and swap out the drive, reboot and be good to go. I thought about a mirrored array, but with the mirror, I'd be losing 2TB of storage.. But it's still up in the air..

Thanks for your input and ideas!

eGo

Curious - how will your family access the server?

I'll set up mapped drives and add the info to Windows 7 Media Center.

eGo

I have a netgear ReadyNAS Duo with two 1TB HDD in mirror. Personally I love the perfomance and ease of operation. I use it for exactly the same situation you are looking at. I actually have a third 1TB HDD that I pull out and take to the safe deposit box. It makes things simple. Every 6 months I just pull a HDD out and switch it with the one in the Safety Deposit Box. No rebooting no Windows software and I have different Dirs mapped as drives on the house computers. My home network is GigaBit and this box uses the GB speeds with limitations on the drives. You can even upgrade the memory if you desire. I am using WD Green drives and the thing is quiet and cool ... Been running this setup for over a year now.

I am needing additional space and looking at replacing the drives with 2TB drives or adding a second ReadyNAS. My understanding is that I can place a 2 TB drive in the NAS, wait for a sync then replace the 1 TB drive with an additional 2 TB and it will build the mirror and use the full 2 TB. Not sure if it is that easy to upgrade space.

RubberDuckie wrote:I have a netgear ReadyNAS Duo with two 1TB HDD in mirror. Personally I love the perfomance and ease of operation. I use it for exactly the same situation you are looking at. I actually have a third 1TB HDD that I pull out and take to the safe deposit box. It makes things simple. Every 6 months I just pull a HDD out and switch it with the one in the Safety Deposit Box. No rebooting no Windows software and I have different Dirs mapped as drives on the house computers. My home network is GigaBit and this box uses the GB speeds with limitations on the drives. You can even upgrade the memory if you desire. I am using WD Green drives and the thing is quiet and cool ... Been running this setup for over a year now.

I am needing additional space and looking at replacing the drives with 2TB drives or adding a second ReadyNAS. My understanding is that I can place a 2 TB drive in the NAS, wait for a sync then replace the 1 TB drive with an additional 2 TB and it will build the mirror and use the full 2 TB. Not sure if it is that easy to upgrade space.

Thats what I do here 2X1TB Drive. I don't have everything shared just music and pictures and documents. Movies would be alot more space required so may not feasible for you unless you go 2x2TB to start. I am sure they have units that take multiple drives (more than 2). I also believe it has an app that the family can use to log in remotely from the web. Check it out.

Can someone explain how this media center works and what is needed software wise/how to set one up? I have a lot of pictures now, and my mom is getting a laptop to keep in touch, but she always wants pictures. I also have lots of music I can also share with the family.

I have a file server that since the beginning was just my old computer. Its now it's own thing and is running 5 1tb drives in raid 5 and just has the entire array shared with different privileges to different users. It has been this way in one form or another for about 10 years now with no problems. I just use it to store files.

Same one you had at the last/final PCA lan no? You just keep carrying it over haha But that's the idea I'm going for. Since I already have everything but the hard drives..

eGo

Its in a newer case and has had 3 hardware revisions since then.. its now a just shy of 4TB of RAID 5 goodness. Its about a third full now. It used to be 480 gigs of raid 5 goodness. I put the old PATA drives into a used buffalo terrastation i got on ebay for 50$ with no drives. After a bit of config and having to reload the OS its a nice little .5 tb cube of raid 5 goodness. Its funny now looking back at it. That little cube does everything that huge 4U case did.

Exec: You want to know about Windows Media Center or a media server?

Media Center is built into some versions of Windows and is a special media player that can be navigated with a TV type remote control specifically designed for use on a regular TV. I use Media Center on all my home TVs as DVRs and to play media (video/photos/music) from my file server.

A media server is just some kind of dedicated file server that shares your media files to all the PCs in the house. It can also be a NAS (network attached storage).

In my case I'm running a Server 2003 on a Dell PowerEdge T105 server as my file server. It acts as the network print server for my Laserjet printer, shares all my media files, and I also use it as a backup store for my data. I don't use a RAID array. Instead all my media and data is stored on a 1.5 Tb drive and there's a 2nd 1.5 Tb drive in a removable bay. Every night I use Allway Sync to sync the data from the primary drive to the secondary. In case of an emergency (like a hurricane coming) I can pull that secondary drive and throw it in the fire safe or my safe deposit box.

If you don't need a server OS (although managing your own server is a good way to learn to administer Windows Server) I would recommend building an UNRAID box. in a pinch any old PC full of any old drives will do the job:

http://www.lime-technology.com/home/87- ... m-builders

It almost sounds like simple file sharing on a network.

It is for the most part Exec.

So Ego, are you using Ubuntu for your server OS?