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On-Site Storage Solution


Nerwin

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I getting really low on storage and my data is not backed up at all currently. Since I have a lot of music and photos, I need a good amount of storage and I was thinking to go with the HP MediaSmart Home Server for around $650 with 1.5TB of storage.

But I am wondering if anyone else has any really good storage solution's?

My Budget is around $600-675.

- Networked

- At least a TB of space

- Raid Setup

- The Ability to add additional drives.

Thats why I thought about getting the HP MediaSmart Server because it suits all my needs but If I can get away with less money that would be better. Since I am very low on money currently.

Thanks guys.

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Well, you can get away with far less money, but usually you get what you pay for.

You mean this one?

http://shopper.cnet.com/soho-servers/hp-me...9-33528247.html

That is at least 650 bucks with 2 750 Mb hard disk:

Internal Hard Drive(s): Duals 750 GB drives (SATA, 7200 RPM) for 1.5 TB of storage

But for a basic RAID 0 (mirroring) you need two 1.5 Tb drives.

Besides there are a lot of models of HP Smart Home servers, which one you have in mind?

On which shop have you seen it? (if not a local one).

For about that money you can have a LaCie fully populated (five disks) 2.5 Tb one:

http://shopper.cnet.com/external-hard-driv...9-33351110.html

or a "bare" Synology:

http://shopper.cnet.com/external-hard-driv...9-32550673.html

+3 1 Tb drives

jaclaz

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for a basic RAID 0 (mirroring) you need two 1.5 Tb drives
That is incorrect. RAID 0 is stripping. RAID 1 is mirroring. They are two totally different things.

My bad :blushing: I meant RAID 1, I often get the one for the other, that why I alwys add (mirroring).

jaclaz

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I often get the one for the other, that why I alwys add (mirroring).
An easy way to remember... 0 = off, 1 = on. RAID 0 = mirroring off, RAID 1 = mirroring on.

Which of course I will soon forget and remember as:

0 = off, 1 = on. RAID 0 = striping off, RAID 1 = striping on. :blink:

Thanks, but it's no use, I simply confuse them easily. (and one of the main reasons why I love RAID 10 ;))

:hello:

jaclaz

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I always think of it as Raid 0 = None (No Parity/Backup, False Raid, Practically useless, Just for speed but you will regret it someday) ;)

Raid 1 = 1 Backup (Mirror)

Whereas Raid 5 is the best of both worlds. Just add a third drive and you get more speed with Parity accross three drives. If 1 drive crashes you can easily repair your raid by adding a new drive or downgrade to Raid 1.

Edited by Siginet
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I'm not too sure yet, there some good possibilities. But I think the best one for me is to get the HP MediaSmart Server with the 1.5TB of storage. Plus I can always upgrade it later. Or had some USB hard drives or what not.

The Price isn't bad, but it is a little bit on the high side. I almost would think it would be better to get like a NAS or a external HDD with like eSata or something.

Or the other thing that I could do is build a new file server and at least have some sort of raid set up so if a hard drive fails for some reason I wont lose my data that took for ever to back up. I'm mainly worried about my Music because I have a large sum of it that took a while to build up. So I really wanted my music to be on a raid set up. My photos I am not too worried about because I can always back them up to a back up site, but most of my photos get uploaded to Flickr anyways, but it would better if I could have it on a raid set up.

Correct me if I am wrong as thinking off the top of my head, isn't there a external hard drive cluster that has a raid set up? Meaning it's only that... no operating system like the HP MediaSmart Server.

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I would consider rolling your own and using something like FreeNAS or OpenFiler (I'm preferential to the former) if you don't plan on using the box for anything other than a storage solution. If you were to use the features of Windows Home Server other than backup, it'd probably be worth the $$$, but if not, it'd be cheaper to do it yourself.

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yes if you only want is as a fileserver then you could get away with some lower end parts and use FreeNAS or OpenFiler.

if you have more plans for it then you may need something more powerful.

so what exactly do you plan on using it for?

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Simple. Storing my Photos and Music. That's really it. But I want it to be safe, secure and reliable.
If you want safe, secure and reliable, don't rely on the hardware. Even the best hardware can catastrophically fail. For true reliability, you need multiple copies of your data in different physical locations. I'd consider setting up an inexpensive home NAS and duplicating your data off-site either by means of media or an online backup service.
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Simple. Storing my Photos and Music. That's really it. But I want it to be safe, secure and reliable.
If you want safe, secure and reliable, don't rely on the hardware. Even the best hardware can catastrophically fail. For true reliability, you need multiple copies of your data in different physical locations. I'd consider setting up an inexpensive home NAS and duplicating your data off-site either by means of media or an online backup service.

that would be great but its an added cost :(

so if this will be a pure file server then go with FreeNAS or OpenFiler.

they are pretty easy to use and use very low resources.

what is your budget, $650?

Edited by ripken204
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