Seeking storage solution

Phantom Zamber

Phantom Zamber

Phantom Zamber

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10 Dec 2010
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54
Over the years I've collected vast amount of data from work. (mainly audio & video). I think around 4-5TB worth, scattered around in different external hard drives.

I want to build an external "Data Tower" that can be connected to my desktop, it doesn't need to be portable. I would need access to the files regularly for audio/video editing.

And if possible not via USB, as I have ran out of USB ports.

Any questions or advices are welcomed.
 
Look into a NAS solution if you truely want just a giant data storing box. If you have any interest in servers, a storage server (IE just a simple Windows Server) may be worth looking at, but it sounds like a NAS is more appropriate :).
 
Thanks for the advice. I've been doing some reading/browsing on ** No competitors **

The one I've found that seem to tick all the boxes was a Synology case with two WD reds 3TB.

However, ** No competitors ** couldn't answer all of my questions.

I'm confused by mirror mode. Does that mean I can only store 3TB data even I have two 3 TB drives.

Am I limited to USB 3 connection?

Also do you guys have any suggestions/recommendations on the product or brand?
 
It seems to me that all you really require is more storage to be accessible locally, not via a network.

Why not get an external enclosure and a USB 3.0 hub? I don't see a reason to overcomplicate things unless you know for sure that your requirements are going to expand in the future.
 
That's correct. I'm just trying to wrap my head round the subject.

For some reason (probably driver issue), my computer USB 3.0 ports doesn't seem to work.

So I would prefer the hub not connected via USB.
 
You could buy a USB 3.0 PCIe card, or look at external SATA (eSATA) options. This would need you to buy at least a seperate drive + enclosure as most external drives are USB only. You would also need to make sure you have some sort of eSATA port on the computer - again you may need to pick up some sort of PCIe card for this.

USB is far easier though as it means you can plug in any computer should you wish.


The Synology device you menioned is likely to be connected via network which will be limited by speed compared to USB3/eSATA. But there are 3 basic options of configuring it:
JBOD - stitches the 2 drives together to make 1 large drive, some files will be on one drive, some on the other. But will give you 6TB (with 2 3TB drives).
RAID0 (Stripe) - Writes the data across the 2 drives to increase speed. Will give you 6TB, but the drives will not be accessible outside of the enclosure (generally speaking)
RAID1 (Mirror) - Writes data to both drives at once (mirrored), but only gives you 3TB. If one drive fails, the other should still be accessible.
 
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Can eSATA be daisy chained?

Enclosure + drives probably is the most efficient solution.

I thought the synology cases would use ethernet connection to computer. And data would transmit over ethernet.
 
How do you mean? 3 drives per 1 eSATA?

I think that depends on the enclosure, Google for "eSata DAS" that should give you a good start.


Phantom Zamber said:
I thought the synology cases would use ethernet connection to computer. And data would transmit over ethernet.
Click to expand...


Although you can do this, it wouldn't play well with another network connection (such as Wifi) and you'd still be restricted to Ethernet speed. It would be easier to just plug the Synology nas into your broadband router and access it that way (either through wired or wireless connection on your computer).
 
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Upon Googling, it has made me even more confused.

Most eSATA enclosures have rather low ratings and only holds one hard-drive.

Docks are a lot cheaper than an enclosure, but I don't know what advantage/disadvantage they have.
 
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