Storage - for digital photography

Spook Tooth

Spook Tooth

Spook Tooth

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Joined
18 Nov 2008
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4
Hi, it's been a while but I need to upgrade my HDD storage. I've been doing some reading around the subject and it looks like a NAS type drive (or desktop variant) is probably most suitable for my needs.

What I wanted to ask was, I was going to buy 2 x say WD Red 6TB drives, but to put them into a software RAID mirror. Is this easy enough to do? I will basically put the drives into my existing tower PC and make room by freeing up a couple of SATA ports.

Is it easy enough to build a mirror RAID array or even desirable? I have been hankering after a 4 bay NAS but realise most of the time I'd be on my desktop editing photos anyway and the added expense of a NAS would be a bit too much for me at present. In future though, would I be able to just bung the 2 (software) mirrored NAS drives into say a 4 bay Synology NAS and keep the data or is it more complicated than that?

Sorry if my questions are seemingly a bit lazy or noobish. I'm currently using 2 x 1.5TB drives but they're full now - I never did mirror them but tried to duplicate important back ups to both drives in the hope I'd keep their compatibility with other devices if I ever upgraded my motherboard etc. But to be honest, I'm a little lapse in performing backups and have ended up with a bit of a mess with stuff unevenly distributed across the 2 drives. That's why I'm feeling a proper software (Windows 7) mirrored RAID option would be best for me. Apologies for length of post. I can't help myself...:)
 
i know you said you had ruled out a nas drive but i can honestly say i think it would be your best option.

a HP microserver can be bought for around £100-£100 (after cashback)

throw in the 2 HDD's, get freenas running on it or xpeneology and your good to go.

personally i use WHS11 and have 5 drives in a striped array which then backs up nightly to crashplan.

but 2 drives in mirror raid would do the trick.

with the microserver you also would have another 2 spare drive spaces for future proofing.

check this thread - https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18216324
 
Spook Tooth said:
Is it easy enough to build a mirror RAID array or even desirable?
Click to expand...

As long as you are aware a Mirrored (or any RAID) is not a replacement for a proper backup - all it does it provide you with better availability vs a single disk (i.e. in a Mirror you still have an identical copy if one drive fails). A Mirror (or any RAID) does not protect against accidental deletion or software based corruption (as the corruption will get mirrored).

Don't be tempted to go for RAID5 either as the risk (of another failure during rebuild with large disks) isn't worth it vs the cost of another disk and RAID6 or RAID10.


Spook Tooth said:
In future though, would I be able to just bung the 2 (software) mirrored NAS drives into say a 4 bay Synology NAS and keep the data or is it more complicated than that?
Click to expand...

No Synology uses a different format to either Windows or Intel motherboard based RAID.


Spook Tooth said:
That's why I'm feeling a proper software (Windows 7) mirrored RAID option would be best for me
Click to expand...

I would avoid Windows based software RAID (i.e. Dynamic Disks), for anything - assuming you are using an Intel based system, their onboard RAID is likely to be more robust, and as far as I know, is still transportable between Intel motherboards (e.g. if your board fails - you can plug both drives into another Intel board and it should recognise the array).
 
Thanks for the tips joelk2 and Armageus. Looks like I've still got some homework to do but you've both helped.

I will certainly look more closely at the cheaper external NAS box options. I've not heard of any of that NAS software before though so I've a lot to learn. I admit it would be best long term as I have a laptop that needs to access data too. And a desire to do some video editing via the laptop also.

So, now it looks like after 20 odd years of using a Windows computer I finally know what a dynamic disk is! Guess I should read up on that and Intel based RAID as you correctly surmised, I am indeed using an Intel based system.

Quick question is how do I build an Intel mirror array? I guess Intel software? That Rapid Disk Storage thing or something I've never actually used before I suppose. I'll stay away from dynamic disks then.

I'm feeling a bit impatient but I guess NAS drives are the best choice for the type of disk access I need then. Thanks again fellas!


EDIT

Just as an update, I've spent a while reading up on HP microserver generation 8 and it's opening up a world of possibilities. I don't think I'm ready to dive in yet. My computer skills are about basic to all right; I can build a system when I have to but I'd rather not be getting in too deep these days. Saw what looked like a good deal though - Celeron/4GB for c.£165 (inc) so it's certainly tempting.

However, I just want an easy life so I'm tempted to just squeeze two more large HDDs in my PC and do what I did last time, bearing in mind what you said about RAID 1 and not really having 2 copies as a true backup, Armageus.

Once again, thanks for the links and food for thought. Cheers. :)
 
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theres a program called bvckup 2 which is simple and light, you can have it sync folders every x amount of time, with that you could do sata hd internal to a external or nas setup
 
Bvbup 2 looks like a worthwhile utility for someone like me. Definitely worth checking out more but having this running would probably eliminate a lot of the problematic file asynchronicity I tend to have on my two back up drives.

Cheers pingu666!
 
I'm using Synctoy, which is probably the simplest folder sync/backup solution out there, and free. Love it for its simplicity and (seeming) effectiveness.

It can be set for automatic sync runs through Windows Task Scheduler with different trigger options but I prefer just adding the program to startup (this has to be done manually after installing it) so the program pops up on every startup to remind me and just click a single button to run it. This way, it won't start running while you're doing something else requiring maximum CPU resources like video converting or something. Other than that, can be run manually if you've just completed something important.

I use the "Echo" option - any changes made to your chosen "Left Folder" (new file/updated file/deleted file/renamed file) are reflected in your chosen "Right Folder", that form a "Folder Pair". There are only a couple more options. Quite limited compared to others really but it does exactly what I needed.

Before that, I was rolling with BackupMaker but I didn't like it very much.
 
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