Media Centre Needs More Space - Raid?

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THRobinson

THRobinson

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May 17, 2009
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Been looking at RAID setups... never done one before, had a rough idea what it was and knew there were many types but not sure which direction to go.

I have an ASUS P5Q-E, and the specs say that it can do RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10.

I currently have a 250GB drive as my C:\... has my OS, software etc... don't want to touch that drive.

I have two 3TB internal drives, one for movies and one for TV series, and I have two 3TB external drives that once a month I do a mirror copy/backup of each drive. So far it's been a simple and easy setup with no problems, and if a drive goes I have a mirror copy on a shelf.

Problem is, running out of space. I don't want to simply add a 3rd drive and have a mix of TV/movies on it because would be harder to sort and keep organized. I was thinking of maybe adding another 3TB and having a RAID setup to read the three drives as a single 9TB drive and save everything to that in folders. Which I guess would mean needing to remove my external drives from their cases, buying another 3TB and buying a 4-Bay external case for them to continue doing a mirror.

Just hoping for some advice... if it's a good idea, is there a better (cheap) idea, which RAID to use, etc...

I like the idea of having 4x3TB all setup as a RAID where if 1 drive dies, I can replace it and it rebuilds the data... but if it only reads as 6TB, then I'm no further ahead than I am now. Because I have the two internal and two external 3TB, I don't want to switch to 4x4TB.

Anyways... any advice would be appreciated. Aiming for 9TB or more for storage space.... well, 9TB before formatted (8.16TB I guess). Thanks.
 
Solution
RealBeast
If you want to be able to lose one drive and not lose data you would need to use RAID 5, and the penalty is the loss of the space of one drive of the three or four that you use. You do need to consider a few issues though.

Motherboard RAID controllers are not highly reliable (better than USB but not as stable as a separate RAID controller, which unfortunately adds a big cost), something as simple as a bios flash or reset can destroy up the array. If the data is not critical then it may be worth the relatively small risk, but not if you really value the data.

You also might want to check out what 3TB drives you have -- some don't do RAID very well, like WD Greens.

RAID 0 is too unreliable for storage, one drive loss loses the data...
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RealBeast

RealBeast

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If you want to be able to lose one drive and not lose data you would need to use RAID 5, and the penalty is the loss of the space of one drive of the three or four that you use. You do need to consider a few issues though.

Motherboard RAID controllers are not highly reliable (better than USB but not as stable as a separate RAID controller, which unfortunately adds a big cost), something as simple as a bios flash or reset can destroy up the array. If the data is not critical then it may be worth the relatively small risk, but not if you really value the data.

You also might want to check out what 3TB drives you have -- some don't do RAID very well, like WD Greens.

RAID 0 is too unreliable for storage, one drive loss loses the data and 10 uses two of the four drives to mirror. IMO using a motherboard controller to do 10 doesn't make sense anyway -- the controller itself is more unreliable than the drives themselves.
 
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THRobinson

THRobinson

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Hmm... RAID5 sounds about the best... If I had four 3tb drives, I'd get 9tb of space correct? And if one drive dies, in theory, I just replace it and the data rebuilds itself to the new drive?

Trying to go cheap, but, definitely want to keep the mirrored backup setup I have now, that way no matter what happens to the computer, I have a mirrored copy on the shelf. That's why I was thinking a RAID0 might work... Three drives reading as one 9tb. If one goes I lose all data, but, still a mirrored backup. Then just need to buy an external 4bay and 2 drives.

Not worried about the BIOS updates and such since they don't make them anymore for my board.

Overall plan is to build a new system for myself, take the guts from the computer I am using now as a PC and HTPC, and stick it into a nice Silverstone HTPC case and have as a devoted XBMC player. Board and such won't change so just gotta make sure I plug the drives back into the same ports after the move. I think all my internal HDDs are Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm SATA III drives. Was looking at something like a Mediasonic HF2-SU3S2 external 4-bay case for a backup system.
 
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RealBeast

RealBeast

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Yup, RAID 5 allows loss of a drive and it still works although slower and will rebuild when you replace the drive.

More than just bios updates can bust the array on a motherboard controller but as long as you have other backup I wouldn't worry about it. It never seems to happen if people have backup.

I like the Silverstone HTPC cases, I've done around a dozen builds with them.

The Mediasonic enclosures are nice low cost solutions if you have USB3 or eSATA and your motherboard SATA controller supports use of a port multiplier when using eSATA. USB 2.0 is pretty slow though.
 
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