Movie Backup Recommendation

I have 2 1.5Tb drives hooked up to my AEBS using a raid USB enclosure that host my iTunes library. They're setup to mirror and one of the drives has just failed for the 2nd time in 3 years so I cannot stress enough how important a backup is!

They're Seagates btw, I won't buy them again.

mic j said:

My 2TB drive furnishing my aTV is just about full (150GB left), however, only 660GB are mp4's for the aTV. The remainder are original mkv's, iso's, and home movies and stored on that drive as backup. I was just about to buy another 2TB drive ($100) to house the "original" files as backup, but then began wondering if this was the best way to proceed. Should I:

-follow my original approach?
-Use multiple smaller drives (1TB), dividing the files between them (so if one fails I don't lose everything)?
-Set up a RAID or NAS?

As the drive(s) will not be in use (just used for backup and stored off-line) does that make a difference on how to backup the files?

Click to expand...

mic j said:

My 2TB drive furnishing my aTV is just about full (150GB left), however, only 660GB are mp4's for the aTV. The remainder are original mkv's, iso's, and home movies and stored on that drive as backup. I was just about to buy another 2TB drive ($100) to house the "original" files as backup, but then began wondering if this was the best way to proceed. Should I:

-follow my original approach?
-Use multiple smaller drives (1TB), dividing the files between them (so if one fails I don't lose everything)?
-Set up a RAID or NAS?

As the drive(s) will not be in use (just used for backup and stored off-line) does that make a difference on how to backup the files?

Click to expand...

I only have 250GB of mkv's and m4v's right now but it is growing fast. I have a 1TB external that is storing them and also serving as my Time Machine backups as well. That is taking up almost 500GB's on its own. I'm looking at the Synology NAS with at least a 4-drive enclosure. I like to future proof so I'm saving up for the DS412+, more on board RAM and better processor. They have the DS411 and 411J as well if you want to save some money. I was going to run RAID 10, two striped drives mirrored. Best performance and failure protection IMO.

However, in the peripherals forum somebody posted a link about RAID not being backup. So on top of the RAID housing that stuff I will still use my 1TB external as a backup drive and store it in my safe to do monthly backups.

ETA: When I was talking to my dad I was asking how do I back up 3TB worth of data? He pointed out that my DVD's and CD's are my hardcopy backups.

Hey mic j,

I was facing the same dilemma as you only a couple months ago. What I did was build an HTPC using a 2TB and an i5-2500k cpu. It's currently running Windows Media Center as the main software, but I plan to switch over to XBMC when I have the free time for more customization options later on. It's really nice to have everything I want right in front of me, customized the way I want. I'm currently using an aaxa m2 microprojector as my main display, although I plan on upgrading soon. Let me know if you have any questions about the build or whatnot, I'll be happy to answer.