External Storage Nightmare

[lc25]

Hi All,

Quick ramble to inform you of my issues then the questions if that's OK ?

I currently work in IT but due to ill health i am leaving the profession, i have all ways been a mac user but work with windows for my job.

I currently have a custom built windows machine with 5tb of storage (mainly consists of tv,films,pictures and lots of music which i use as my main machine and then my macbook which i use around the house and a lot now as i just don't feel like using my windows machine.

The grand plan is to sell of my windows rig (keeping the 5 1tb drives as they are reasonably new) buy a macbook pro 17" and run with that and my current macbook. The 17" being mainly based upstairs as a replacement for the windows machine and used the most (this maybe reversed).

The issues

Something to hold 4 or 5 of the 1tb drives with my data. Nas or just USB/firewire to replace the internal storage i have now.

Some form of itunes server for music sharing across both macbooks ? (currently dont have this but is it worth it ?)

I have been looking around for a long time and this only things that have jumped out at me are

Drobo V2 ( with drobo share ?)

QNAP TS-209 Pro II Turbo NAS

1 Tb Lacie Usb/Firewire ( Maybe 2 of)

Or any suggestions you have ? as i am at a loss really to what would be the best set up for my needs and keep my data secure.

Any more info you may need please ask

Many thanks for your time

 

[Chris Rogers]

+ 1 for Drobo minus the Drobo Share (read it's really slow)

Connect via USB to Airport Extreme Base Station and you're good to go w/ network storage.

The smaller Drobo has a 4 drive capacity. You may only be able to utilize about 3 TBs or so of storage since the drobo continuously backs up and needs that extra empty space. The manual says to determine the available space, add up the TOTAL capacity and subtract the largest size drive and that is your capacity (roughly). With that said, I'm sure you can rig it to set it up just for storage with no back up. Also look into getting 2TB size drives if you go with the small drobo.

Pretty cheap on Amazon. Good luck.

I also have a Lacie, it just stops responding once in a while, weird. I have to restart it all the time. (connected to airport extreme, used for time machine)

 

[geoffreak]

Keep in mind that the Drobo will erase data on the drives you place in.

Can you explain how you have the drives set up? What kind of data do you have on them? How much storage is actually used? Are they in RAID?

 

[Chris Rogers]

Keep in mind that the Drobo will erase data on the drives you place in.

GOOD POINT!

 

[lc25]

Hi many thanks, seems my initial idea was good to have a drobo,currently i have about 2.5 tb of video and then about 250gb of music. I have 2 spare tb drives so the idea was to put them into the pc copy over the data to them temporarily put the 2 newer drives into drobo copy back across then move the last 2 drives over if that makes sense.

Side Notes:

I read of a few disasters with the drobo anyone had any bad experiences ? i was about to buy it and then i like chickened out really.

 

[MovieCutter]

I have 3 Drobos, 2x4TB ones, and 1x8TB one. No problems so far. Full of video and music.

 

[lc25]

Perfect then so drobo is a go with a airport extreme to distribute it.Are there any limitations to airport that i should know of ?

 

[Donar]

I have a Drobo V2 connected to my Hackintosh over Firewire 800, and had no problems so far (about 4 month). But be warned it takes "ages" for the drobo to make your Data full secure (most/all low Watt Raid solutions do) when you replace a drive. I just replaced a 750 Gig drive with a 1.5 TB one - the drobo tells me: 32 hours to full data redundancy. I can access the data though. It holds a backup of the content of a MyBook Studio 2 which is connected to my NAS.

As you will use Laptops as your main rig a NAS would be very convenient.
You should have a look at Synology's NAS offerings, maybe the DS409+ would do the trick? It takes 4 drives has a built in itunes server does NFS, SMB, AFP will make you sandwiches and whatnot. You can also expand available disk space through esata or USB if you are out of disk space and want a relatively cheap upgrade.

I just added a 4TB MyBookStudio 2 to my DS207+, because i did not want to upgrade to a 4 or 5 disk solution...

If you want your data to be secure: -> BACKUP often even if you have some sort of Raid. Some suggestions about Storage Solutions for ... OUT-OF-CONTROL iTunes Libraries

 

[geoffreak]

I also have a Drobo v2 and can confirm that it takes forever to rebuild.

You might want to get the Drobo v1 if you only plan on using USB.

 

[lc25]

Thanks for the tips on the storage, just been looking on eBay at Airport Extreme and (here comes a rather dumb question) i get that they have a wan port but does that not matter as when i set it up id set it up as a wap ?

 

[Donar]

... i get that they have a wan port but does that not matter as when i set it up id set it up as a wap ?

Sorry could you please rephrase?

-> Just a quick tip the newer Airport extreme has two radios so you can use Wireless g and n devices at the same time.

 

[geoffreak]

Thanks for the tips on the storage, just been looking on eBay at Airport Extreme and (here comes a rather dumb question) i get that they have a wan port but does that not matter as when i set it up id set it up as a wap ?

Yes, you don't use the WAN port when using it as a wireless access point.

I would also recommend the simultaneous dual band AEBS (current gen) for faster wireless speeds.

 

[Donar]

But iirc you will need the WAN port if you want to connect the AE to a router or switch. So that you can access the internet over wireless.

 

[Mebsat]

Synology is worth a look, has itunes server (firefly-based, I think)

DS-409
DS-409+
DS-509+

All the above on amazon.

 

[geoffreak]

But iirc you will need the WAN port if you want to connect the AE to a router or switch. So that you can access the internet over wireless.

Not true at all. Only if you want to isolate the devices connected to the router.

 

[lc25]

thanks for all the explanations,just been looking at the post Donar linked me to and i have confused myself even more. If i go Airport Extreme and add a drobo in the back holding my itunes library will it still sync to my iphone and ipod ?