If you want a more seamless backup you may want to consider one of the less expensive RAID solutions that use very simple interfaces. In this scenario you would have a slightly larger RAID unit as your primary music library. The RAID unit contains several raw hard drives which easily slide in and out of the unit. The hardware / software can make one or more of those drives a 'redundant' backup of the main drive, and continually back it up as the main drive grows (within the capacities of the enclosed drives of course). In the event of a drive failure, which is inevitable with any drive, you'd simply slide out the failed drive and slide in a new one. The RAID system should never miss a beat and would immediately put the backup into use should the main fail, and would immediately backup to the drive you slide in to replace the failed drive. At best it is a constant ongoing process. Drawbacks are the larger size, more noise (not an issue if you are using a WIFI solution), and greater initial expense (one of the current crop of affordable RAID solutions may run around $800 initially, but then you only will have to replace raw hard drives (cheap). Another suggestion would be to buy the slightly more expensive and longer-lasting drives like G-Tech, but that doesn't mean they'll necessarily never fail - all drives will eventually fail. In general the larger TB drives are less reliable overall than the moderate drives. 500GB is my flavor of choice. TB drives are more often two or more 500's in a case together. They make more noise, are slower read/write, and are more prone to early failures in general. A quick read of any real-world reviews should prove that out. Not to say that there are not exceptions.
Good luck. |
Yo Dean - Boy, the reviews on Amazon are really spotty for those units. I dunno, if you are going for something in the room I might look for a potentially quieter solution (seems to be a frequent complaint). There was a similar unit that all the photogs were raving about on the ASMP list a while back. Noise obviously wasn't an issue there so there were no comments I recall on that subject. I'll try to get the name of it. If you're on a tight budget and want to try RAID, you might want to check out the Newer Tech Gmax which I know absolutely nothing about other than it is cheap. It does not appear very modular though. I'll try to find the name of the one the shooters were using. I actually just have to cheap, quiet LACIE 500gb drives that are redundant for my music. I'd prefer a RAID solution that did it in the background automatically and may go that direction also. Marco |
There is also Neil Van Berg's Music Vault which is a standalone solution (no computer interface needed). It backs up (automatically I think) to an external USB drive(s) of your choice. It is compatible with both WIFI And USB interfaces like Tranpsorter, Squeezebox, AE, etc. No direct experience to speak of. Six Moons wrote it up in a positive light, I think. Yeah, that's a good point about keeping an off-site backup, especially if you have a huge library. I also do the same thing. |
Dean - The OWC stuff is highly respected for using quality parts. My friend has a 500gig Mercury Elite Pro drive and it's pretty noisy so that's a downside to them. Other than that they are used by many photogs, as are G-Tech, for their reliability. I found the RAID solution that was recommended on the ASMP list (no direct experience myself): It is by Accordance Systems. As you know, us photographers are a pretty demanding lot when it comes to dependable storage/backup as our livelihood is on those spinning discs (this of course goes for many other occupations). When it comes to building hard drives definitely go with something that is well vented/cooled as has already been pointed out, and with a company known for using quality parts (controllers, power supply, etc.). Alternatively it is not that difficult to get all the parts and build your own with quality parts. Any way you do it, the drives will still eventually fail, it's just a matter of how long they last. Marco |
Another very tedious backup solution is to back up to dual-layer or single layer DVD's. That is best facilitated using a backup program that allows backup to multiple discs. If you have a library of of 5000 CD's that would take about 330 DVD's or half as many dual-layer (SLOW to burn) DVD's, and to restore your library would mean transferring those all back to another hard drive in the event of failure of the original copy. Still, it is yet another potential backup strategy for an additional hard-copy on fewer discs. |
PS If you do backup to DVD, my calculations, I think, were for WAV files. If you use Apple Lossless or some other compression scheme you'd be using much fewer DVD's. Also, if you back up to DVD, I'd strongly recommend buying high quality media such as Taiyo Yuden, as opposed to most of the crap they sell at the mega-office warehouse stores, most of which is made in China, has poor lamination process and spotty reliability in burning. I've had half a cake-pak of those type of CD's fail to burn. YMMV, but I always use Taiyo Yuden now and have had no problems at all. One can easily see the difference in lamination process in comparing a TY disc to the alternatives. Again, a tip from one whose backup is his livelihood. Genuine TY media is available from The Supermedia Store |
Ejlif - I don't think it's the drive that's unreliable, it is the RAID device itself and the interface with the drives. These are not "great big drives", as you intimated. A RAID unit usually has multiple slots that house many duplicate-sized hard drives - you buy whichever SATA (or whatever type the RAID device uses) raw hard drive that you choose and just slide them into the slots. The RAID hardware is what you are paying for in the case of these modular boxes. The hardware is what allows you to create and maintain seamless redundant copy drives in multiple slots and keep the system running in the the event of a drive failure. It also would have to keep all those drives cool as multiple large drives are bound to generate some heat. As someone pointed out, in the event of a disaster such as a flood, fire or theft you'd be SOL as all copies would likely be damaged/lost (they'd all be contained within that device unless you occasionally pull and replace a drive with a replacement and put the copy drive in a safe, off-site location. The RAID devices DO make the process of keeping/maintaining a backup of large amounts of data a very easy process if the device works properly. I don't know what the problems folks are having with the Drobo units are, but you should be able to use any brand of SATA drive you choose within the box itself. If the thing is noisy it is likely a problem with the cooling fan(s) and or the specific drives that are chosen by the user (some drives are noisier than others), as well as how the case of the device may amplify that noise.
Marco |
Jwynacht - It's a sound strategy, yes. USB should be just fine as streaming music is not demanding of a fast interface. It will not be any problem at all in that respect. It will slow things down when you start copying large amounts of files from one drive to another since the interface is comparatively slow. The other disadvantage may be in using a 'green' drive, with no cooling fan, your drive life will likely be shortened as heat is an enemy of drive life. Still, those drives are certainly the most quiet (quiet as a church mouse) and I use them myself (Lacie 500 gig version of basically the same thing). Yes, iTunes can look at as many drives as you care to store your library on. In turn you can consolidate your library onto one large drive with just that command: "Consolidate Library" - in this case iTunes will COPY all of your music files to whichever hard drive is currently pointed to as the main library. It will leave all the original files in tact on whatever drive they were originally on. You, of course, need to have enough space on the drive you point it at to store all those files. Here is a case where a USB interface would seriously bog things down with a large library. As long as you can walk away from it you'll be fine, but if you plan to hang around and wait, you better get a good book. |
