<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 1:19 PM, Randy Clarksean <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:rclarksean@arvig.net">rclarksean@arvig.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">I am looking for suggestions on a “cheap” storage
system. I would like it to be </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Yes … I know I want everything and do not want to pay
anything. This is for a home office type environment, not a production or
high availability server environment. <br></span></font></p></div></div></blockquote><div><br>Not really. This is pretty much a solved problem in today's world. Linux can do RAID in software, so for the price of a cheap tower with enough space to hold the number of drives you plan on sticking in an array, you're good to go. You can get a hardware controller too for a little extra speed and perhaps less risk of corruption when things go bad (like a power failure).... (you were going to get a cheap UPS to get you through power hiccups, right?) <br>
<br>If you want a large bucket of bits with some protection from crashes, I'd go RAID 5. Whether you use enterprise class disks or not, buy an extra one and just set it in the case or a safe place to serve as a hot spare. Chances are a drive will die, and you can replace the dead drive and rebuild the array while RMA'ing the dead drive. <br>
<br>For a simpler, black-box solution, drrobo - which was linked by another on the list - looks like pure win. <br><br>I hear what you're saying about not backing up to CDs/DVDs. I gave up on that a long time ago. Actually, I've grown weary of the process of dragging digital baggage of the past from system to system, generation to generation. It's time consuming and I've only got one life to live. Cataloging mp3's, cds, dvds, software, files, mail.... I think there's something to be said for the fact our brains are lossy storage mediums - it sure saves a lot of time. (climbs off soapbox). <br>
<br>-Rob <br></div></div>