Recommend me a NAS

[nia]

If going that route, you should REALLY check out unRAID.

It's maybe the best software find for me since GBPVR! It's very simple to set up; it expands with whatever you throw at it, and you are well protected for data loss at only the cost of one disk the size of your largest disk. Configuration is through a web interface, and as easy as scheduling a recording

Free for a small installation, inexpensive when expanding.

http://lime-technology.com/
http://lime-technology.com/forum/

[johnsonx42]

I did end up going the Freenas path. I had to buy some bits, but it ended up being half the price of other options.

Cool, you'll have to let me know how it works out for you.

[johnsonx42]

unRAID is no doubt really neat, but the basic version looks pretty limiting; FreeNAS does for free more than the full $119 version of unRAID does.

[martint123]

Out of curiosity, are there any tools to backup these NTFS alternative streams to a NAS box? Like being able to strip the info and maybe zip it all up??
I do a weekly sync of my media drive to a NAS drive and only just realised none of the additional info will be present.

[johnsonx42]

Out of curiosity, are there any tools to backup these NTFS alternative streams to a NAS box? Like being able to strip the info and maybe zip it all up??
I do a weekly sync of my media drive to a NAS drive and only just realised none of the additional info will be present.

for my recording of House last night, this puts the Timing.Info and metadata.xml in separate files:

type "House_20100920_20002100.ts:Timing.Info" > "House_20100920_20002100.Timing.Info"
type "House_20100920_20002100.ts:metadata.xml" > "House_20100920_20002100.metadata.xml"

to do this in a batch file (like PostProcessing.bat) where %1 is the full path name of the .ts file in question:

Code:

type "%1:Timing.Info" > "%~dpn1.Timing.Info"
type "%1:metadata.xml" > "%~dpn1.metadata.xml"

edit: and of course you might want to put it back one day (again %1 should be the full path and name of the .ts file):

Code:

type "%~dpn1.Timing.Info" > "%1:Timing.Info"
type "%~dpn1.metadata.xml" > "%1:metadata.xml"

"%~dpn1" is %1 without the extension, so "F:\Recordings\House\House_20100920_20002100.ts" becomes "F:\Recordings\House\House_20100920_20002100"

[martint123]

Thanks you kindly for that, I'll tweak slightly and tell my sync software to run that before sync'ing.

[nia]

unRAID is no doubt really neat, but the basic version looks pretty limiting; FreeNAS does for free more than the full $119 version of unRAID does.

FreeNAS has an impressive feature set, that's for sure!

However - I came from a hardware RAID-5 card in my GBPVR box, and still wanted to keep the comfort of being protected if one drive fails. The way unRAID is implemented for that purpose is IMO brilliantly concieved. Parity safety and still no striping, so data on each individual disk will be readily avalilable if outside the array (or 2 simultaneous disk-crashes). At the cost of only one disk for parity that can protect an array of currently up to 21 disks...

Shortly after going live with my setup, I even did a complete hardware migration to new MoBo with different chipset and CPU (the old MoBo drowned after a leaking ThermalTake tube - don't ever buy that crap). Plugged the disks in, power on, confirm configuration, go! It's situations like that that build loyalty.

For me, it does exactly what I need it to do - keep my files safe, protected and robust for any upgrade in capacity or replacement of hardware.

And at least it's an option - and to many I've talked to an unknown one, so I just wanted to at least bring it to the table for eval.

YMMV as may Subs - to me it's the Bomb!

[johnsonx42]

The way unRAID is implemented for that purpose is IMO brilliantly concieved. Parity safety and still no striping, so data on each individual disk will be readily avalilable if outside the array (or 2 simultaneous disk-crashes).

Yes, that bit is extremely clever. Having been on the wrong side of a damaged RAID-5 set more than once, that idea is really comforting... you could get down to 3 disks of a 5 disk unRAID set and still get 50 to 75% of your files back (depending on exactly which disks are missing - the parity drive becomes moot if two data drives die) and of course any further data recovery effort can deal with the problem drives individually.
On the down-side unRAID doesn't yield the performance boost of striping either, unless multiple files are being read simultaneously AND they happen to be on different physical disks, and I've read it's brutally slow to do a rebuild (but then how often do you have to do a rebuild, and to some extent so what if it takes a long time).

For a guy like sub, I'll bet having access to the Freenas source code is part of the appeal.

[nia]

On the down-side unRAID doesn't yield the performance boost of striping either, unless multiple files are being read simultaneously AND they happen to be on different physical disks, and I've read it's brutally slow to do a rebuild (but then how often do you have to do a rebuild, and to some extent so what if it takes a long time).

Well, the performance is 'worst' when you write, because you have to involve the parity drive. People tend to get write speeds of 25-50MBps. If you insert a cache drive, that can be improved. Reads are really only depending on the disk you read from. It is in essence as fast as the drive and hardware permits. Typically people get in the range of 40-80MBps, some in the 100+ range. Both speeds are to me more than adequate for my needs. The bandwith need for video etc. is covered by an order of magnitude+ (blueray max. 50Mbps=6,25MBps, DVB-C typical 6Mbps/0,75MBps)

While rebuilding can take some time, it is not really critical like you say, as the array and all files are online all the time it's rebuilding - as they were when your disk crashed and when you inserted the new (maybe larger) replacement drive . You're just not protected during rebuild time, which means that you are in essence in the same situation as with a regular NAS, and only until it has finished rebuilding, at which time protection is intact again.

For a guy like sub, I'll bet having access to the Freenas source code is part of the appeal.

You may be right on with this comment, even if he did start by simply just wanting a black box attached to the LAN...

[mvallevand]

For a guy like sub, I'll bet having access to the Freenas source code is part of the appeal.

Ironically perhaps, (I tried to find the post but couldn't) but I remember when sub wrote that he didn't like open-source.

Martin