Hardware RAID 5, or RAID 0 and backup to Drobo?

[Norman Willis]

>> Good luck with your new project!

Thanks.

[Walter Soyka]

[Norman Willis] “I also want to load the thing on my laptop (and backup), so I can “take the show on the road”…”

I think that’s the best you can reasonably do — keep your backup laptop up and running in case your main computer goes down for any reason during your broadcast. You can’t practically safeguard against every single point of failure because so many things are outside of your control, but some practical steps (like running a live backup) will help minimize the effects of the most likely failures.

[Norman Willis] “I can backup D:\ to the Drobo (even though, yeah, it takes forever on USB2)”

It’s not just USB2. Drobo is just plain slow — it’s the tradeoff for that much storage at such a low price.

[Norman Willis] “Actually, the more I think about it, harware RAID 5 is supposed to be almost as fast as RAID 0; so would a logical C:\ partition on a 5-disk RAID 5 array give me more speed on C:\ than having C:\ in a simple two-disk RAID 1?”

What about getting an external optical disc drive and using all 6 bays for hard disks? Or what about getting an external enclosure for more disks in your media RAID set?

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Norman Willis]

>> What about getting an external optical disc drive and using all 6 bays for hard disks?

That is a great idea. If I move the optical drive outside of the box then I can put three hdd’s in C:\ on RAID 5. Hardware RAID 5 is supposed to be almost as fast as RAID 0, so that should be a low-cost solution to maintain performance while adding redundancy.

But are external optical drives reliable? And will I be able to move my existing internal outside of the box? I was told that for some reason, optical drives were more reliable inside of the box. Is that true?

Norman Willis
http://www.nazareneisrael.org

[Walter Soyka]

[Norman Willis] “But are external optical drives reliable? And will I be able to move my existing internal outside of the box? I was told that for some reason, optical drives were more reliable inside of the box. Is that true?”

You’d need an enclosure to re-use your existing optical drive. Is it SATA? I haven’t heard of any problems with external optical drives. I’d think as long as your enclosure is well-ventilated, you shouldn’t have any problems.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Norman Willis]

OK, I got the parts on the way.

3 hdd’s in RAID 5 on C:\,
and 3 hdd’s in RAID 5 on D:\,
and one external USB2 optical drive.

Very nice. Thanks!

Norman Willis
http://www.nazareneisrael.org