massive storage options

[tfs8271]

just came across this internal 500GB on sale today at Frys.com for $110:

SOLD! +t. Anyone have experience ordering from here?

Fry's is reliable, i've ordered from them a bunch of times and also have a local store I've shopped at too.

Some of you might be interested in my inexpensive storage/archive strategy discussed here:
http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,81962.0.html

Ditto but you have it by now.

[OFOTD]

I bought a 500GB external USB Western Digital drive a while back...  It was $150 on sale.

It has been working well but has one major PIA issue.  It automatically goes to sleep after a couple minutes of idle time. It looks like that can't be disabled..  I think this feature is what keeps the drive from overheating. The enclosure has lots of vents but is plastic and has no fan.

I mostly use the drive for shuffling data but it is a real pain if you're doing work on it.

Have you checked your computers power settings?

[kskreider]

A buddy of mine said he wanted a 1TB NAS.  I shopped around and found this:

Infrant ReadyNAS ($615 at Newegg)
4 x 750GB SATAII (4 x $199 at Fry's)
= ~$1500 for 3TB
add the white, on sale, Squeezebox for $249 (less $20 code) and you have a new playback server.

Apparently the Infrant ReadyNAS will run the Slim Server for the Squeezebox but only runs at SATAI speeds and not SATAII.  Just and FYI for folks looking for the MASSIVE option.

[Nick's Picks]

I have a netgear NAS box that I bought for $50 (no drives)
it takes two IDEs, of any size.  Sets up some basic RAID/MIRROR action...if  you want.
add two 500gb drives, and its a wonderful and cheap storage device.  Add Squeezebox .....and you're in heaven.

[tfs8271]

So I have my Sony Vaio connected via opti cable to my receiver. Therefore, I wouldn't need a squeezebox. Correct?

It looks like I could use the NAS/4-750GB combo.

[Carrera2]

I've been using this one with some inexpensive 400 GB drives and been happy with it:

http://snipurl.com/1mcei

[ford prefect]

Anyone using power mgmt on their drives?  Most of mine sit idle and could be spun down.. Though I wonder what impact that might have on long term reliability?

I'd spin the drives down, gotta be good. I also have a syslog tailer let me know if smartctl is logging any heating/error conditions.

My understanding (and limited experience) is that if the computer is on 24/7 it's best to have them spin all the time.  The Spin Up/Spin Down process is much more wear and tear on the drives than maintaining a constant spin and will eventually lead to an earlier failure.  IME - I have 4x 120GB drives that have been on as long as the machine has power for the past ~5 years.  (Knock on wood), no failures yet...

[fischer]

I have been using and deploying un-RAID servers.  www.lime-technology.com  There is nothing else like it on the market... where you can use any size HD's, parity just has to be the largest disk. I have had great success.

Few drawbacks,
1. Security... there really is none, but in the works
2. Slimserver.. again this is in the works.

[bobbygeeWOW]

Anyone using power mgmt on their drives?  Most of mine sit idle and could be spun down.. Though I wonder what impact that might have on long term reliability?

I'd spin the drives down, gotta be good. I also have a syslog tailer let me know if smartctl is logging any heating/error conditions.

My understanding (and limited experience) is that if the computer is on 24/7 it's best to have them spin all the time.  The Spin Up/Spin Down process is much more wear and tear on the drives than maintaining a constant spin and will eventually lead to an earlier failure.  IME - I have 4x 120GB drives that have been on as long as the machine has power for the past ~5 years.  (Knock on wood), no failures yet...

<Not that I know anything>
Well what hurt drives is hot/cold, start/stop. The theory is that for servers being used 24x7, you keep the drives spinning, much like driving on the highway, to avoid the stop/start wear and tear of city driving.

My general usage pattern of the music server is about a couple hours a day, say when I'm not sleeping or out of the house. With that pattern I decided that spinning down would be the way to go - since once I start listening, the drives will remain spinning the entire time as they stream flacs off the drives. Mind you I don't think that's any sort of absolute - you'd have to decide what makes sense for you.   

[OFOTD]

For me it all comes down to buying a quality drive from a quality manufacturer.  Sure there are bad drives in every batch but for the most part it is very much worth buying a good quality drive.  I can't tell you how many people I know who bought the $75 on sale drive from <insert store here> and had them fail.  They call and ask me how to fix it and I always go back to you get what you pay for.  Now mind you that the drives are usually Hitachi's or some other crap ass brand but you get my point.  Do a little research, look at the different product lines from a given manufacturer.  Spend a few extra bucks get the better drive.

[ford prefect]

Now mind you that the drives are usually Hitachi's or some other crap ass brand but you get my point. 

Ha, Hitachi is the brand that archive.org uses for its Petaboxes.   They find them to be low power, low cost, high reliability. 

[OFOTD]

Now mind you that the drives are usually Hitachi's or some other crap ass brand but you get my point. 

Ha, Hitachi is the brand that archive.org uses for its Petaboxes.   They find them to be low power, low cost, high reliability. 

Exactly the complete opposite of my experiences with many of the Hitachi drives.  Possibly they have some Europe-only reliable drives in that rack because they aren't reliable here in the States.

Cool webpage though for the server rack.

[ford prefect]

Exactly the complete opposite of my experiences with many of the Hitachi drives.  Possibly they have some Europe-only reliable drives in that rack because they aren't reliable here in the States.

Nah, their datacenter is in SF now.  But I'm pretty sure they work directly with Hitachi due to the volume of drives they use, so you're right that it's probably not consumer grade stuff.