Creating 1200+GB or more usable storage with raid1 backup

  • Thread starter Thread starter artfulgenius
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artfulgenius

I need to have at least 1200GB of usable storage under windows XP and a
raid1 backup (so 2400 in total).

I think it should be an external case with individual cooling, power
supply and SATA controller. This will be placed into a regular office,
not data center.

I'd like to have a reasonable installation price, so if it should be
done with two external cases to pay less I can do that, just to be able
to work with all the storage.

How do I do that? What hardware? What HDDs?
Thank you!
 
Previously said:
I need to have at least 1200GB of usable storage under windows XP and a
raid1 backup (so 2400 in total).
Click to expand...
I think it should be an external case with individual cooling, power
supply and SATA controller. This will be placed into a regular office,
not data center.
Click to expand...
I'd like to have a reasonable installation price, so if it should be
done with two external cases to pay less I can do that, just to be able
to work with all the storage.
Click to expand...

Since you want to use the controller in the extrnal case, cheap is
unlikely to be available. You will have to use something like a
FC->SATA or SCSI->SATA controller. They are expensive. Better put
everytging into one case, 1.2TB or 2.4TB is not a scary number
for disk capacity today.
How do I do that? What hardware? What HDDs?
Click to expand...

I would advise a server case, a >= 450 PSU (I made good experiences
with Enermax), 2 x Promise 150TX4 sata controllers and 8 of the new
Seagate 300GB SATA disks. Then use them with software RAID 0+1.
Mainboard and CPU do not matter much, take what you like, but
make sure it is good quality.

But take care that RAID1 is not a backup! It only protects against
HDD failure. Also a RAID5 or RAID6 solution (I would advise software
RAID again) would be cheaper and almost as safe. You might
consider doing this with a Linux-box and exporting the storage
via SAMBA and a dedicated gigabit link.

Arno
 
Almost anything will do.

eg. Tall PC tower case + two RAID cards + drives will do just fine. No
problems fitting 6 400GB HDs into this baby to setup a RAID.

You don't necessarily need a RAID card (hardware) - windows can do
software RAID as well. But realistically, if you want something stable
with or without Windows running, then hardware RAID is prefered.h

400GB IDE HDs for the density in as few drives as possible - you can
also use two sets of 4 300GB HDs.

---

If you want external, you'll want to look at SATA enclosures + SATA RAID
cards. This will keep the cabling down and simple. (You can achieve
the same with SCSI/FW/USB/etc. as well.)

---

Besides that, really nothing too amazing or hard about this - simply
plug in a few more HDs, setup the RAID card and off you go!

www.storagereview.com and www.tomshardware.com for RAID card reviews as
well as HD reviews.
 
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