Drobo and iTunes Library

[Jigga Beef]

Is aynone else using a 4 drive Drobo to serve as their iTunes library. I have 4 2TB drives in my drobo filled with about 1.5TB of content all from my iTunes library.

What attracted me to the drobo was the redundent drive feature so if a drive goes down i do not lose my entire library. I know this isn't a traditional "back up" I have backed up about 700 gigs of my favorite content on an external drive as a secondary back up.

Is there a better way to back up short of getting a 2nd drobo to strictly server as my current drobos back up?

I have been considering getting 2 more 2X drives and putting them inside my Mac Pro making them 1 drive though a RAID and just using the drobo for content back up thorough Time Machine or CCC.

Anybody have any other good ideas for handing such a large iTunes library?

 

[jdag]

I have a Drobo connected to my iMac and keep all of my videos on it. I do not keep iTunes on the Drobo (at least at this point, I have iTunes media on the iMac hard drive). I use Plex to view the videos on my jailbroken Apple TVs.

In terms of backing up the Drobo, I just use a simple copy to 2 3tb portable hard drives that I keep off-site.

Therefore, I have the Drobo with its built-in drive redundancy. Plus the external hard drives with what amounts to a duplicate of videos (including folder structure) on the Drobo.

When I get new content, I do the following:
1) Load the new videos onto the Drobo.
2) Place those same videos in a temp folder on my iMac's internal hard drive
3) Monthly or so I go get the external drives form my parents' house and copy the files from my temp folder over to the external drives, then return them back to my parents' house.

So I always have 2 copies. Obviously there is a temporary risk of both the Drobo and iMac being lost simultaneously (fire, flood, theft, etc.). But worst case I would lose just the latest handful of videos.

 

[wkalexand]

Same challenge

I'm in the same boat. Have about 3-4 Terabytes of movies/tv, some in 1080. All future movies/tv will be in 1080 now with 4 AppleTV3s.

I've decided to separate my iTunes from the rest of my computing tasks.

Going to get a [headless] mac mini + thunderbolt drobo to run iTunes as a dedicated server. Back up will go to www.crashplan.com. Only drawback is it will take several months for crashplan to load first backup.

I like the idea of rotating drives to/from office or parents' house. But I just dont think I'd be disciplined enough to do it regularly.

The rest of my computing will go to a new iMac.

NOW.... if Apple will just release the new MacMini and iMac, I can be on my way!

 

[jdag]

I'm in the same boat. Have about 3-4 Terabytes of movies/tv, some in 1080. All future movies/tv will be in 1080 now with 4 AppleTV3s.

I've decided to separate my iTunes from the rest of my computing tasks.

Going to get a [headless] mac mini + thunderbolt drobo to run iTunes as a dedicated server. Back up will go to www.crashplan.com. Only drawback is it will take several months for crashplan to load first backup.

I like the idea of rotating drives to/from office or parents' house. But I just dont think I'd be disciplined enough to do it regularly.

The rest of my computing will go to a new iMac.

NOW.... if Apple will just release the new MacMini and iMac, I can be on my way!

Sending 3-4tb to CrashPlan will take way more than a few months! It may take a few years! I too use CrashPlan but decided to not send my videos there...that's why I use the external hard drives and keep them offsite.

 

[mic j]

Sending 3-4tb to CrashPlan will take way more than a few months! It may take a few years! I too use CrashPlan but decided to not send my videos there...that's why I use the external hard drives and keep them offsite.

I just calculated that it would take about 118 days to upload my 2TB of movies, uploading 24hrs/day. Also, if I read the site correctly, if you need something restored, they send you a zip file that has a maximum size of 250MB. If I calculate that correctly, that would 8000 files to restore my drive. So they can offer all that unlimited storage for a cheap price, the fact is, it's unusable.

 

[turtle777]

Wow, I was thinking about checking out Crashplan, but if what you wrote is right, I don't have to bother.

-t

 

[mic j]

Wow, I was thinking about checking out Crashplan, but if what you wrote is right, I don't have to bother.

-t

http://www.startekgrp.com/upload_calculator.htm

Go to this upload calculator and you can figure it out for your own needs. I have 1.5Mbps upload speed. And as for download, that's the way I read it. Here is a link to a review of the service and make sure to read the "Comments".
http://www.macworld.com/article/1166708/crashplan_reliable_cloud_backup_and_online_storage.html

 

[jdag]

I just calculated that it would take about 118 days to upload my 2TB of movies, uploading 24hrs/day. Also, if I read the site correctly, if you need something restored, they send you a zip file that has a maximum size of 250MB. If I calculate that correctly, that would 8000 files to restore my drive. So they can offer all that unlimited storage for a cheap price, the fact is, it's unusable.

Not considering the file size limits that are returned to you, I could not imagine waiting that long to have a backup complete (meanwhile having CrashPlan scarf up my bandwidth).

That's why I let CrashPlan handle the "normal stuff" and I treated my video collection separately and backup to the external drives. To put it into perspective, my CrashPlan account currently stores roughly 200gb. That's only about 15 or so BluRay MKV files!

As for how to get the files back in case...I was not aware of such a limit. You can download individual or groups of files back from the CrashPlan site anytime. Maybe that limit is in effect if they have to prepare your files as a complete set.

Getting back to the topic, I do find the Drobo to be excellent for serving up my videos through Plex to my AppleTVs. So I would suggest that as an approach.

 

[mic j]

Not considering the file size limits that are returned to you, I could not imagine waiting that long to have a backup complete (meanwhile having CrashPlan scarf up my bandwidth).

That's why I let CrashPlan handle the "normal stuff" and I treated my video collection separately and backup to the external drives. To put it into perspective, my CrashPlan account currently stores roughly 200gb. That's only about 15 or so BluRay MKV files!

As for how to get the files back in case...I was not aware of such a limit. You can download individual or groups of files back from the CrashPlan site anytime. Maybe that limit is in effect if they have to prepare your files as a complete set.

Getting back to the topic, I do find the Drobo to be excellent for serving up my videos through Plex to my AppleTVs. So I would suggest that as an approach.

My problem for backup, and it's not an unusual one, is that I have 2TB HDD filled with movies (about 300). Which means I need another 2TB drive just for that. And, I'm going to need another 2TB drive to hold future stuff and another 2TB drive to back up that drive. And most of all...I'm cheap!!

I'll probably just end up living on the edge and not backing up all those movies. Maybe by the time the drive fails (knock on wood), a new way of dealing with movies will have been developed.

 

[turtle777]

http://www.startekgrp.com/upload_calculator.htm

Go to this upload calculator and you can figure it out for your own needs. I have 1.5Mbps upload speed. And as for download, that's the way I read it. Here is a link to a review of the service and make sure to read the "Comments".
http://www.macworld.com/article/1166708/crashplan_reliable_cloud_backup_and_online_storage.html

The 250MB file size limit for restored files is what kills it for me.
How would that even work if you backup movies ?

-t

 

[mic j]

The 250MB file size limit for restored files is what kills it for me.
How would that even work if you backup movies ?

-t

I think cloud storage of large movie collections (or even large system HDD's) are not feasible, yet. An NAS (or Drobo) are probably better alternatives...alas, with a significant price tag.

 

[jdag]

Yup...it's not cheap. My backup drives (2 3tb units) set me back $300. Waste? Well, yes, until if/when the Drobo fails in any way.

 

[turtle777]

Ok, there *are* reasonable options with CrashPlan:

Seeded Backup and Restore to Your DoorIf you have a lot to back up, the initial backup might take longer than you'd like. So we offer a ‘seed service’ where we send you an external hard drive to use for your first backup. After you send it back, we transfer the data directly to CrashPlan Central, saving a lot of time on your first backup.

Similarly, if you ever need to restore a large amount of data, use CrashPlan’s Restore to Your Door service, to have us ship your computer backup archive to you on a hard drive or DVD, so you can restore locally

http://support.crashplan.com/doku.php/feature/seed_service?s[]=seeded&s[]=backup

It doesn't cost extra. Great service.

-t

 

[mic j]

Ok, there *are* reasonable options with CrashPlan:



http://support.crashplan.com/doku.php/feature/seed_service?s[]=seeded&s[]=backup

It doesn't cost extra. Great service.

-t

Per the link you provided, they do state that it costs extra and the disc they send you is 1TB. I couldn't find any price for the service at there website. Per my link in another post, the indication was that it cost $125. This has gotten way off topic so you may want to open a new thread on this.

Addition: Oh...and for $125 (if that price is accurate), we could buy a 2TB drive for backup. I'm with ya... in concept, I just don't think cloud is cost effective for large backups yet.

 

[turtle777]

You are right, I didn't see the fee. I was thrown off by the statement saying shipping is included in the price. I jumped to the conclusion that they refered to the basic price for the service.

$125 for 1TB is BS.

I got at least 3 TB to backup. For the money of "uploading" 3TB and "restoring" 3TB, I can buy myself plenty of HD that I keep offsite.

Bottom line: CrashPlan might be feasible for documents, pcutires and music, but not for movie libraries.

-t

 

[mic j]

You are right, I didn't see the fee. I was thrown off by the statement saying shipping is included in the price. I jumped to the conclusion that they refered to the basic price for the service.

$125 for 1TB is BS.

I got at least 3 TB to backup. For the money of "uploading" 3TB and "restoring" 3TB, I can buy myself plenty of HD that I keep offsite.

Bottom line: CrashPlan might be feasible for documents, pcutires and music, but not for movie libraries.

-t

This investigation is starting to make the large capacity HD and NAS systems look pretty reasonably priced!!

 

[jdag]

This investigation is starting to make the large capacity HD and NAS systems look pretty reasonably priced!!

That's the reason I ended up buying the 2 3tb drives to basically be my backup to my Drobo.

 

[turtle777]

For me, CrashPlan would be in ADDITION to my NAS.

I have a Drobo, whioch craped out on me. Right now, I'm working with Tech Support to get it back going, but it taught me that I need a backup to my backup.

Right now, my tendency is toward a 3TB external HD that I store offsite (like at my office). For anything >100GB, I don't see CrashPlan as a viable option, because of the limitation of restoring the data for cheap.

-t

 

[swordfish5736]

For me, CrashPlan would be in ADDITION to my NAS.

I have a Drobo, whioch craped out on me. Right now, I'm working with Tech Support to get it back going, but it taught me that I need a backup to my backup.

Right now, my tendency is toward a 3TB external HD that I store offsite (like at my office). For anything >100GB, I don't see CrashPlan as a viable option, because of the limitation of restoring the data for cheap.

-t

Hopefully they get your Drobo back up and running...the main thing that scared me away was proprietary raid that is only usable in a Drobo. So if the unit fails you need another to access your data

 

[turtle777]

Hopefully they get your Drobo back up and running...the main thing that scared me away was proprietary raid that is only usable in a Drobo. So if the unit fails you need another to access your data

Oh, let me scare you some more.

My Drobo wouldn't mount anymore, although all the drives are reported green and healthy. Drobo send me a new Drobo box, I swapt all the drives, this was supposed to fix it.

Well, tough luck, even with the new Drobo enclosure, it's still the same problem: can't mount the drives (therefore, can't access the data).

This is exactly what should never happen. What good is it if you have a sophisticated RAID that keeps all data redundant, if you can't access it.

-t

 

[swordfish5736]

Oh, let me scare you some more.

My Drobo wouldn't mount anymore, although all the drives are reported green and healthy. Drobo send me a new Drobo box, I swapt all the drives, this was supposed to fix it.

Well, tough luck, even with the new Drobo enclosure, it's still the same problem: can't mount the drives (therefore, can't access the data).

This is exactly what should never happen. What good is it if you have a sophisticated RAID that keeps all data redundant, if you can't access it.

-t

Exactly why I skipped the Drobo purchase. Aside for the whole lose your data thing they seem nice

 

[turtle777]

Exactly why I skipped the Drobo purchase. Aside for the whole lose your data thing they seem nice

Well, the risk also exists for Synology with their proprietary RAID.

To minimize this risk, you'd need to go and use a standard RAID configuration. That's probably what I'm going to do next, either in a Synology or QNAP enclosure.

-t

 

[Jigga Beef]

I think what i may end up doing is RAID 1 2X 2TB drives in my Mac Pro at slots #3 and #4 and using those 4(ish) TB's as my iTunes folder and than use the Drobo for strictly iTunes back up.

I know Drobo is not the ideal backup but having my library in 2 spots instead of 1 is safer.

I am think a Time Machine back up for my iTunes folder is unnessasary since the files play count and such changes so rapidly. I currently clone by Boot drive with CCC, i am thinking about just using CCC to clone my iTunes drive over to my Drobo.

Any thoughts?

 

[mike457]

A back-up is an excellent and wise plan. I have two Drobos, one stocked with 2TB drives which holds my iTunes and one with 3TB drives that holds MKVs to serve XBMC. and my Mini. I recently had some excitement when one of the 3TB drives failed. I purchased a replacement, swapped it in, the rebuilding process went a long time, and the Drobo began rebooting every half hour. Tech support looked at the log file and told me a second hard drive was failing. I had to clone that hard drive to a new one (cloning 3Tb is slow!), and then replace the second defective drive. At that time, I didn't have a backup for the MKV files; the music files are backed up. Believe me, when the second hard drive began to fail, my life did pass before my eyes!

I found a deal on 3TB goflex drives, and am using them as backup for my movies.

 

[CylonGlitch]

I found a deal on 3TB goflex drives, and am using them as backup for my movies.

Linkage?