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Storage Solutions for our OUT-OF-CONTROL iTunes Libraries

This still remains my biggest bugbear with OS X, the lack of NAS support.

I'm running a Thecus N4100+ with 4x WD 750Gb drive in Raid5 to hold my ripped DVDs etc.

What really baffles me, is why I can't do a Time Machine backup or keep iTunes library on the drive, without a lot of messing about ( even then it's proved unreliable for me...the backup solution, not the Thecus ).
 
Panch0 said:
You can connect the Drobo via USB to the Time Capsule and it will be available. HOWEVER - if you try to run any volume of data through it, it will over tax the USB controller on the time capsule, resulting in a very hot TC and a disconnected Drobo.

At least that was my experience... YMMV.

In my case ripping two DVDs in Handbrake from two Macs, both targeting the Drobo connected to the TC was just too much. Once I realized I was overheating the USB controller on the TC, I tried just ripping the dvds to the local drive then copying them to the Drobo. This was OK doing a couple of files at a time, but just copying a handful of ~2GB files without a break still seemed to be too much for the TC.

I later direct connected the Drobo to the Firewire port on my iMac (FW400 unfortunately) and it has been running great ever since.
Click to expand...

Okay thanks, that very useful information
 
for those aussies interested...

i have been looking for a storage solution that serves as both a primary backup for my movies/music/etc AND my main backup.

im thinking RAID1 in this instance, and something that will connect to my existing daisy chain of drives (dual bay enclosure->DVD burner->single bay enclosure via fw800).

i have come across a number of dual&quad bay drives made by Hotway(pccasegear.com.au).

i have yet to decide on which one i want but it is between these two.

1. Dual Bay Enclosure - 1x USB 2.0, 1x Firewire 400, 2x Firewire 800 (Aus$125)

2. Quad Bay Enclosure - 1xUSB 2.0,1x e-SATA, 1x1394 A, 2x1394. (Aus$319). It uses the OXUFS936QSE Chipset, anybody have an idea how bad/good that is?

I am also looking at this - Dual Bay Enclosure (USB + eSata only) for Aus$95.

decisions decisions!!!!

hope i can help somebody out.

suggestions?
 
Storage / backup question

Hi everyone,

Hoping for some suggestions please on how I could manage my specific situation! Any help would be much appreciated - I've gone through this thread but amn't sure what would be best for me - I've a bit of an idea about what RAID is, but I'm not sure what NAS is! Here is my current set-up:

  • iMac G5 with 1TB drive
  • External 500GB for Time Machine back up only
  • Mozy Home service for backing up files online
  • Airport Express linked to cable modem

I'm looking to get an Apple TV in the next two weeks so have started ripping all my DVDs to my iMac.

Problem: My 500GB time machine back up is now full, so I need to replace my external hard drive. I'm not worried about a RAID solution for having my backup drive backed up as I'll have an online backup through Mozy. But I'm guessing it's possible I may at some point want to move my iTunes library onto an external drive so that I can increase the size of it above the 1TB storage capacity of my iMac. I'm also thinking of upgrading my broadband connection to 50Meg so may need to replace my Airport Express with an Airport Extreme for -n wireless, although my broadband company will give me a free new router.

What I'm ideally looking for: i'm looking for a drive which could host my expanding iTunes library, and also use for Time Machine and which the Apple TV and iMac could stream from.

I'd really love any thoughts from you guys - is there a benefit in having wireless storage? Does that work ok with Apple TV, and can anyone with a similar set-up recommend a good option? I'm not too worried about price.....

Thanks!
 
AppleTV can't stream from anything other than a Mac. So to the extent thats all you're looking to do and you don't have anything else planned you'd be much better off with direct attached storage (as theMac will have to be on and reading the info anyway and it would be a much lower network load if the Mac is reading locally rather than having to pull stuff off a NAS and then stream it to the AppleTV).

Plenty of options then available from just a bigger external HDD through to something like a Drobo Pro depending on how much space you think you're going to need.

For what you're contemplating at the moment a NAS is more a headache than a benefit although obviously if you might add aditional computers to the mix later that might change.
 
Drobo is about the best available external storage solution that works well with Mac.

Your OS sees a 16TB drive (via USB or FW) and you can plug in as many/few drives as you choose. So if you need more space, just throw in a new drive, no software, formatting or moving data to worry about.

I have my Aperture Masters library and Time Machine running on one via FW800 and it's very fast.
 
hitekalex said:
Or a PC.. ;)
Click to expand...

heh, good point. And a quick google suggests people have (of course as somebody somewhere has tried most things...) hacked MediaSmart NASs to run iTunes which should allow you to stream direct to an AppleTV.

Too much trouble for me though and in my increasing quest for simplicity I've decided to add a Drobo to the MacMini I bought a few weeks ago. This will handle all my iTunes needs (with luck) in what is hopefully a very friendly and non-hacky manner!
 
Thanks guys. I think I'll just go with a 2TB external drive at the moment and partition half of it for Time Capsule and half of it for an iTunes library when I need to.

Drobo looks great, and I like that it's expandable, but it is SOOOOO expensive over here in the UK!
 
Simonmiller said:
Drobo looks great, and I like that it's expandable, but it is SOOOOO expensive over here in the UK!
Click to expand...

Tell me about it. Drobo + 2 x 1.5TB WD drives = £450 (or thereabouts from Amazon) which is $675 for our yankee bretheren.

And less space than your 2TB external!

Still I'm looking at it as a long term hub for the house so I can (just about) live with that.
 
wysinawyg said:
Tell me about it. Drobo + 2 x 1.5TB WD drives = £450 (or thereabouts from Amazon) which is $675 for our yankee bretheren.

And less space than your 2TB external!

Still I'm looking at it as a long term hub for the house so I can (just about) live with that.
Click to expand...

Bought mine from Amazon UK and threw in a few drives I had spare. It's worth it. I've had RAID5 before and it's such a pain to manage. Drobo just takes care of itself.
 
Simonmiller said:
What I'm ideally looking for: i'm looking for a drive which could host my expanding iTunes library, and also use for Time Machine and which the Apple TV and iMac could stream from.
Click to expand...

Do not, I repeat DO NOT use only one drive to host iTunes library files AND to backup. If that drive fails, you lose all your iTunes media (unless it's backed-up online, but I can't imagine backing up many, MANY GB of DVD rips will be an easy or cheap prospect.)

I have a 1TB external that serves exclusively as my iTunes Library HDD plus a 1.5TB external that is my Time Machine backup of both my internal AND iTunes drive.

My externals are connected to my iMac Mini and the ATV streams its media from there. I am very happy with my setup. Have my Mini set to 'wake on wireless' so it's asleep unless being used, or needed to serve up files to the AppleTV.
 
mstrze said:
No....no...NO!!! (see my previous post!!!) ;)
Click to expand...

Hmmm good point, although I do have all my stuff backed up online at the moment which is through Mozy's Home service - $5 a month for unlimited storage (although very slow when you have a big upload to do).

So I guess it's either 2 x 1.5TB external drives or bite the bullet and buy a Drobo which will also be expandable. Thanks!
 
Simonmiller said:
Hmmm good point, although I do have all my stuff backed up online at the moment which is through Mozy's Home service - $5 a month for unlimited storage (although very slow when you have a big upload to do).

So I guess it's either 2 x 1.5TB external drives or bite the bullet and buy a Drobo which will also be expandable. Thanks!
Click to expand...

I'm going through this at the moment as my time capsule died after 18mths, although apple replaced it i'm moving to some thing a little more robust.

I've ordered the NAS below with 2 1.5TB disks that will be a raid one to provide a safe guard from a disk crash.
http://qnap.expertsinstorage.com/nas/two-drive-s/qnap-ts-219p.html

This can be configured to use part of the drive for time machine.
http://www.qnap.com/fw_v3/images/tm.jpg
Or watch this
http://www.youtube.com/qnapsys#p/c/853062135B31EC34/1/cWs_jpBjFGo

This will then be backed-up to an 1.5tb external hard drive which I can offsite.
http://qnap.expertsinstorage.com/enclosures/single-drive-hot-swap-enclosure.html

Right or wrong this is the direction I'm going as everyone has different ideas.
I just wish a NAS could be used to stream movies to a ATV without leaving a mac on or having some type of media server. Thats my next problem but I don't fancy spending £500 on a mac mini.

Cheers Phil
 
What I'm ideally looking for:[/U][/B] i'm looking for a drive which could host my expanding iTunes library, and also use for Time Machine and which the Apple TV and iMac could stream from.
Click to expand...

Any data you store on the Time Machine drive is not backed up. So in this case yor iTunes library would not be backed up by Time Machine.

When you buy a drive for TM. Add up the size of all the data you have or WILL HAVE and then buy a drive that is at least 1.5 times larger. It would be better if it were 2 times larger Using this rule you may need to use raid for the TM drive as drives are only available up to 2TB today. But in every case the TM drive should be the largest drive you have.
 
Simonmiller said:
Hmmm good point, although I do have all my stuff backed up online at the moment which is through Mozy's Home service - $5 a month for unlimited storage (although very slow when you have a big upload to do).

So I guess it's either 2 x 1.5TB external drives or bite the bullet and buy a Drobo which will also be expandable. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Or a single enclosure that has space for 2 hdds. Carbon Copy Cloner will happily back one of the drives in the enclosure to the other. I presume Time Machine will also but I have not tested that out myself.
 
Thanks for all the advice guys - decided to go with a 2TB Time Capsule in the end - if my iTunes library ever outgrows my 1TB iMac capacity I can always move it to an external hard drive.

Cheers!
 
DoFoT9 said:
which is still in RAID0 ;) no different to what the OP said.
Click to expand...

Well, in that regard you can buy numerous items over 2TB then. I'm pretty sure the Western Digital external is plug and play, regardless of what it does under the hood.
 
how do i make a server?
what i want to have happen is this.
i will have 2-3 hard drives in a windows machine, and it will be seeding the files.
can i then somehow connect wirelessly to that computer and access the data on the computer?

also, side question, if my mother board has a ide connection for the hard drives and the cable inside only has one connection, can i just by a cable with more connections?

this is what i want to happen.
here goes, i want to get this windows machine running, with at least 3 hard drives.
then run a raid setup on the first two onto the third (duplicate the data, i think raid 1?).
then have this computer always connected, seeding files.
then, i want to be able to access that machine from my mac laptop, wireless or connected, from the router?

some help would be much appreciated. so sick of my current setup, way to much hassle.
 
benlangdon said:
how do i make a server?
what i want to have happen is this.
i will have 2-3 hard drives in a windows machine, and it will be seeding the files.
can i then somehow connect wirelessly to that computer and access the data on the computer?

also, side question, if my mother board has a ide connection for the hard drives and the cable inside only has one connection, can i just by a cable with more connections?

this is what i want to happen.
here goes, i want to get this windows machine running, with at least 3 hard drives.
then run a raid setup on the first two onto the third (duplicate the data, i think raid 1?).
then have this computer always connected, seeding files.
then, i want to be able to access that machine from my mac laptop, wireless or connected, from the router?

some help would be much appreciated. so sick of my current setup, way to much hassle.
Click to expand...

BAHA! you have absolutely NOT idea how easy that really is ;)

ill find a thread and link you - i have provided a pretty indepth walkthrough for another user.

tbh, you REALLY dont want to use windows though - because it can only use SMB or FTP (natively) file sharing. apple doesnt FULLY play along, it much prefers AFP.

RAID1 is mirrored yes, i have recently added a 2x2TB RAID1 external enclosure to my list haha.

as for the IDE, i am fairly certain that the IDe ribbon can take 2 devices, and there is no room to expand. had you thought about getting a SATA PCIe card? or FW/USB/eSata PCIe card? quite handy.

will provide link once i find it!
EDIT: see this post from the thread :) might help
 
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