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Storage Solutions for our OUT-OF-CONTROL iTunes Libraries

crotalus99 said:
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Click to expand...

love the setup - I'm gonna go in that direction but I'm waiting on the new mac minis(!) because I'm an idiot - I know the old ones will do the job just fine, I just can't bring myself to buy one when there is a possible update just round the corner. So is that a time capsule or an AEBS in the pic? how are you finding your drobo? they look amazing!
 
crotalus99 said:
I've been converting my DVD collection for about 2 months now and couldn't be happier with the setup I chose. I do still have about 150 DVD's to go, but this is what I have so far.

I am using an older Mac Mini with a Drobo attached. Just recently had to add an additional 1TB drive to the Drobo which exhaustingly took almost 3 minutes to install and the Drobo to recognize the storage space.

The Mac Mini is connected via ethernet to a Time Machine which then serves the 3 aTVs (2 wireless N, 1 ethernet), I do not notice the difference in connection speeds. All have a slight lag to get the movie going, but once it is running there have never been a problem.

I use the Linksys router connected to the cable modem to handle all G speed traffic in the house and only my Macbook Pro and my wife's Macbook use the Time Machine for backup.

I really like the use of the Mac Mini, because it can sit on the shelf without monitor, etc connected out of the way in my home office, but could easily be put anywhere. I use screen sharing to connect and manage the iTunes library as well as the shared iPhoto library.
Click to expand...

me likes this set up! veddy nice.
 
crotalus99 said:
I've been converting my DVD collection for about 2 months now and couldn't be happier with the setup I chose. I do still have about 150 DVD's to go, but this is what I have so far.

I am using an older Mac Mini with a Drobo attached. Just recently had to add an additional 1TB drive to the Drobo which exhaustingly took almost 3 minutes to install and the Drobo to recognize the storage space.

The Mac Mini is connected via ethernet to a Time Machine which then serves the 3 aTVs (2 wireless N, 1 ethernet), I do not notice the difference in connection speeds. All have a slight lag to get the movie going, but once it is running there have never been a problem.

I use the Linksys router connected to the cable modem to handle all G speed traffic in the house and only my Macbook Pro and my wife's Macbook use the Time Machine for backup.

I really like the use of the Mac Mini, because it can sit on the shelf without monitor, etc connected out of the way in my home office, but could easily be put anywhere. I use screen sharing to connect and manage the iTunes library as well as the shared iPhoto library.
Click to expand...

Nice setup! How is the noise from the drobo?
 
paulinhadrp said:
Care to explain what this is?
I'm kinda illiterate in disk formatting...
Click to expand...

yeah sure - its the file format that mac osx uses. i.e. the hd in your mac will be formatted to this. If you go into disk utility (applications>utilities) you can select you drive, select erase and in the "Volume Format" drop down list select Mac OSX Extended (Journaled). Although this will wipe your data so make sure you move it somewhere safe and then you can just put it back.

I'm not sure if this will solve your problem but I think it's what the other guy was getting at - maybe wait until he confirms this until you go to this trouble.
 
.mark. said:
yeah sure - its the file format that mac osx uses. i.e. the hd in your mac will be formatted to this. If you go into disk utility (applications>utilities) you can select you drive, select erase and in the "Volume Format" drop down list select Mac OSX Extended (Journaled). Although this will wipe your data so make sure you move it somewhere safe and then you can just put it back.

I'm not sure if this will solve your problem but I think it's what the other guy was getting at - maybe wait until he confirms this until you go to this trouble.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for your time...
I'll try that right now and I'll let you know how that goes...
 
After many tries, Disk Utility finally formatted my WD HD to MAC OS Extended (Journaled)... now I'm transferring all of my iTunes files to the drive and will try the streaming again after it is done.. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks again for the help!
 
Seeeet dude!

.mark. said:
love the setup - I'm gonna go in that direction but I'm waiting on the new mac minis(!) because I'm an idiot - I know the old ones will do the job just fine, I just can't bring myself to buy one when there is a possible update just round the corner. So is that a time capsule or an AEBS in the pic? how are you finding your drobo? they look amazing!
Click to expand...

Yeah dude, that's a sweet set-up. I looked at the pic and now I'm drooling.

I'm in the same boat, waiting for the MacMini update. Now I'm leaning towards a Drobo too!
 
crotalus99 said:
I really like the use of the Mac Mini, because it can sit on the shelf without monitor, etc connected out of the way in my home office, but could easily be put anywhere. I use screen sharing to connect and manage the iTunes library as well as the shared iPhoto library.
Click to expand...


Question for you. I also would like a mac mini in my setup. What do you do about the keyboard and mouse? Did you use a monitor for the initial setup or can you do that remotely? I know there is no space, but I would love an hdmi connector on the mini.
 
bergmef said:
Question for you. I also would like a mac mini in my setup. What do you do about the keyboard and mouse? Did you use a monitor for the initial setup or can you do that remotely? I know there is no space, but I would love an hdmi connector on the mini.
Click to expand...

he said he uses screen sharing...
 
.mark. said:
love the setup - I'm gonna go in that direction but I'm waiting on the new mac minis(!) because I'm an idiot - I know the old ones will do the job just fine, I just can't bring myself to buy one when there is a possible update just round the corner. So is that a time capsule or an AEBS in the pic? how are you finding your drobo? they look amazing!
Click to expand...

I had the Time Capsule previously for backup of my laptop and still use it for that. It also handles the wireless N activity of the 2 laptops and 3 aTVs. I have several other wireless G devices around the house and didn't want them to effect the aTVs so the TC is bridged (I believe that is the term) to the Linksys so everyone is still on the same network for sharing and printing, they use the wireless G to access the network.

My Mac Mini is a G4 and seems to work fine. I would love to see if there would be a difference in performance with a newer Intel chip mini. Leopard is a little sluggish even with the max RAM on the G4.
 
Volante said:
Nice setup! How is the noise from the drobo?
Click to expand...

I can not say enough about the Drobo. Very minimal noise that I appreciate, the box does a nice job of dampening the sound of the drives.
I added the 3rd 1TB drive a week ago and it consisted of pushing it into the bay and that was it. Two minutes later all 3 green lights were on and the Drobo monitor recognized the increased space. I've had RAID setups in the past and maybe I'm just getting old, but I just didn't want to deal with it anymore.
I feel the same way about the Drobo as I did the first time I bought a Tivo, you can do the same with other devices but this thing just works!!
 
crotalus99 said:
I had the Time Capsule previously for backup of my laptop and still use it for that. It also handles the wireless N activity of the 2 laptops and 3 aTVs. I have several other wireless G devices around the house and didn't want them to effect the aTVs so the TC is bridged (I believe that is the term) to the Linksys so everyone is still on the same network for sharing and printing.

My Mac Mini is a G4 and seems to work fine. I would love to see if there would be a difference in performance with a newer Intel chip mini.
Click to expand...

ah I see. I'm planning on using the mini as a TM server backing up to a partition on the drobo, then I've got fault tolerance on my backups to.

Another reason I want the new mini is that I plan to use it for ripping DVDs so my main mac doesn't have to bother with it so I think I would benefit from the fastest/newest/shiniest!
 
bergmef said:
Question for you. I also would like a mac mini in my setup. What do you do about the keyboard and mouse? Did you use a monitor for the initial setup or can you do that remotely? I know there is no space, but I would love an hdmi connector on the mini.
Click to expand...


Yes I initially used a monitor with mouse and keyboard, but since it will boot up and I set it to automatically load iTunes on boot I don't need them. I do get an error message when it first boots that it can't find the mouse/keyboard that I have to exit out of, but I can do that from the screen sharing and it doesn't effect the network sharing of iTunes if a power outage or such causes the Mini to reboot when I'm not home.
It would be nice if it was in a closet to manage it with a complete setup when needed, but I have gotten very used to the screen sharing. It's a great feature that really works flawlessly, with the added feature of not having to move from my desk.
 
.mark. said:
ah I see. I'm planning on using the mini as a TM server backing up to a partition on the drobo, then I've got fault tolerance on my backups to.

Another reason I want the new mini is that I plan to use it for ripping DVDs so my main mac doesn't have to bother with it so I think I would benefit from the fastest/newest/shiniest!
Click to expand...

That has been the only real problem that I have had with it. My MacBook Pro has had Handbrake/VisualHub and Mac the Ripper running almost 24/7 for the past 2 months.

I don't back up the TM now because it only has backups from my laptop and I play the odds that my macbook pro and tm work crash on the same day. :D
 
okay, after reading pretty much all of this thread I think I have my network figured out but want to make sure.

I have an iMac and a Powerbook that both use iTunes rarely. We Apple Tv that will be less and less for the Powerbook.

I am going to get a drobo and an airport extreme and connect the drobo (Ver1) to the airport extreme and move my iTunes library there. Ethernet from the Airport Extreme to the Apple TV and I am good to go right?

No lag streaming from the Drobo to the Apple Tv and writing to the Drobo when a new CD is installed in the iMac? Yes, I am one of those that still buys CD's!
 
okay, after reading pretty much all of this thread I think I have my network figured out but want to make sure.

I have an iMac and a Powerbook that both use iTunes rarely. We Apple Tv that will be less and less for the Powerbook.

I am going to get a drobo and an airport extreme and connect the drobo (Ver1) to the airport extreme and move my iTunes library there. Ethernet from the Airport Extreme to the Apple TV and I am good to go right?

No lag streaming from the Drobo to the Apple Tv and writing to the Drobo when a new CD is installed in the iMac? Yes, I am one of those that still buys CD's!
 
CultHero said:
okay, after reading pretty much all of this thread I think I have my network figured out but want to make sure.

I have an iMac and a Powerbook that both use iTunes rarely. We Apple Tv that will be less and less for the Powerbook.

I am going to get a drobo and an airport extreme and connect the drobo (Ver1) to the airport extreme and move my iTunes library there. Ethernet from the Airport Extreme to the Apple TV and I am good to go right?

No lag streaming from the Drobo to the Apple Tv and writing to the Drobo when a new CD is installed in the iMac? Yes, I am one of those that still buys CD's!
Click to expand...

I have the Drobo connected to the Mac Mini. I haven't tried it connected to the TM.
You have a delay from when you select the movie until it starts. Anywhere from 10-30 sec in my case, but once it starts there is no problem with the streaming. Even high action movies run smooth.
 
CultHero said:
okay, after reading pretty much all of this thread I think I have my network figured out but want to make sure.

I have an iMac and a Powerbook that both use iTunes rarely. We Apple Tv that will be less and less for the Powerbook.

I am going to get a drobo and an airport extreme and connect the drobo (Ver1) to the airport extreme and move my iTunes library there. Ethernet from the Airport Extreme to the Apple TV and I am good to go right?

No lag streaming from the Drobo to the Apple Tv and writing to the Drobo when a new CD is installed in the iMac? Yes, I am one of those that still buys CD's!
Click to expand...

you do know you'll have to have itunes running on a mac to server the apple tv yeah?
 
dibble9012 said:
This is what I am going to get, I already have a WD drive and it has worked great. You can find this drive for about 300-350 on ebay :)

http://store.apple.com/us/product/T...ssories/storage&mco=NjUxODM5&p=4&s=topSellers
Click to expand...

rather you than me! raid0 = 2x chance of drive failure and when that happens you lose all your data. or can you set them to raid1?

if your doing lots of HD video editing and you need raid0 then go for it but make sure you back it up. If it's just for storing you media collection then I'd steer well clear. invest in a fault tolerant enclosure a la drobo or a raid1 or higher.

remember, every HD *WILL* eventually crash
 
.mark. said:
rather you than me! raid0 = 2x chance of drive failure and when that happens you lose all your data. or can you set them to raid1?

if your doing lots of HD video editing and you need raid0 then go for it but make sure you back it up. If it's just for storing you media collection then I'd steer well clear. invest in a fault tolerant enclosure a la drobo or a raid1 or higher.

remember, every HD *WILL* eventually crash
Click to expand...

Yes, you can set it as RAID 1. I also thought about eventually getting two of them, and setting each one on a RAID 0, then mirror the 2TB onto the second set of drives. Redundancy is key :) I've spent too much time ripping DVD's/Music, plus photos to lose it all. For photos and documents I burn everything to DVD every month. So hopefully when something bad happens (and it will) I will be prepared.

It also has user serviceable drives which is a big plus. One downside is that you have to use their special "Green" low power drives. FW400, FW800, USB, eSATA
 
Just want to say this is a fantastic thread. I stumbled upon it while researching what i should do with my setup.

Custom-built PC tower, MacBook
iPod touch, BlackBerry Curve
Linksys wireless router
PS3 (want to buy an external 1TB HDD to sit next to the PS3 to store my movies)

What I'm looking to do:

Manage one centralized iTunes library not just through streaming but being able to edit tags and view cover art on both machines not just within the house but remotely too (I have Hamachi) I know if my PC was a mac I coulda ran Doug's Script for remote management but I cant.

I would also love to sync with the PS3 but I tried streaming solutions (Nero and others) and they're just too slow.

Overall I just want managing my library and updating iPod/BlackBerry to be simple. I am constantly importing new music too.
 
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