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Questions about backup and changing the RAID on my setup
Right now I have the NETGEAR ReadyNAS 516 6-Bay Network Attached Storage Diskless (RN51600-100NAS) and I'm using 3x3TB WD Reds in RAID 5. I use it for storing my media and streaming it via WIFI to my HTPC. I'm almost at my data limit though and I want to add some more drives. I've been reading up on it and I've come to realize that just having my setup in RAID 5 isn't enough protection and I need a proper backup.
So I was wondering, would buying and additional 3TB WD Red so I have 4x3TB as my primary, and buying something like 2x6TB WD Greens and using those as my backup, all within my 516 6-Bay is something that is feasable? I'm also not 100% sure on what RAID setup to have. I've read a bit about RAID0, X-RAID and Flex-RAID but I don't know which would be best for me. I'm not worried about having uptime if one of the drives fails. I'm only concerned about making sure my data is backed up if a drive dies and having the most storage as I can without having to buy another NAS.
I'm not sure why the RAID level makes any difference to the HTPC. RAID should be completely transparent to any devices accessing your data over the network.
The value of RAID redundancy is that is that it keeps your data available through a routine disk replacement. Your backups are what keep your data safe. The 8 TB SMR drives are a cost-effective backup mechanism. There are some cloud backup solutions which are also affordable (CrashPlan being one). You could augment your local backup with one of those services - that might eliminate the nuisance of transporting drives off-site.
If you decide you don't need RAID redundancy, then I suggest jbod (each drive its own volume) instead of RAID-0 (one volume spanning all drives). RAID-0 is fragile (if any drive fails, the entire volume is lost).
If you need a single volume spanning all disks, then I'd go with XRAID single redundancy (either RAID-1 or RAID-5). RAID-6 does offer more protection during disk replacement, but it also reduces the volume size. There's no "right" answer on single/dual redundancy - it boils down to personal preference/risk management.
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If data is stored on just the one device then it is not backed up.
RAID levels that provide redundancy such as RAID-5 are designed to help maximise uptime. If a disk fails then you shouldn't need to restore from backup.
However RAID-5 won't protect you against problems such as multiple disk failures, fire, flood, theft etc.
Personally I use RAID-6 (protects against two disk failures) and I backup my data.
That makes sense. What are your thoughts on using a HDD docking station and something like the Seagate Archive 8TB to backup the files and store them offsite? I'm not worried about having uptime because it's just media files and I can live without them for a couple days, I just care about not losing them all permenantly. If I were to do that what would using something like RAID 0 be fine because I could just restore the files from the 8TB?
I think you can almost find the seagate archive drive cheaper in an enclosure than without one (at least that's what I saw on eBay... best buy had them for the longest time for $249.99 shipped)
You could definitely archive things on that thing and do a backup of material so often. Me personally I have a readynas pro 6 with 6 8TB seagate archive drives for a total of 36+TBs of storage and at another location I have an ultra 6 that will have 6 western digital green 6TB drives (the ultra 6 doesn't like the 8TB seagate drives for some reason.) Then at another location I have a rn102 with 2 8TB seagate archive drives with each having its own volume and backup to that.
Trust me after having a theft and having it all stolen, it really is terrible to lose data. Fortunately I had most of it backed up or my wife would have literally killed me!
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