[Gnarly]

I want a Raid 1 solution for my media collection. I boot from my Intel SSD, and my mobo doesn't have Raid capabilities (to my knowledge).

I don't know anything about RAID, and since I'm not booting from these drives, I don't know what guides to look at. I want something that's easy to setup, easy to fix if a drive fails, and puts my mind at ease.

I have 2x750gb drives I could use, but I might want to upgrade to 2x1tb or larger.

I will use itunes, foobar, and media player classic to play content from the drives. Do they need to be fast (Like Samsung F3 drives?) or would the slower 5400rpm 2TB drives be ok?

I'd be using my SSD to boot and a 640gb WD for a "scratch" disk, so the raided drives would be purely separate for my media if that makes a difference.

Thanks,

Wyatt

 

[compuman145]

How much do they want to spend?

 

[bruestle2]

Vista has software RAID 1 capabilities (don't really need a RAID card for RAID 1). Each drive can work 100% independent of each other, so it is pretty fault tolerant.
Right click on My Computer --> Manage --> Disk management --> Right Click on the drive you wish to raid --> Add Mirror

Note: Those are the instructions for my Win 7 machine, Vista drive management is the same to my knowledge.

 

[Gnarly]

I don't really know how much these things cost, so whatever will get me an easy to use/fast Raid 1 setup should be fine. Would $100 bucks be enough?

I researched the Windows 7 Raid, and I think I'm better off getting a dedicated card.

 

[compuman145]

I'd probably check out adaptec's site, they normally have the best ones.

 

[the_beast]

For simple RAID1 check out something like a Dell SAS 5/iR or HP SC40Ge. They usually go pretty cheap (like $30 or less if you look round - as they don't do RAID5 or 6), but are far better cards than you will get for the same money spent on new kit.

 

[willis888]

Have you considered Network Attached Storage (NAS) options?

I'm using a similar setup to what you are proposing - boot and load apps from an Intel X25MG2, pagefile, scratchdisk, and temp files on a 640GB Caviar Black, while movies and music are on NAS (<-- not a recommended model).

 

[D3FiN3 SiN]

Quote:

Originally Posted by willis888 Have you considered Network Attached Storage (NAS) options? I'm using a similar setup to what you are proposing.

That's more than he is willing to spend.

 

[razr7]

raid 5

 

[willis888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by firestormcomputers That's more than he is willing to spend.

I read it as a lack of clarity about what all the options were.

The cheapest option is to use the 2x750GB disks already owned with any used RAID card (see suggestions by the_beast).

If you want access to your media collection from your main PC as well as the HTPC in the den, a roaming laptop, the workstation in the study, etc . . . NAS becomes a more attractive option. You can let your main PC sleep, and the OS is more stable than Windows. The cost would be not much more than buying new drives and a RAID card.