Hive mind advice, combining computers

[Hawkmoon]

That's what I was talking about when I mentioned the redundant NAS setup with my parents' place as the second location. Unfortunately, the cost is prohibitive at roughly $3000 all-in (estimating $550-600 per unpopulated NAS box, $700-800 per box for enterprise-level drives, and $350-ish in a couple of spare drives).

Would I love to? Absolutely. That would solve all manner of ills. Just can't justify that kind of investment at the moment, especially with the backup generator setup I'm about to install and a remodeling bill about to hit.

Brad

Dude, you are two private individuals, you are not an "enterprise." Western-Digital MyClouds don't cost anywhere near $1500 per unit, and they can be set up for access over the Internet. Mine is in a part of the house that's remote from the computer, but connected by ethernet. I could put one in a friend's house to use as a remote, personal cloud solution.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Western+Digital+MyCloud+ex2+Ultra&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

[Brad Johnson]

Dude, you are two private individuals, you are not an "enterprise."

Enterprise, in this case, deals with the drive's physical properties - things like MTBF, environmental sealing, etc.. Calling a drive "enterprise" simply means it is top-shelf in terms of robustness, durability, and general dependability.

Also, I have an inherent distrust of anything with "cloud" in the title.

Brad

[Hawkmoon]

Enterprise, in this case, deals with the drive's physical properties - things like MTBF, environmental sealing, etc.. Calling a drive "enterprise" simply means it is top-shelf in terms of robustness, durability, and general dependability.

Also, I have an inherent distrust of anything with "cloud" in the title.

I understand what "enterprise" means in this context. For home users, it means spending several orders of magnitude more than you need to spend for reliability, especially when a W-D MyCloud is a paired array with built-in redundancy.

The MyClouds use W-D "Red" hard drives, which are optimized for NAS applications. For your application, especially if you get a two-drive unit and configure it as a redundant array, it's far more reliable than you're ever likely to need.

[HeroHog]

I've run a Lenovo IX2-3 that I bought at least 6 or 7 years ago that has Mirrored 2tb drives (it came with 1tb drives).
ALL our data lives on it as we don't use our laptops except to run apps and as temp storage when away from the NAS (traveling). Even our Thunderbird Mail is backed up to the NAS using the "ImportExportTools NG" plugin.
Our machines are COMPLETELY backed up to our NAS once a month and then Differential backups are performed daily to the NAS using Macrium Reflect (Free version). We keep 2 Full images and 3 Differential images of each machine (3).
I store all of my Music (It's a LOT), Application sources, her data, my data, the backups, copies of my websites, and some temp space there as separate volumes:

Code: [Select]

   S:\Audio (mp3 library from my 400+ CDs and online buys,  24,914 Files, 2,670 Folders, 157gb)
   O:\Backups (duh)
   M:\Documents (my Doc storage, includes scanned/digital pics)
   W:\Herohog.com (websites)
   L:\Scans (scanner dump volume)
   P:\Source (program source files)
   T:\Temp (duh again)
   N:\Terri (wife's Docs, she sees it as "M:\" and mine as "N:\")

[Jim147]

I can't answer for anyone else but my reason for mirror is my 1TB toshiba external back up died right before my main drive did.

[Brad Johnson]

The MyClouds use W-D "Red" hard drives, which are optimized for NAS applications. For your application, especially if you get a two-drive unit and configure it as a redundant array, it's far more reliable than you're ever likely to need.

If I understand correctly, WD Reds are SMR now. To get CMR means stepping up to at least Red Pro. From what I've discovered, I'd really prefer to stay away from SMR drives if at all possible.

Brad

[zxcvbob]

If I understand correctly, WD Reds are SMR now. To get CMR means stepping up to at least Red Pro. From what I've discovered, I'd really prefer to stay away from SMR drives if at all possible.

Brad

You can also go with older drives (new, old stock) with a little lower capacity.  That's what I did a week ago when I bought a new 2.5" HDD for my new laptop that just had a small SSD and an empty bay.  I also got a 7200 RPM drive that way, and they don't make many of those in 2.5" anymore.  It's supposed to have a 2 year warranty but I doubt the warranty is any good.  (OEM drive)

I suspect a large cache size is a clue that a drive is SMR, but I don't know that.

[RocketMan]

Brad, have you thought about building a NAS using a Raspberry Pi 4, a two drive USB 3.0 docking bay and a couple of appropriate drives?  The Raspberry Pi 4 comes with two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, gigabit Ethernet port, 2.4 GHz and 5 Ghz AC wireless.  Find an open source Linux-based NAS package and you'd be set.  Something like that could be less expensive and a lot less power hungry.

[Brad Johnson]

Brad, have you thought about building a NAS using a Raspberry Pi 4, a two drive USB 3.0 docking bay and a couple of appropriate drives?  The Raspberry Pi 4 comes with two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, gigabit Ethernet port, 2.4 GHz and 5 Ghz AC wireless.  Find an open source Linux-based NAS package and you'd be set.  Something like that could be less expensive and a lot less power hungry.

Good suggestion. I thought about maybe cooking up my own solution but hadn't gone very far into it given the proliferation of ready-built bespoke enclosures.

Brad

[cordex]

ready-built bespoke enclosures

[Brad Johnson]

"Commercially produced enclosures designed specifically for use as Network Accessible Storage drive storage and management devices"?

Brad

[cordex]

"Commercially produced enclosures designed specifically for use as Network Accessible Storage drive storage and management devices"?

[Hawkmoon]

"Commercially produced enclosures designed specifically for use as Network Accessible Storage drive storage and management devices"?

Like unpopulated MyClouds ...

Yes, they do (or did) sell them that way.