How to use redundant HDD?

[recom273]

When I bought my Synology NAS I started with 2x 4TB drives, but over time the price of 3.5" HDD has reduced and I added and upgraded the drives and I now have a couple of WD red on my shelf.

 

Is there something I can buy locally to utilise 2-3 HDD? My main computer is a MacBook, but have an Intel NUC loaded with windows 10 for torrents, jellyfin and flashing Arduino.

 

Can I use the NUC to manage some sort of RAID array (in windows?) - I don't want replace windows with FreeNAS - Then how to connect the HDD? buy a USB 3.0 Caddy?

 

Any ideas, cheaper and locally sourced the better.

[howto]

So you want to use 2~3 older WD Red HDD's,

 - externally,

 - using a NUC and Windows 10 (no Freenas)

 - cheap, and inexpensive.

A very tall request.

 

- I suggest you view the SMART logs of thos disks.

Then consider if you should consider them viable for use.

- A 3 bay enclosue will not be inexpensive

- W10 sux at RAID (all Windows OS's Suck at on-board classical RAID)

- Actually MAC's are not that great either at on-board classical RAID

 

I suggest a old PC, 

- perhaps Intel I-3 CPU,  (even a Core-2D is ok)

- w/ 8 GB ram (one could use only 4GB), 

- 250w+ PSU,

- a small inexpensive 256 GB SSD (even a 128GB is OK)

- and FreeNas

Plug it into your wifi router, access it locally for mgmnt.

*** do use a backup Pwr supply

 

 

[recom273]

6 hours ago, howto said:

So you want to use 2~3 older WD Red HDD's,

 - externally,

 - using a NUC and Windows 10 (no Freenas)

 - cheap, and inexpensive.

A very tall request.

 

- I suggest you view the SMART logs of thos disks.

Then consider if you should consider them viable for use.

- A 3 bay enclosue will not be inexpensive

- W10 sux at RAID (all Windows OS's Suck at on-board classical RAID)

- Actually MAC's are not that great either at on-board classical RAID

 

I suggest a old PC, 

- perhaps Intel I-3 CPU,  (even a Core-2D is ok)

- w/ 8 GB ram (one could use only 4GB), 

- 250w+ PSU,

- a small inexpensive 256 GB SSD (even a 128GB is OK)

- and FreeNas

Plug it into your wifi router, access it locally for mgmnt.

*** do use a backup Pwr supply

 

 

Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it. 
 

The HDD should be OK.

 

What I was thinking was as storage for my volumio library just a few hundred flac albums and as a Jellyfin server, as a secondary movie server for the bedroom TVs, I don’t think it would see a great deal of milage.

 

I found this, which fits the budget - I can stick 2x 4TB drives in there. http://www.oricothailand.com/store/orico_th/storage/ds200u3.html

 

When you say that W10 is not ideal? In what way?

 

I will look into an old PC and it looks a bit too deep, while I totally agree with you, I just looked at Bahtsold and prices seem a little too high for the project. There’s also the issue of power consumption for something that won’t be used that often and where to put it in my rack.

 

For 3000B would you recommend the enclosure and trying RAID on the W10 NUC as an experiment, what could go wrong?

[BigStar]

11 hours ago, recom273 said:

Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it. 
 

The HDD should be OK.

 

What I was thinking was as storage for my volumio library just a few hundred flac albums and as a Jellyfin server, as a secondary movie server for the bedroom TVs, I don’t think it would see a great deal of milage.

 

I found this, which fits the budget - I can stick 2x 4TB drives in there. http://www.oricothailand.com/store/orico_th/storage/ds200u3.html

 

When you say that W10 is not ideal? In what way?

 

I will look into an old PC and it looks a bit too deep, while I totally agree with you, I just looked at Bahtsold and prices seem a little too high for the project. There’s also the issue of power consumption for something that won’t be used that often and where to put it in my rack.

 

For 3000B would you recommend the enclosure and trying RAID on the W10 NUC as an experiment, what could go wrong?

You aren't going to be using RAID w/ your NUC with those drives, forget it. But I'd say you don't need it anyway. You've already got a NAS. So just use the NUC as a fileserver. Connect a caddy (the one you've found is fine), use one as a main storage drive and other as a backup. Just use Win or other software scheduler for regular mirroring or backups to the other drive.

[Scott]

Troll post reported and removed.  

 

[howto]

I've a old Orico USB hub, still works fine.

Can't comment on that drive bay unit.

 

Having a phy size constaint does rule out a old pc.

 

Concerning Windows ,,,

since NT, W2k, XP, W7, W8, and W10 only can do RAID 0, I cannot (will not) rec it.

Perhaps W10 can do mirroring, I doubt it.

(See wikipedia of RAID levels.)

What could go wrong? A single failure and you loose all data on all disks.

Guess that's the point, not loosing any data.

 

My replies are delayed as I live in Chattanooga TN, so 13 hours time diff.

 

Perhaps there is software that can run on W10 and provide other RAID levels.

Linux can do it, but I can't help you there.

 

Be well, stay safe.  -howto

[recom273]

4 hours ago, howto said:

I've a old Orico USB hub, still works fine.

Can't comment on that drive bay unit.

 

Having a phy size constaint does rule out a old pc.

 

Concerning Windows ,,,

since NT, W2k, XP, W7, W8, and W10 only can do RAID 0, I cannot (will not) rec it.

Perhaps W10 can do mirroring, I doubt it.

(See wikipedia of RAID levels.)

What could go wrong? A single failure and you loose all data on all disks.

Guess that's the point, not loosing any data.

 

My replies are delayed as I live in Chattanooga TN, so 13 hours time diff.

 

Perhaps there is software that can run on W10 and provide other RAID levels.

Linux can do it, but I can't help you there.

 

Be well, stay safe.  -howto

Thanks, that’s a good enough reason to avoid windows RAID. 
 

I think, as suggested I will just sync the Two drives for protection, but in the future will look to an small secondhand  PC and install freeNAS.

[OneMoreFarang]

On 6/15/2020 at 1:47 AM, howto said:

W10 sux at RAID (all Windows OS's Suck at on-board classical RAID)

No! Windows is perfectly fine with RAID 0 or 1 or 10.

It's not a good idea to use RAID 5 in Windows without an external RAID 5 controller - at least that was the case over many years. I am not sure about now with faster CPUs.

 

You could also use the HDDs without any enclosure i.e. for backups. You could use something like this:

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/orico-6228us3-c-ssd-25-35-orico-clone-docking-station-25-35-dual-bay-sata-to-usb-30-hdd-enclosure-tool-free-duplicator-hdd-case-24tb-for-windows-mac-os-i100526621-s100605095.html

 

 

[howto]

I disagree that "No! Windows is perfectly fine with RAID 0 or 1 or 10."

And I maintain "W10 sux at RAID (all Windows OS's Suck at on-board classical RAID)"

Even the Windows server versions.

BSD is far superior.

Does Synology use BSD (core) in those pro-sumer and SOHO NAS units ?

IIRC yes.

I do agree a discreet hardware RAID card (Adaptic or LSI) is preferred for RAID level 5 and above.

 

I also don't like on-board (BIOS) level RAID.

Please, no offense intended

- Be Well, Stay Safe.

[recom273]

On 6/15/2020 at 1:47 AM, howto said:

 

I suggest a old PC, 

- perhaps Intel I-3 CPU,  (even a Core-2D is ok)

- w/ 8 GB ram (one could use only 4GB), 

- 250w+ PSU,

- a small inexpensive 256 GB SSD (even a 128GB is OK)

- and FreeNas

Plug it into your wifi router, access it locally for mgmnt.

*** do use a backup Pwr supply

 

 

Just to let you know - I bought a 2nd hand Dell for 3500b and I installed openmediavault on an SSD and started playing around - I found the whole system to more flexible than my synology and actually really fun. I started using for more than my original plan for storage. Now I have an automated torrent download, a ebook server for my folks back in the UK, nextcloud, Jellyfin server, I installed some of the Docker containers from a couple of raspberry pi - pi-hole server, openVPN, etc

 

i ordered a orico 5 bay usb 3 caddy from China for 5000B, and while waiting for it to arrive, I decided that the dell wasn’t it for me, it occupied 3.5U in my server cab, left a big hole to the side on a shelf. It just got to me every time I saw my server cab.

 

Ideally would have needed to max out the RAM to 16GB and everything seemed like a waste of money, the RAM was board specific and old, I would probably never find another use for it.

 

So I set about planning and building a 3u rack mount server to accommodate 4x HDD, a m.2 SSD for OS - I think excluding the case, it worked out a better deal than  buying the drive caddy, RAM and Dell. It will probably be cheaper to run, the parts can be upgraded or built on, rather than just being thrown in a box.

 

I have never built a PC before, With a bit of help selecting the board, it wasn’t so expensive or hard work, quite fun actually. Thanks for the original reply to get the ball moving.