For any of you guys that spec/install hard drives for computer backup and multimedia storage...what do you recommend and why? I'm not talking about music mgmt systems like Escient, but computer-related hard drives like Storage area Networks (SAN), networked attached storage (NAS) and direct attached storage (DAS).

Ever install RAID in a residential environment?

Thanks!
-julie

Wow... Do you expext that there are several stereo people installing computer networks for customers? I've never even put the 2 together really... Although I am a Huge computer geek, and do install/build/maintain computers in a limited fasion.

Generally, if I'm building a Computer for a business client, I'll install a RAID-1 arrary. This is a basic Mirroring Backup. Install 2 of the same Hard drive (Usually SATA drives now) and mirror them. Works great.

For redundant backup, I usually recomend to have 2 external FIrewire Hard drives that auto backup at night. at the end of the day, swap the drives and take yesterdays backup home with you....

Julie,

I think we're going to see more of this real soon. Microsoft and the Media Center, and now the Media Extender will be the reason.

When I've done this, I simply ended up installing a network connected PC. In a residential environment this gives the benefit of a PC the customer can use, and a much less expensive platform on which to build the RAID array. The customers data is fully protected as well, no backups needed, unless the customer worries about the house burning down, and losing the whole PC. (SAN, NAS, and DAS solutions tend to be expensive per GB compared to PC based solutions, and they are normally overkill for a residential environment.)

In a residential environment, I haven't bothered with Hot Swap... so there are lots of RAID controllers that fit the requirement. If you are willing to have a PC made at a local clone shop, there are lots of motherboards that include RAID. The largest RAID I've done in a residential setting was an array of 6 drives. (It did experience one drive failure after 18 months, and nothing was lost! When choosing RAID solutions make sure the drive's can rebuild without user or OS intervention. I'm rather old school, but really like Adaptec solutions.)

I've said it in this forum elsewhere, but I believe we are seeing the very beginning of a move in the market right now. I expect to see storage networks for people's audio and video via Media Center, and Media Center Extender type devices in people's audio/video stacks. I think Escient and Fireball will be unable to compete with the HP, Dell, Microsoft crowd, and will soon go away. I think Media Center provides an interface as nice as Escient / Fireball, for a fraction of the solution cost.

Others will tell you that Escient / Fireball have excellent tech support, but I contend that paying $25 for a one time support call to Microsoft is a much better deal than paying wheelbarrows of $$'s for an Escient / Fireball solution. If you've purchased a Media Center PC from one of the big guys, chances are you can get any issues ironed out for free by calling the PC manufacturer tech support.

Many motherboards had SATA RAID controllers on them already. If you are looking for redundancy, Impaqt is right - use RAID-1. If the drives are IDE, look at Promise Technologies as they have IDE RAID controllers.

Julie,
Well it depends on what the budget is and the kind of perfomance that is required. Iomega makes a NAS that is RAID 5 and fairly inexpensive (as far as NAS devices). They also come with dual ethernet interfaces that can trunked and usually depending on the model will come with a gigabit port. If the budget does not allow for this then the previous sugestions would be good..... building a PC with a SETA RAID controller.