How do you store your data? (raid/raidz/dynamic disk/many more)

[HeyKitty]

So I'm preparing to build a NAS for a great deal of data.  Id like all my drives to act as a singular folder/drive with subfolders sorting the types of data.

 

Right now I am looking at a great deal of 3TB drives (I already have 7) will probably start with a total of 12 and grow it later on.

 

none of the data is uber important, so I dont think RAID1 is for me.  I'm thinking RAID6 right now. But I'd also like the ability to expand it later on...

 

This is my first time dealing with a good deal of data (more than 3 drives worth) so any help/tips would be great.

 

 

[X1XNobleX1X]

 

 I would go for a raid 5. It's highly unlikely two drives will die at the same time. 

Also, you really should get a raid card for raid 5/6. (If you haven't already) 

[jameshumphries47]

oops wrong post, i would raid 5 them 

[Padunkadunk]

WIth 7-12 drives, I would go RAID 6.

[TJStamp]

I wouldn't RAID at all personally, it's too clumsy and inflexible. It will also make your life miserable when it becomes time to upgrade. ZFS, greyhole or windows storage spaces with dynamic mirroring allows much more flexibility and most importantly are all controller agnostic. Unlike RAID... which is a dinosaur and almost completely unfit for any any 21st century usage scenario

[HeyKitty]

I wouldn't RAID at all personally, it's too clumsy and inflexible. It will also make your life miserable when it becomes time to upgrade. ZFS, greyhole or windows storage spaces with dynamic mirroring allows much more flexibility and most importantly are all controller agnostic. Unlike RAID... which is a dinosaur and almost completely unfit for any any 21st century usage scenario

yeah, that is my only thing keeping me from RAID 5/6 is that I will eventually need more space, and last I checked, RAID is not expandable.  chances are I will be running win10 (or 8.1 if 10 is crap) because I want it to double as an HTPC.

[Captain_WD]

So I'm preparing to build a NAS for a great deal of data.  Id like all my drives to act as a singular folder/drive with subfolders sorting the types of data.

 

Right now I am looking at a great deal of 3TB drives (I already have 7) will probably start with a total of 12 and grow it later on.

 

none of the data is uber important, so I dont think RAID1 is for me.  I'm thinking RAID6 right now. But I'd also like the ability to expand it later on...

 

This is my first time dealing with a good deal of data (more than 3 drives worth) so any help/tips would be great.

 

 

Hey there,

 

It really depends on what level of redundancy you are looking for and what amount of storage you would like to actually like to use. RAID5 and RAID6 are great options, one giving you 1 drive fault tolerance and the other - 2 drives fault tolerance. RAID10, RAID50 and RAID60 are also good options to consider, bringing you even more redundancy, but significantly lowering your storage space that is usable. Also, it depends on how big of a speed boost you are looking for. Besides the number of drives fault tolerance, you could also compare the striping abilities of the different RAID setups. 

Overall, I would go with either RAID6 or RAID10 (second would be the more expensive per usable GB option, but giving you more redundancy).

 

Make sure you are using RAID/NAS class drives to have the safest and best performance and to avoid compatibility issues and dropouts from the array. 

 

Happy Holidays!

 

Captain_WD.