New guy with a couple questions

[bobdog]

Hello, This is my first post but I have been lurking for a while. I Thank you for your forum it has been an incredible resource for me. I recently decided to move to a music server system because my CD colection had been taking over my entire basement for years now. I want to rip them all and put the majority of them into a storage unit. After reading this site until my head just about exploded, I purchased a mini mac, a Western Digital My Book Studio II - 4TB (2 x 2 TB) external HD and an Appogee Duet interface. The sound is surprisingly good. I am using Itunes to rip my discs using AIFF and error correction. I have searched for hours to find answers to to two big questions I have and I hate to admit it but I am not a very good searcher, so hopfully you guys can help me out.

 

My questions are about storage space and backup. I have set up my HD as RAID 1. I thought I would have plenty of space but after using 10% of the available 2TB I am not 10% of the way through my collection. I need more space. I also read that RAID is not an acceptable backup plan so I need to do something about that also. Is the answer as simple as buying another 4TB MyBook switching the current one over to non RAID to get the full 4TB and backing up the one with the other on a regular basis or is it more complicated than that. Should I stop ripping now until I get things sorted out or is it no problem to reconfigure everything when my current HD is almost full.

 

Thanks in advance for any help. I am not very familiar with this stuff. I have no computer setup or admin experience.

 

 

[BigHat]

Hi,

Based on your comment about not being a computer guru I'd suggest you look into the Drobos. They're a recommended component on the "CASH" list. I'm not a computer newbie, but opted for a 4TB Drobo for my music storage. A very dependable and simple solution.

 

[iamimdoc]

One thing to remember is that your time is very valuable and your desire to rip your music again is probably minimal.

 

Thus a good backup strategy is needed.

 

There are a zillion devices out there but consider moving your backup out of your computer room. If you have a theft, fire or a water leak, etc you just do not want to have all of you data (including backup) in one location.

 

One strategy might be to have two similar device (ie 2 drives of same size). Use one as backup and move it to a bank vault, friends house, etc - a safe place - somewhere else is the main criterion.

 

Do incremental backups every 10-20-50 (whatever number you just could not bear the thought of ripping again) albums or so

 

my 2c.