Dim Damn Dumb Drobo

[RHA]

I seem to be blessed in this life with an abundance of ignorance and confusion. A few years back I bought a 1st generation Drobo with 4 x 1TB drives for music storage. My music library included a few hundred CDs and I planned to record my LP collection (4000+) at 24/96 AIFF so I knew I needed a lot of storage. My plan was to add a Droboshare and another Drobo when my storage reached capacity. Well my Drobo is now at 85% capacity so I bought a 2nd generation Drobo and Droboshare on eBay thinking somehow I could daisychain them together and maintain 1 library... NOT! I knew from reading here and on other forums that mixing drives in differently formatted Drobos can cause you do lose all your data so I called Drobo support for help doing the set up. (The 1st Drobo is formatted for 4 TB storage and the 2nd Drobo is formatted for 8 TB storage). It seems that I can't get there from here. Support explained the Droboshare does not link the two Drobos into one combined storage device (as I thought I understood), it simply allows you to access two separate storage devices wirelessly over a network. Duh! Damn! I can't connect the two Drobos / Droboshare directly to my computer via USB as before, I have to connect the two Drobos / Droboshare via ethernet cable to my router (Airport Extreme located in a different area of the house) and then access it wirelessly from my music server (Intel iMac) which will see it as two separate drives. Support explained I could connect two Drobos directly to the computer via two separate USB connections but again it would be seen as two separate drives. It's possible I may have misunderstood some of the above but I asked using a couple different scenarios and it always came back to the same place... You can't get there from here. Can a single iTunes database be spread across two storage devices and still act as a single library? Can iTunes do that? Would iTunes be able to locate a music selection which might be in either of two storage areas? If I have to access data wirelessly from the Airport Extreme will that affect performance/ sound quality?

 

Wants vs. needs: Ultimately I would like to maintain one iTunes library that could be seen as a single database on two storage devices. Being technically challenged, I'm not sure if there might be some "work arounds", AppleScripts (I'm clueless) or some other method for doing what I'm wanting to do. Perhaps I need to go in a totally different direction with a totally different storage solution. Ugh! From your experience what are my options and your recommendations? I can't imagine trying to remember which album is on which drive and how to point iTunes to the correct place. Dumb!

 

I should mention that being technically challenged I chose the Drobo for its for non technical ease of use and data safety and have been totally satisfied with it's performance. I would prefer to stay within the Drobo domain if possible.

 

Thanks for any suggestions, options, work arounds, ideas you may have. Cheers, Rod

 

[blownsi]

You asked several questions and I only have the answer to one. Yes Itunes can maintain music from two different places. As long as they are both available on your network then you simply tell it to scan both places.

 

[Akapod]

Assuming you keep your music organized, I don't believe there is a way for your iTunes Media folder to be spread over two disks. But since you now have 8 TB of storage, why don't you move your music over to the new Drobo -- you should have roughly 4 TB free. By the time you fill it up, there may well be some cheaper, better solution.

 

FYI -- moving your iTunes library in way that maintains playlists and other user data is mildly tricky. See this Apple support article: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449

 

Also, how do you intend to transfer your vinyl?

 

[RHA]

I have decided to bite the bullet and get the additional storage for the Drobo and transfer the entire iTunes library to the new Drobo. I prefer to keep my library in one location. Anyone interested in a 4 TB Drobo? Complete with music.

 

Akapod, thanks for the link. It was a good refresher. Concerning adding my vinyl rips to iTunes... after recording and editing in Audacity I open iTunes and use the import command. All my vinyl rips are 24/96 AIFF. Works great.

 

Thanks for your feedback. Cheers,

 

[Akapod]

I'm in the midst of ripping my vinyl as well (24/96 AAIF as well), and I've found Izotope's RX noise reduction software to be an enormous help. My vinyl is in pretty good shape, but RX did a great job of removing minor pops and clicks (and, in one case, a pretty nasty 60 Hz hum).

 

You can demo it for free here: http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/rx/ (and, no, I have no connection to Izotope -- just like their products.)

 

[compaudio1]

RHA when you format (initially set it up) your new Drobo set it at 16 TB so you are future proofed for future expansion (this also will show up as 1 big drive). After you format the new Drobo then do a clone of you USB Drobo to the FW Drobo using something like SuperDuper. I'd keep the USB Drobo so you can use it to back up your main Drobo.

 

[kmuise]

In iTunes this is very easy, add the contents of the 2 drives/Drobos to an iTunes library that you create on your Music Server internal hard drive.

 

Unclick the box in advanced preferences that says copy when adding to library. This keeps the music on your NAS but uses the new library to keep track of your songs. Then add the music on your drives to your library. iTunes will access your music as one large library and will be played by iTunes.

 

Because you have made a new library you will have to restart sharing and adjust your remote. It is a little more complicated to use Amarra, Pure Music etc, but can be done with Applescripts.