Article: Yottamaster HC1-C3 | Excellent Storage Option For Music Libraries

[The Computer Audiophile]

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[steve21]

Nice price on this unit but I don't really understand the clone advantage over raid 1.  I have an enclosure with two drives in raid 1 connected to the system via ethernet. I never worry or have to remember to do any thing after an addition to the music library, it's always mirrored.  The one thing about drives, if it ever does fail there can be no warning.  

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

12 minutes ago, steve21 said:

Nice price on this unit but I don't really understand the clone advantage over raid 1.  I have an enclosure with two drives in raid 1 connected to the system via ethernet. I never worry or have to remember to do any thing after an addition to the music library, it's always mirrored.  The one thing about drives, if it ever does fail there can be no warning.  

 

Hi Steve, there are pros and cons to every solution. The cool things about this one are the ability to put these drives in anything via USB and read/write to them (no proprietary or RAID config), it’s tiny, cheap, fast, the clone is manual so if you delete something it isn’t gone, and more. 
 

RAID isn’t back. This is backup. 

Great to read your solution is working for you though. 
 

It isn’t for everyone but almost :~)

[davide256]

 Any idea what your actual drive throughput was during backup? I can get about 70mBps with network file transfers &  NAS, would like to see something as fast or faster for direct attached backup of the NAS.

[The Computer Audiophile]

31 minutes ago, davide256 said:

 Any idea what your actual drive throughput was during backup? I can get about 70mBps with network file transfers &  NAS, would like to see something as fast or faster for direct attached backup of the NAS.

Not sure as I hit Start and walked away. Yottamaster says “With copy speeds of up to 20GB/min.” That’s GB not Gb. 

[DuckToller]

41 minutes ago, davide256 said:

I can get about 70mBps with network file transfers &  NAS, would like to see something as fast or faster for direct attached backup of the NAS.

They note
"With copy speeds of up to 20GB/min, this NVMe SSD Duplicator is a fast and cost-effective duplication system that perfect for users looking to upgrade their PCs with the high-Performance NVMe technology"
If GB stands for GBit , it is fast, if GB stands for GByte it is even faster,  by factor 8 (appr. up to  2.636 Gbit (American way of numbering))
 

[DuckToller]

IMHO, the easy way to backup for a NAS is another NAS, if we talk about greater than 8TB numbers. Could be a single Disk, JBOD, Software Raid, if it is for backup only. Usually you should have several levels of backup to make sure one a least will work.
 

IMHO, a 4 TB solution  for the files I listen to frequently won't be quickly outlived by my personal needs. Not everything I am listening to needs to get stored on HD (streaming services) and not everything that is stored on HD in my NAS will be frequented for listening even once a year.

I know DSD files and multichannel have much higher capacity demands, however I see them as a more exotique problem, which doesn't need this solution but another ...

The interesting question would that solution work with an USB 2 Ethernet adapter to allow using it as a network share ?

 

[ericuco]

@The Computer Audiophile thanks for introducing us to this. Always helpful to know about these helpful products.

 

I am noodling on if this is for me or not.

 

I keep 3 full backup copies of my music files plus a partial backup copy (backup 4) in my bank's lock box to guard against theft or fire ... given the way 2020 is going who the hell knows what can happen.

 

I don't use Raid, as you mention, it is not backup. If I have a failure, I can resort to one of my backup drives. It might take a while to restore, but time isn't a huge concern. I am not a business requiring 24/7 access to a file.

 

For some time, I have used my Win laptop to rip CD's or download files (e.g. HDTracks) which are stored on an external WD My Book drive (backup 1). I then copy the files to my Synology NAS (backup 2) over my network. Connected to the Synology NAS is a WP My Passport drive external drive (backup 3) that is a weekly backup of the NAS.

 

My Linux music server is connected to the NAS via Roon. Everything works well for the most part even with WiFi in the path. So at this point, it is good to know this exists in case I decide to make changes in my file storage but not sure how it would benefit my specific setup.

 

 

[steve21]

3 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Hi Steve, there are pros and cons to every solution. The cool things about this one are the ability to put these drives in anything via USB and read/write to them (no proprietary or RAID config), it’s tiny, cheap, fast, the clone is manual so if you delete something it isn’t gone, and more. 
 

RAID isn’t back. This is backup. 

Great to read your solution is working for you though. 
 

It isn’t for everyone but almost :~)

Ok thanks, I do like the versatility of the USB read write, especially for purposes outside audio. While Raid 1 is not back up, it makes sure I'll likely never loose my library. Back up from the NAS is achieved with a nightly cloud solution, giving me a full 3-2-1 back up solution. AND in 5 years it will all be for not as I likely to be streaming everything.

[AudioDoctor]

This is a nice option for someone. Can both disks be made into one giant disk?

[The Computer Audiophile]

2 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

This is a nice option for someone. Can both disks be made into one giant disk?

Certainly. 

[jacquesr]

Very interesting. Too bad the drives are so expensive. 

[joelha]

6 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Certainly. 

Chris,

 

Could the combined disc option be read by an Auralic device or only via a Windows or Apple computer?

 

Regardless, a very cool find.

 

Thanks for sharing it.

 

Joel

[cjf]

31 minutes ago, joelha said:

Chris,

 

Could the combined disc option be read by an Auralic device or only via a Windows or Apple computer?

 

Regardless, a very cool find.

 

Thanks for sharing it.

 

Joel

I wouldn't imagine that would be an issue at all assuming the OS of the computer and the computer itself was fairly modern. Some folks are buying Win10 laptops or desktops with multi terabyte drives installed in them.

 

Not sure about the Auralic though. In any case the disks would look like a single disk to whatever you connect it to....unless you configured it to be something other than that on purpose.

[bobfa]

I need this for computing work!  This use case is great.  You can extend this to add another M.2 drive that you take offsite.  Will fit in any safe deposit box!

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, joelha said:

Chris,

 

Could the combined disc option be read by an Auralic device or only via a Windows or Apple computer?

 

Regardless, a very cool find.

 

Thanks for sharing it.

 

Joel

Hi Joel, great question. Because this unit has no configuration both disks can’t be seen as a single drive by an Auralic device. Windows and macOS can do it. I’ll check to see if Auralic can see both drives as separate units. 
 

However, if one wants a two drive NVMe enclosure there are many that would work better for that. But, none have the cool features of this one. 

[joelha]

Thanks for the reply, Chris.

 

I'm particularly interested in finding a device in which the Auralic component would see either two drives as one or two separate drives.

 

I have a feeling it can't be done.

 

All the best.

 

Joel

[The Computer Audiophile]

10 minutes ago, joelha said:

Thanks for the reply, Chris.

 

I'm particularly interested in finding a device in which the Auralic component would see either two drives as one or two separate drives.

 

I have a feeling it can't be done.

 

All the best.

 

Joel

You want it to be NVMe drives?

[joelha]

I do.

 

Thanks.

 

Joel

[Bones13]

Nice find Chris! Nicely priced for an m.2 drive external raid device. Elegant solution for systems with a dedicated music device that is not a general purpose PC.

 

I am hoping to build a new silent PC this holiday season with a dual m.2 motherboard, but if I don't, this would be great for upgrading my current ROCK NUC with usb music disk storage.

 

Hard to beat one button back up (unless you never push the button)

[The Computer Audiophile]

10 hours ago, joelha said:

I do.

 

Thanks.

 

Joel

Good morning Joel, check out this device. It's M.2 SATA, not NVMe, but the same form factor. It also supports two disks combined in RAID0.

 

https://www.startech.com/en-us/hdd/sm22bu31c3r

[davide256]

20 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Not sure as I hit Start and walked away. Yottamaster says “With copy speeds of up to 20GB/min.” That’s GB not Gb. 

A good test of this would be use with a Windows PC as attached USB3 storage. If the NVME option does 20gBps ( small g for speed/not storage, big b= bytes/not bits)

you should see something between 1500 to 1800 mBps but it wouldn't surprise me if that didn't happen because of hardware/software caveats.

Getting even 400~500 mBps would make it a no-brainer, it takes several hours right now for me to fully back up a small 2TB raid over Ethernet or USB3 

and I know its common to have much larger storage solutions

[The Computer Audiophile]

Just now, davide256 said:

A good test of this would be use with a Windows PC as attached USB3 storage. If the NVME option does 20gBps ( small g for speed/not storage, big b= bytes/not bits)

you should see something between 1500 to 1800 mBps but it wouldn't surprise me if that didn't happen because of hardware/software caveats.

Getting even 400~500 mBps would make it a no-brainer, it takes several hours right now for me to fully back up a small 2TB raid over Ethernet or USB3 

and I know its common to have much larger storage solutions

The duplication speed is all internal, NVMe to NVMe.

[The Computer Audiophile]

From the company, "256GB → 256GB M.2 NVMe SSD can be copied in about 10 minutes."

[The Computer Audiophile]

The cool thing is, just hit the button and walk away.