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

[The Computer Audiophile]

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[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 :~)

[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. 

[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. 

[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. 

[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?

[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

[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.

[The Computer Audiophile]

@joelha I keep looking for the multi-drive NVMe USB drive. It's a strange challenge. 

 

This four bay NVMe enclosure is fantastic, but it's Thunderbolt 3. https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/express-4m2

 

If there is a USB male to Thunderbolt female adapter, then you'd be golden.

[The Computer Audiophile]

5 minutes ago, joelha said:

Chris,

 

Regardless of the outcome, you're great for taking the time to check this out for me (and maybe for others).

 

You believe the previous device you had identified would with an Auralic device?

 

And the same would be true for the Thunderbolt device assuming I could find a Thunderbolt to USB adapter?

 

Thanks a lot.

 

Joel

The previous M.2 SATA device would work for sure as it has dip switches to set it in RAID 0 that would make it one large drive. The drives required are like this Samsung EVO 860 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07822SVMS/

 

You could get 4TB total. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

3 minutes ago, peter73 said:

Copying the entire content on every backup is insane. Why not just sync or mirror?

There is only one option to clone the drive. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Note: I posted the incorrect link to M.2 SATA drives a few minutes ago. Here are the right M.2 SATA drives that work with the device I recommended to @joelha https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07822SVMS/

 

I updated the previous post as well. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

2 minutes ago, davide256 said:

I keep wishing that I could get local attached storage to sound better than  NAS... no luck so far with SSD, HD or SDXC storage. Any thoughts

on local NVME vs NAS storage SQ? 7 series and later NUC's  per Intel support Thunderbolt 3

That's a can o' worms being opened and jumped into constantly on the forum :~)

[The Computer Audiophile]

6 minutes ago, joelha said:

Chris,

 

I'm going to guess that the four NVMe device won't work based on the following information I saw from that device's instruction manual:

 

PC Requirements • Hardware: PC with a Thunderbolt 3 port • OS: Windows 10 or later

 

But the two NVMe device is on order.

 

Thanks again for the great find.

 

Joel

Just looked at the manual myself and it also requires software RAID. That’s a no go for a Linux audio device. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

49 minutes ago, jbparrish said:

Will this take Intel optane?

It technically may work but I’ve seen terrible results from people doing similar things online. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

4 minutes ago, peter73 said:

Sure, but you only clone the drive once and then keep it synced. Copying the entire contents every time would be like you retyping your entire article every time you add a sentence :-)

I hear you, but this is one button and it’s done. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

I think many of us who use a NAS and are savvy enough to do what we want technically, forget how many audiophiles just hang a USB drive off their streamer and call it a day. It’s a very popular thing to do and it’s dead simple. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

17 minutes ago, iansen said:

Chris,

 

I have a couple of questions.

 

1. You only formatted one of the discs (the original source disc and not the target disc, to use Yottamaster's terminology). How come you did not format both of them? If, for example, the source disc breaks down and you want to get the data off the target disc... will your laptop be able to read it? 

(PS I am using an Apple Mac)

 

2. When you press the clone button, do you disconnect the device from your streamer?

I ask this because the instructions on the Amazon UK site states:

"Please do not connect the device to your computer while cloning".

 

 

http:// https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yottamaster-Duplicators-Stand-alone-Dual-Bay-Enclosure-M-2-NVMe-Offline-Clone/dp/B08SBP5VGG/ref=dp_fod_2?pd_rd_w=SN3w5&content-id=amzn1.sym.00102682-bcae-4419-9da3-260a1a6f5fd0&pf_rd_p=00102682-bcae-4419-9da3-260a1a6f5fd0&pf_rd_r=1Q0ENC1CS0ZA0MPK6GY6&pd_rd_wg=i6hAP&pd_rd_r=19bd218e-b048-429b-95b7-052f717fd3d0&pd_rd_i=B08SBP5VGG&psc=1

 

 

 

 

There is no need to format the target disk because it is a clone of the source. Whatever format is on the source will be on the clone. 
 

Yes, disconnect from everything before cloning. One can never be too safe with music :~)