[helpermonkey]

Well - here I am, waiting for my last part to come in so I can slap together the MI7 and I get another bug. Now i'm starting to have second thoughts about my decision to just buy a NAS (i picked up a Netgear RNDP200U-100 ($390) that i'm doing a 2x2 in - total cost of $578). I'm considering returning the NAS or perhaps the whole kit.

I'm not terribly concerned about this anytime soon - but I'm worried that I'll fill this up quicker than i intended and I'm big into buying more power than i need and growing into it. I, like i assume most of you, initially can't imagine how I could fill up 2 Terabytes (I want redundancy) if you paid me to. But I know how these things go and I know how i am.

So for any of you (especially those who thought it wouldn't be you), how quickly did you fill up your drives and how much space did you actually fill up?

[Dougie Fresh]

How quick you fill up will depend on what you plan on storing.

I've actually found after ripping all my DVDs and Blurays that I never watch them. The only ones that get watched often are for the kids. After I watch a TV show, I usually delete it (again, unless it's a kids one). I am using a lot less space than I thought I would. I have 8.5TB, 3TB of which is dedicated to backups and I am nowhere near full.

With all the time it takes to build and maintain this stuff, who has time to watch a movie?

YMMV.

[Beer40oz]

My rig will have 18TB and 2TB Parity .... to me this is way too much! I am only on my 4th drive....

In the case if I ever need to have more... then either will change out the case or build another.... but I doubt that will be for a couple of years....

(maybe just a small one for TV shows.... use the free version of unraid)

[helpermonkey]

How quick you fill up will depend on what you plan on storing.

I've actually found after ripping all my DVDs and Blurays that I never watch them. The only ones that get watched often are for the kids. After I watch a TV show, I usually delete it (again, unless it's a kids one). I am using a lot less space than I thought I would. I have 8.5TB, 3TB of which is dedicated to backups and I am nowhere near full.

With all the time it takes to build and maintain this stuff, who has time to watch a movie?

YMMV.

Most of the storage will be media and i have a few hundred dvds - many of which i will rip ... don't have any blu-rays ...YET. I ripped my entire music collection to flac and am merging it with my mp3 collection - that will probably only top 300gb when the merge is finished. Maybe 400. Meanwhile, i won't have much else to backup and my ROM collection is vast but only takes up about 5~10gb. So the logic is telling me that 2TB is plenty - but that's sort of why i asked the question. I, like you - will have tons of stuff i store that i probably never use and i'm a collector ... so more more more more will be good. I'm basically just wondering how quickly people found themselves indulging in data hording [aka - what you did and what I will do ;-)].

I'm trying to find a reason not to simply go unRAID with all my extra hds lying around.

[Dougie Fresh]

Even with the little I have, 2TB would not be enough. I've got room for 6 x 3.5" HDDs, configured as 8.5TB right now and I am not using RAID, just software mirroring.

So, if it helps, no 2TB is not enough .

[GortWillSaveUs]

Why I unRaid:

I had pictures, docs, pdfs, mp3, avis, xls,.movies,..etc......eveywhere.
I even had copies on copies,..which then got copied to the same machines and then I had multiple duplicates or triplicates of the same files everywhere.

unRaid allows me to store in one location.
However, I still have backup copies, and I burn emergency DVDs once a month for the critical stuff.
Never trust one solution for your critical data.

As far as your original question: I probably fill up 1TB every 2-3 months. And if I run out of space, I purge old stuff if possible.

[lrusak]

I have 8TB of space nad 4TB of parity. I am about to break the 3TB barrier of used space. This is of movies and tv shows that I have collected over the past year or so.

[helpermonkey]

Why I unRaid:

I had pictures, docs, pdfs, mp3, avis, xls,.movies,..etc......eveywhere.
I even had copies on copies,..which then got copied to the same machines and then I had multiple duplicates or triplicates of the same files everywhere.

unRaid allows me to store in one location.
However, I still have backup copies, and I burn emergency DVDs once a month for the critical stuff.
Never trust one solution for your critical data.

As far as your original question: I probably fill up 1TB every 2-3 months. And if I run out of space, I purge old stuff if possible.

Thanks! That answers my question. As for the backup portion - i'm still scratching my head about the solution. I might just stick my neck in the ground and say forget it (which is sort of what i've already done with my NAS) but i'm not sure yet. I have a mac and a time capsule on my network as we speak and that will help back up anything critical, but honestly - my "critical" information isn't more than 30gb. So that's a none factor. If i start backing up and converting my dvd collection ... that's going to get expensive to backup.

I have 8TB of space nad 4TB of parity. I am about to break the 3TB barrier of used space. This is of movies and tv shows that I have collected over the past year or so.

So you have 3 4TB drives? Other than allowing you get more data storage out of fewer physical disks, is there any other reason to increase the size of the parity drive in unRAID?

[teaguecl]

I think there are two things to consider in order to answer your question:

1. How much content do you have, and how much do you accumulate? Sounds like you have a lot (>1TB) of content to backup already. How fast you accumulate is something only you can answer. I personally find that if I have X TB of space, I accumulate X TB of stuff pretty quickly. I'm kind of a digital hoarder The truth is, when I run out of space I could easily go find many GB's worth of stuff I could delete (DVD's I'm never going to watch again, my R.Kelly CD's, etc.) but it's way easier to just upgrade my storage. Which leads me to...

2. How painful is it to upgrade your NAS once you've filled it up. You will fill it up - maybe in 3 months, maybe in a few years - but eventually it will be full. With many NAS solutions you're only option is to replace all the drives simultaneously (for example, pull out all four 2TB's and put in four new 4TB's). If this is the situation you're in, then go for overkill - spring for the 4TB drives. I like UnRaid because it is easy to upgrade due to it's heterogeneous drive capability - simply plug in a new drive and you've got more storage.

[wsume99]

I like UnRaid because it is easy to upgrade due to it's heterogeneous drive capability - simply plug in a new drive and you've got more storage.

You're assuming that the drive you are adding is not larger than your parity drive. If you have an array consisting of three 2TB drives (2 data + 1 parity) you can't just stick in a 4TB drive and gain 4TB more space - at best you would increase your useable space by 2TB. I do agree that expanding an unraid array is easy but there can be a few sticky points.

[lrusak]

So you have 3 4TB drives? Other than allowing you get more data storage out of fewer physical disks, is there any other reason to increase the size of the parity drive in unRAID?

it's actually 6x2TB in RAID Z2, I use freenas. Just wanted to chime in on storage. I do download a lot space is filling up but now it's slowed down as I have tons of files already. Anything I get now is just new tv shows or new >2011 movies.

[poofyhairguy]

So for any of you (especially those who thought it wouldn't be you), how quickly did you fill up your drives and how much space did you actually fill up?

Actually I am always left thinking 2TB really isn't that much space. I can fill that in less than two months with a little effort.

Heck in 2010 when I gained most of my movie library I basically got 6tbs in a two month timeframe. I filled my first Unraid server and had to build a new one.

Once you have the space it is easier to fill than you think.

[Mick1152]

I just got into this XMBC thing about two months ago. In that time, I've gone from 0 ripped/transcoded movies to a library of over 500 movies + numerous TV shows. My HTPC has 5TB of storage built in (3TB movie drive, 2TB TV show and other media drive). Both of which are almost full. I'm steadily transcoding my Blu-ray and DVD rips into H.264 and making each movie take up less than half the space they originally did but, that's a slow process and my library is growing faster than I can transcode.

My Unraid is an old computer and I'm out of SATA slots on it, so in order to expand that I am about to build a new system. I'd highly recommend starting out with a platform you will be able to expand far beyond what you can foresee needing in the near future.

[helpermonkey]

Actually I am always left thinking 2TB really isn't that much space. I can fill that in less than two months with a little effort.

Heck in 2010 when I gained most of my movie library I basically got 6tbs in a two month timeframe. I filled my first Unraid server and had to build a new one.

Once you have the space it is easier to fill than you think.

I'm thinking that you and I have similar ideas.

I'd highly recommend starting out with a platform you will be able to expand far beyond what you can foresee needing in the near future.

After all of this - i'm pretty comfortable with moving forward with unRAID. While it still doesn't solve my backup problem, I, like you - am always thinking ahead. It's why the MI7 is a beast for what I'll be using it for initially. Time to break out a few of my old towers and see what's in em. The pain in the rear is going to be making this thing silent since it's going to sit in my living room.

[poofyhairguy]

The pain in the rear is going to be making this thing silent since it's going to sit in my living room.

Just make sure every fan in the case is not smaller than 120mm (yes that includes the CPU and PSU fan if possible) and it will be pretty quiet. Stick to green drives to lower the overall heat.