Kodi Community Forum

So I’ve been thinking about building an UnRaid system for a while now. I want to use as many parts that I currently own as possible. I’ve seen other forums about UnRaid and backups. My plan would be to run UnRaid for all my storage needs. Right now, my desktop has the master copy of my data on 2 X 2 TB drives. Most of this data is copied onto my TV HTPC/Server. So I listed my current setups below. I’m a college student with one more year left in school. I’m home until the end of August and am moving to a bigger apartment at home, which I’ll need to rewire as well. I will need a way to run XBMC on at least 2 TVs at home. I only worry about 1 TV when I’m at school. Currently I leave my HTPC at home during school, but I’m guessing that I would take it with me, if it held the only copy of all my data. So, how could I build an UnRaid system from that TV/Media Center? Most importantly, will UnRaid be as effective at protecting my data as my current method of making copies across multiple hard drives?

Main Desktop- This system comes with me when I’m at school and when I go home.
Case: Antec 900
CPU: i5 2500k, 8GB 1600 Ram, 650 OCZ PSU
Board: Asrock Extreme P4 http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Mo...20Extreme4 (8 Sata Ports total) 3 different controllers (2 Sata3 Marvel, 2 Sata 3 Intel)
SSD: 2X OCZ Agility 3, only 1 being used.
GPU: Gigabyte 6850, ATI 3870 Toxic(Toxic added when using multi mons)
HD: 2TB Hitachi Sata2 Drive (Primary) Data has about 1.3TB of Media but 286GB free
HD: 2TB WD Green Drive
HD: 1TB Caviar Black (Not used, unplugged, no useful Data
I was thinking if I made an UnRaid system that I would remove the 2 2TB drives are run all of my games and other data that neesd to be on my windows system. 1TB should be enough for that. I would bring my Unraid system to school for the year.

I also have a 1TB External, a few years old now with USB and eSata, I’m pretty sure it’s 7200rpm, can be taken out of enclosure if necessary.
Home Media Center/ Server

Case: Antec 900
Cpu: Athlon ii 630
GPU: Gefore GT 520 Active cooling (Escrow advice)
Onboard HDMI does not work. 6 SATA ports
SSD: Intel G1 80GB SSD
PSU: OCZ 500W Modular
RAM 2X2GB 1333
HDs: 1t Caviar Blue, 640 Blue, 500 Green, Older 400GB Drive, 500 Scorpio Black
Ubuntu 11.04 64 bit. Software: (Webmin, SSH, Samba, LIRCD, Freenxsh, SAB, CP, SB, rtorrent + rutorrent, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Subsonic, XBMC.
All of these hard drives have a backup of my main computer.

Sister’s Computer (Not being used while I’m home for the summer, might be broken as of last week)
CPU: E5200 (775) w/ a good heatsink. I think this is Overclocked to 3.3 GHZ
2X1GB DDR2 800
NVidia 7900? - Currently plays 1080p to I-Inc without any problems.Has dual DVI
500GB 7200 Segate hard Drive
Windows 7 32bit. 100mb ethernet

Moms Computer
CPU: Phenom i 2.5GHZ
2X2 GB DDR2 800
NVidia 7900? - Currently plays 1080p to I-Inc without any problems.Has dual DVI
320GB 7200 Caviar Blue hard Drive
Windows 7 32bit. Gigabit ethernet

Other TV Devices: WDTV Live (Not really using it that much now) I don’t remember which version, but it plays 1080p over the network with HDMI. Small remote though and is hard to navigate with. Menus are sluggish.
Raspberry Pi B ( Should ship in late June)
Spare Parts: I have this case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811144230 and it’s empty.

Wow, that is a mind numbing amount of background information. It's not clear to me that you know what you want - so I will not be of much help in suggesting what you need. With regards to the below comment, I had to chime in. UnRAID (or any other RAID) is not a backup system - and will not "protect" your data in any meaningful way! It's been said over and over, RAID is not a backup. Unraid will help you recover if a single drive dies. It cannot help you if:
- two drives die
- you accidentally delete a file
- your house burns down, or floods, or is hit by a tornado
- lightning hits your home and fries everything plugged in
- a burglar steals your computer
- you boot a LiveCD, and mistakenly format your drive

(2012-05-25, 23:44)bumperjeep Wrote: [ -> ]Most importantly, will UnRaid be as effective at protecting my data as my current method of making copies across multiple hard drives?

In other words, No - UnRaid will not be as good at protecting your data as your current system of mirroring data on two machines. If you add UnRaid, you should also add a backup mechanism.

I totally agree with teaguecl.

I use unRaid because while it gives some redundancy if a hard drive fails, I also use it as a central storage location for movies as well as documents,..and the like.

However,..while I would hate to have my unRaid blow up,...and lose all of those movies,..I can theoretically rebuild them from DVD copies I have.

The other data, such as docs, pictures, mp3s,....I back those up on another separate computer, as well as copying them to an external 1TB drive.
I also burn a DVD of the most critical data (pix, documents,...) and lock that in a fireproof safe.

In that case, it probably makes sense to keep my current setup and add drives as needed. What are some of the more popular pci sata cards popular on the board?

Don't use PCI if you can, use PCI express. Then in that case Sil 3132s.