[calev]

Hello,

I've been running kodi off a 3 tb hdd for a while. It is nearing getting full so I have invested in a 4 bay sata to usb hdd holder and so far a single 8tb 3.5 hdd to hook up to it. My question is how should I go about protecting my data? is raid 1 a good option? When I purchase a second 8tb drive should I configure it in raid one via software? It's hooked up to a rpi4. Can I configure raid 1 after already putting media on a single drive? My 3 tb hard drive has lasted like 7 years and is still going strong. 

I also have blu ray burners. Should I just slowly backup all my media onto bluray disk and in the event that one goes down I can just restore it from backup? What are other people doing?



 

[Klojum]

Going the cheaper way may not be the best way IMHO. If you want a decent RAID solution, I'd go for a proper hardware designed to do that job, like a NAS from Synology or QNAP. Depending on the number of storage drives, your number of RAID options will increase.

RAID 1 = Two drives holding a copy of each other's files. So two 8TB drives will get you 8 TB of storage.
RAID 0 = Two drives only holding half a copy of each other. Speed is faster but there is no room for failure.

When I purchase a second 8tb drive should I configure it in raid one via software? It's hooked up to a rpi4. Can I configure raid 1 after already putting media on a single drive?

An RPI doing RAID is not impossible. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWev1THtA04 .
But I consider any Raspberry Pi device still a kid's toy. If you want continuity and a proven solution, get a proper NAS.
Does that 4 bay sata to usb thing support any type of RAID? Via an internal RAID controller?

BTW, RAID is not a backup solution. Proper backups are done on separate drives, either on local drives (e.g. USB) or network drives, or on a remote location. Preferably both.

My 3 tb hard drive has lasted like 7 years and is still going strong.

Have you checked its SMARTDRV status and internal log file lately? The fact that a HDD spins is not a guarantee. There is such a thing as data rot and faulty sectors.

I also have blu ray burners. Should I just slowly backup all my media onto bluray disk and in the event that one goes down I can just restore it from backup?

Any backup is a good backup as long as it is working and can be restored safely 100%. Some companies still use tapes for backups. It all depends on what you backup and how often, and what your budget is.

[calev]

Does that 4 bay sata to usb thing support any type of RAID? Via an internal RAID controller?

No. I shopped around for about 2 weeks for a good solution with price in consideration. There were more expensive cases that offered hardware level raid but people said the speed would not be greater than software level raid and the cases themselves were considerably more expensive. With this case I figured I would have to configure it in software myself but it would be much cheaper and I could buy drives as needed.

Have you checked its SMARTDRV status and internal log file lately? The fact that a HDD spins is not a guarantee. There is such a thing as data rot and faulty sectors.
 

No I should probably do that. All my movies seem to play fine though. 

BTW, RAID is not a backup solution. Proper backups are done on separate drives, either on local drives (e.g. USB) or network drives, or on a remote location. Preferably both.

But I consider any Raspberry Pi device still a kid's toy. If you want continuity and a proven solution, get a proper NAS.

It seems like it is indeed a little bit a backup solution. I'm not really worried about the speed saving's of raid I just want the automated backup of it. If there is a good way of keeping track of what I burned to backup disk I could just go that route and enjoy twice the storage capacity. 25 gig bluray disk are cheap.

[PatK]

I would recommend sticking with a standard format (easier to recover) and doubling up on the storage, just keep the media mirrored to a time value and a switch to take them off-line when not in use. As my collection has grown, I buy into double sized storage; copy data and take the target drive off line and put it on a shelf collecting dust should some unforeseen eventuality befall known methods. Sure I have a shelf full of a bunch of 1TB drives that are more or worthless, but for the peace & tranquillity it gives me.

[calev]

I think I am just going to go with one copy on hard drive and just have every thing backed up to bluray disk. That takes forever and I don't like that its hard to make file changes after the fact but it is pretty cost effective and can be built up over time. 

I'm just gonna write some scripts to keep track of what has been backed up and what hasn't been.

[PatK]

every thing backed up to bluray disk

Watch out for the pain of disk rot, I've got plenty.

[calev]

 
Watch out for the pain of disk rot, I've got plenty.

All my disk from like 20 years ago still work fine. Seems safer than hard drives

[Klojum]

Using MD5 hash values for your files is one way to find out if that's true.

[jmgibson1981]

I diy my nas on my server. Currently 2 raid one sets via mdadm with LVM across them on linux. This way they aren't tied to a specific raid card or hardware. I was using snapraid but had nothing but trouble when I had to replace a disk. I don't think you would notice a difference between software vs hardware raid except under the heaviest loads which the average media server won't ever likely see.