Having gradually built up my media collection to near the capacity of my 16TB external HDD, I’ve reached the point where I’ll probably need to build a RAID array to keep the collection in one place. Assuming the RAID array will be at least 32TB, I have a few questions:
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From what I’ve read RAID arrays can help mitigate the risk of individual drives failing if extra space is allotted on the hard drives. Assuming a total capacity of 32TB, how much of that space would be reserved by the RAID array for data loss prevention?
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Is there a certain type of hard drive I would have to use? Aside from my 16TB drive, I also have two 2 8TB drives that I’d ideally like to be able to re-use in the RAID array, but have left them in their enclosures for the time being.
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If the hard drives in the array have different transfer speeds, does the array as a whole default to the slowest one?
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Whether the hard drives I already have are compatible or not, what RAID enclosure and hard drives would you recommend?
My man, You need a NAS. I can highly recommend TrueNAS scale if you want to go the self building route.
I’m not interested in accessing the hard drives remotely, so a NAS would probably be unnecessary for my use case.
You want the drives in your main rig?
My idea was to just put several external hard drives into a RAID enclosure and connect it to my computer via USB. Wouldn’t that function similarly to a typical external hard drive?
That is correct.
Most people use a NAS so they don’t have to start their PC when they want to watch a movie on a TV or mobile, or ro back up their photos and files (automated if possible).
The NAS probably consumes less power, and is always accessible.
If you are alone and watch movies & play music on your PC, then don’t bother.
I do it to learn about linux and stuff.