How to manage a big itunes library?

Keep in mind that about the only scenario a RAID setup helps with is a single drive failure.

There are lots of other things than can take out all the drives or even a whole system: a power surge, theft, fire or smoke damage, a broken water pipe and so on. Even typing the wrong command can take out a RAID.

The primary benefit of a RAID system is for computers that need 24/7 access (web & email servers, systems for businesses) where a RAID will allow a partially crippled system to keep running until a drive gets replaced.

For a large music collection there is no substitute for a backup copy of the drive. Re-ripping and tagging can be a very slow process. I actually keep two backups with one of them off premises. That makes a lot more sense to me than a RAID. I only use that for my business computer.

There is also Neil Van Berg's Music Vault which is a standalone solution (no computer interface needed). It backs up (automatically I think) to an external USB drive(s) of your choice. It is compatible with both WIFI And USB interfaces like Tranpsorter, Squeezebox, AE, etc. No direct experience to speak of. Six Moons wrote it up in a positive light, I think.

Yeah, that's a good point about keeping an off-site backup, especially if you have a huge library. I also do the same thing.

Whoa, Marco!

I hadn't read the Amazon Drobo reviews in a few months. I just became aware of the release of the FW800 version a few days ago, and it seems the newer unit for some reason has very poor reliability. What happened??!!

The other thing I was looking at is this:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MHU27S3.0T64/

But this unit still carries the greater risk that larger capacity hard drives have associated with them.

I've used NewerTech processor daughter cards in my old PowerMac 8500. It's good to see the company is still around.

Dean - The OWC stuff is highly respected for using quality parts. My friend has a 500gig Mercury Elite Pro drive and it's pretty noisy so that's a downside to them. Other than that they are used by many photogs, as are G-Tech, for their reliability. I found the RAID solution that was recommended on the ASMP list (no direct experience myself): It is by Accordance Systems. As you know, us photographers are a pretty demanding lot when it comes to dependable storage/backup as our livelihood is on those spinning discs (this of course goes for many other occupations). When it comes to building hard drives definitely go with something that is well vented/cooled as has already been pointed out, and with a company known for using quality parts (controllers, power supply, etc.). Alternatively it is not that difficult to get all the parts and build your own with quality parts. Any way you do it, the drives will still eventually fail, it's just a matter of how long they last.

Marco

Another very tedious backup solution is to back up to dual-layer or single layer DVD's. That is best facilitated using a backup program that allows backup to multiple discs. If you have a library of of 5000 CD's that would take about 330 DVD's or half as many dual-layer (SLOW to burn) DVD's, and to restore your library would mean transferring those all back to another hard drive in the event of failure of the original copy. Still, it is yet another potential backup strategy for an additional hard-copy on fewer discs.