External hard drive for expanding iTunes library?

I advocate RAID 0 because (non-zero) RAID protects against one thing and one thing only: A single hard drive failure. (Lose 2 and you're hosed.) It allows you to work even when a drive fails. It does NOT protect against the more common reasons for data loss (user screwups, viruses, etc). Hence you still need a backup solution. So if you're a business that depends on having continuous 24/7 access to your data, you use RAID. On the other hand, if 24/7 continuous access is not critical to the application, as is the case here, save your money and just purchase a replacement HDD if/when it becomes necessary. You have backups, so you can restore the data easily. Make sense?

RAID 1 doubles the number of drives you need, and RAID 5 really only makes sense with at least 4 drives. So you're adding an additional 2 drives effectively to achieve redundancy for comparable data storage. You'll have to purchase an additional HDD if any of the drives dies regardless of which RAID type you use.

Edesilva, are you referring to Buffalo's 1 TB Terastation? My friend has one and we're getting nowhere near the 160 Mbps that you're getting. Which model do you have? We do much better transferring files PC to PC across his gigabit ethernet network than we do from Terastation to PC.

And the reason I advocate building your own machine is that it is more flexible in the long run. Want to add additional capabilities to make it some sort of media server? No problem. Want to add Myth TV software to make it like a TIVO? It's doable (although that does take some work and special hardware). Or you can also use it as a router/firewall.

I guess my point is that it's your backups (preferably stored away from your computer), not RAID that really protects your data. You'll pay extra for RAID. Just make sure you need it.

Michael

Yes, but... RAID 0 doubles the number of drives as well, and it doesn't give you any redundancy protection. Frankly, I've backed up my RAID 5 as well anyway--no way I want to rip that many CDs again and do all the indexing and get all the artwork. Once is enough...

Sure your friend's isn't on a hub versus a switch or something? At 16 mbps, it would have taken four days to back mine up, and it was overnight. Maybe I'm underestimating overnight using 8 hours, but I'm not underestimating by a factor of 10--it was overnight...

As far as building your own, I built my last computer and, while I won't claim to be any sort of computer genius (last system I built was a Z80 on an S100 bus), it isn't purely plug-and-play. I had to work out a fair number of oddball issues, and some of them took some time and research. Not sure everyone is up for that. I like the terastation b/c it is basically plug-and-play. Its not perfect--multiple access is a lot slower than my PowerVault, for example--but it is pretty good protection versus the consumer USB/firewire drives so many use. After the number of failures I've had with those, I'm much more comfortable with the idea of my catastrophic failure being two drives failing at the same time...

Guess everyone is going to have their own comfort zone here. Part of the reason I'd advocate not giving away or selling the original CDs. Those are, ultimately, the last backup...

I'm coming to this thread late, but I have a G-Drive 500G Q Drive to hold music files and use as a back up for my Mac Powerbook and Macbook Pro. I bought it for speed (FW800), reliability, and because it is fanless. I've been happy with the speed and reliability, but for a fanless HD, it is a bit noisier than I'd like. When I'm listening to music from iTunes, the hard disk is spinning and it is fairly loud. When I'm listening to music, it doesn't bother me, but when I'm trying to concentrate with no music, the drive noise seems pretty loud. I agree that RAID's are the way to go if you want the most reliability, since there is a backup built in if the drive fails. Nevertheless, RAID's are a pretty expensive option. I have an old cheap external I can use to back up my iTunes collection.

Howell, by now, you've probably spent some time with the G-Drive. What do you think?

Does anyone know where to find a review of noise ratings for different external hard drives?

Mark

Thanks for your response Mark . I agree with you that for a fanless HD, the G-Drive seemed surprisingly loud when I fired it up for the first time. Especially when compared with the built in HD of my iMac G-5 which is unbelievably quiet. So loud in fact, that I moved it from a high and central location to a more low and sequestered one (in relation to my main speakers) on day two. That 10' change made a big difference, and the noise hasn't bothered me since then. And it just occurred to me. Either I'm getting used to the noise; and/or it is becoming more quiet with use because the only times I notice it, is when I'm sitting at the computer when activating the G-Drive which is a few feet below my computer desk. In my experience, precision machines improve as they break in; and I hope that is what is happening in this case.

I have had the drive about 6 months and I don't think it has gotten quieter. In fact, I've grown more sensitive to the sound, so it sounds louder, even though it probably isn't. I have it sitting next to my computer on the top of a desk. When I'm sitting at the computer, it is very noticable, but when I'm sitting in the listening chair, I don't notice it much. I think the laptop-sized hard drives are the quietest (but also most expensive) option. I'm not surprised your G-5 drive is quieter, since my other external drives are much quieter than the G-Drive. Most of the time drive speed isn't an issue for iTunes, so I may use my 250gb Porsche La Cie drive (which I thought was loud, but it is much quieter than the G-Drive) for listening and use the G-Drive for archival purposes. I also may try to keep a small version of the music server on my internal laptop HD, which is practically silent, and just use the G-Drive as a holding bay. For this purpose, the speed of the G-Drive should come in handy!

Have fun with it. It is a cool looking and high quality computer accessory, even though I wouldn't recommend using it in near field listening environments.

Mark