[given2fly]

Sounds very good to me. However one drawback, you will still have to take backup of your data onto DVDs. Not bad considering it will be write once, store forever operation. However, I would love to throw in a 1 GB Network card (for reliability of network connectivity) if you are using this machine as a NAS box (Too powerful a machine for such purposes, please ignore if not used on a network).

PS : I saw someone else found my ideas too technical. Certainly, I assumed that everyone would be knowing what I was talking, which wasn't the case. But these configurations are pretty practical and can be bettered with further discussions. Let's not get emotional about it.

Originally Posted by Amey

This is what is being done for apna B&T ,

Asus M2N32 SLI Deluxe Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
ATI Radeon HD3450 256MB GPU
1GB x 2 DDR2 800 RAM
Hunt Key 500W PSU
Full ATX Chassis
DVD-RW

Mostly we will stick with the following HDD config,

1 x 500GB - OS, softwares etc. and sort of a buffer disk
3 x 1TB Western Digital SATA HDD for purely storage purposes.

This decision will be B&T's

This board has onboard Wifi so he can use for easier access to the music collection from the laptop and since it will also have a decent GPU in 3450, it will be connected to a TV and also used as HTPC to watch movies. Since the 3450 is capable of decoding HD content well, its an added bonus.

So basically its going to becomes his multipurpose server sort of thing, Storage server+HTPC+Wifi hub or whatever

Hope he likes it

[Sam Kapasi]

Thanks everyone driving me away from storage devices with this complex jargon. I am buying 2 more external 500 GB disks readymade from Maxtor. I already have 2.



I find these more reliable than buying a normal drive and fitting it in a transcend ka casing.

These will cost me about 4500/- each. Uske baad I will buy this.



Then I'm set. Sasta and Masta.

[low_bass_makker]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

Attachment 55238

Then I'm set. Sasta and Masta.

Get the USB which is powered one not self power one.

[Bass&Trouble]

Originally Posted by given2fly

Sounds very good to me. However one drawback, you will still have to take backup of your data onto DVDs. Not bad considering it will be write once, store forever operation.

Backup what? I am not going to make a backup of all the data on DVDs! A couple of TBs is going to be a lot of DVDs, I'd end up looking like a DVD rental store. Unless I got your whole concept wrong.

Originally Posted by given2fly

However, I would love to throw in a 1 GB Network card (for reliability of network connectivity) if you are using this machine as a NAS box (Too powerful a machine for such purposes, please ignore if not used on a network).

I assume we have Wi-Fi on board. Isnt that a reliable network thing?

[given2fly]

To be precise, for every terabyte of info, you will need 256 DVDs. Whoa, what an Idea, Sirjee! I must be cracking coke when I wrote that (which I don't, must be office A/C).

But coming to the point, if you machine is going to run three hard disks of 1 TB each and one of that crashes, do you have a way of recovery thought out for it. For ex., what if the circuit board on the HDD burns, or any such other mishaps very common with such devices. It is a lot of data to loose. So preparing for that in advance doesn't harm. If you want to, you can probably buy a couple of extra HDDs to back things on using a backup software (they compress the data pretty well) and store that safely.

Originally Posted by Bass&Trouble

Backup what? I am not going to make a backup of all the data on DVDs! A couple of TBs is going to be a lot of DVDs, I'd end up looking like a DVD rental store. Unless I got your whole concept wrong.

Wi-Fi is certainly a good thing. But the only thing that I personally don't find good about it is being prone to external factors. It can give fluctuations in absolute output due to electrical interferences, wall, microwave, florescent sources, etc which are typically bane of any wireless device communication. In such cases, your High Definition movie may play in a scratchy manner. You sure wouldn't want that pleasure. But again, if it works in your house, my statements stand null & void.

I assume we have Wi-Fi on board. Isnt that a reliable network thing?

[hydrashok]

I'd keep one set of the data backed up on DVD. I know it will take a long while. Just burn one DVD a day, and you won't feel the pain

Believe me, it is a good idea. I've never come across a HDD that hasn't failed me sometime between 3 & 5 years. I too have huge storage issues, but I never rely on just a HDD. 2 sets of everything goes on DVD. I took me about a year and a half to get up to speed on the stuff I have (burning, & indexing), and since then I've burnt 2 sets whenever I have 4 to 4.2 GB worth of data. I've killed two DVD drives along the way (both got replaced on warranty/service contract, so no issues). I'm paranoid, yes, but one day, the paranoid will rule the world

Moserbaer has a new "Platinum" series that are (supposed to be) scratchproof, smudgeproof & fingerprintproof. And they (supposedly) last 200 years. 10 years will be enough for me.

[srijit]

When you start downloading HD content, DVD backup is a pain.
720p content might fit into a single DVD (if you are lucky). 1080p? No luck. :(

[aaggoswami]

3TB data = 3072 MB = more than 350 8.5GB dual layer DVD. Not recommended.
If there is question of reliability, the go for heavy duty HDD typically used in servers. WesternDigital RE3 would be sufficient. Although I have no idea of price as WesternDigital makes trucks as per wholesale dealers in Vadodara. So an inquiry will be meaning less.

The graphics card is ideal for HTPC as it wont be making much noise, but if the room is not A/C, then temperatures issues might crop up ( they do in POV 7300GT 512MB card of mine ).

Mostly any Western digital drive would be good, but prefer the business oriented. They might cost more, but will be very useful.

[MonkSansFerrari]

I have a WiFi network at home and a Maxtor Network HDD attached to the router. Works very well & fast enough for me.

[motorheadinc]

Originally Posted by Bass&Trouble

Nice idea. However, my max upload speed is 20-25kbps. I'll be greying by the time I get everything online. Retrieving it will have to be assigned to someone in my will.

That was hilarious. ROTFLMAO

[given2fly]

Sorry Buddy, but looks like your data is not important to you. But I lost 160 GB of data on a single disk when MFT on an NTFS disk went bad taking along 4 partitions of data, and those were the days of 160/320 GB HDDs. Yet to recover that. So if it is not imp. for you to secure your data, I strongly disagree encouraging others for such habits. You sure don't want to loose that music collection you built over last 7 years or those precious moments captured with your family or that neighbors envy home theater collection, just because a stupid hard disk error happened after 1 year, 4 months & 12 days. You will probably get the disk replaced, but no surety of data recovery.

Typically, it is a worldwide practice to copy movies, music and photographs onto DVD disks and keep it as archive. You only go to retrieve it when you really need it (like the situations mentioned above). I'm not trying to scare anyone but I have gone through that pain to realize how good DVDs come in those situations.

Besides that, it's easy to quote that get heavy duty HDD. I have tried to get them (Both Seagate ES.2 & WD RE2) in Vashi (Better than Lamington these days), without success. RE3 is a new launch.

PS : There is no business oriented drive, not sure if you mean power-saving ones & ""super-reliable, meant for storage servers"". Those are known as GP for WD & ES.2 for Seagate.

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

3TB data = 3072 MB = more than 350 8.5GB dual layer DVD. Not recommended.

If there is question of reliability, the go for heavy duty HDD typically used in servers. WesternDigital RE3 would be sufficient. Although I have no idea of price as WesternDigital makes trucks as per wholesale dealers in Vadodara. So an inquiry will be meaning less.

Mostly any Western digital drive would be good, but prefer the business oriented. They might cost more, but will be very useful.

[Ram]

Originally Posted by given2fly

Besides that, it's easy to quote that
get heavy duty HDD.
I have tried to get them (Both Seagate ES.2 & WD RE2) in Vashi (Better than Lamington these days), without success.
RE3 is a new launch.

given2fly, if you know a better source than Lamington, do please let me know too! Vashi would be great.
Please PM me.
Thanks. Ram

[Bass&Trouble]

Originally Posted by hydrashok

I'd keep one set of the data backed up on DVD. I know it will take a long while. Just burn one DVD a day, and you won't feel the pain

Originally Posted by given2fly

Sorry Buddy, but looks like your data is not important to you.

Hi guys! All the suggestions have been great. Looks like I have misled everyone at some point.

All this "data" is going to be a bunch of movies, and a shipload of ripped and other music.

- You suggest I get DVD backup, one a day.
- The reason I'm getting this contraption is exactly so that I dont have to do that. Currently, I have to write a DVD from one of my various machines and take it home to watch a movie. I dont carry my laptop home every day. And I dont want to.

With this arrangement, I can have all my stuff where I can access it. And I dont want it the way it is currently - on 3 seperate machines, one of which is for office work.

If I lose a disk, 33% of the data, I wont be heartbroken. 90% of my music is electronic. And it's already "backed up" on the internet.

That said, my comp has arrived perfectly on time, upholding the 24 hours shipping guarantee. Maal is being loaded. Cant wait to try it out. Thanks a heap Amey for all the help. Owe you a big one. cheers:

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by given2fly

Sorry Buddy, but looks like your data is not important to you. But I lost 160 GB of data on a single disk when MFT on an NTFS disk went bad taking along 4 partitions of data, and those were the days of 160/320 GB HDDs. Yet to recover that. So if it is not imp. for you to secure your data, I strongly disagree encouraging others for such habits. You sure don't want to loose that music collection you built over last 7 years or those precious moments captured with your family or that neighbors envy home theater collection, just because a stupid hard disk error happened after 1 year, 4 months & 12 days. You will probably get the disk replaced, but no surety of data recovery.

Thanks for this reply, but I think you have jumped to conclusion very quickly. Rather than horses under the hood of a car, I am more interested in the Body-In-White images. I had 1.2GB of them. Yes its true. And I lost it along with e-books of study, and because of a hard drive failure, I almost lost an academic year. I just about managed to recover from crash and somehow saved the time.

But backing up on DVD will eventually take very long time, for example one dvd a day = more than one year to complete the backup.

Originally Posted by given2fly

Typically, it is a worldwide practice to copy movies, music and photographs onto DVD disks and keep it as archive. You only go to retrieve it when you really need it (like the situations mentioned above). I'm not trying to scare anyone but I have gone through that pain to realize how good DVDs come in those situations.

If you feel that DVD is safest for backing up then actually its not. Data loss can happen even here. I have myself experienced this.

Originally Posted by given2fly

Besides that, it's easy to quote that get heavy duty HDD. I have tried to get them (Both Seagate ES.2 & WD RE2) in Vashi (Better than Lamington these days), without success. RE3 is a new launch.

Recently my lab got one RE3.

Originally Posted by given2fly

PS : There is no business oriented drive, not sure if you mean power-saving ones & ""super-reliable, meant for storage servers"". Those are known as GP for WD & ES.2 for Seagate.

I meant enterprise drives.

[leadf00t]

Originally Posted by Amey

This is what is being done for apna B&T ,

Asus M2N32 SLI Deluxe Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
ATI Radeon HD3450 256MB GPU
1GB x 2 DDR2 800 RAM
Hunt Key 500W PSU
Full ATX Chassis
DVD-RW
............


......since it will also have a decent GPU in 3450, it will be connected to a TV and also used as HTPC to watch movies. Since the 3450 is capable of decoding HD content well, its an added bonus.

So basically its going to becomes his multipurpose server sort of thing, Storage server+HTPC+Wifi hub or whatever

Hope he likes it

What boss ... Amey Kis cheez ka badla le raha hain. Dhasu setup to karke diya na Ajay ne tujhe.

All he wanted was a poor man's huge storage solution and you are giving him a bloody fully blown File/Storage server . uske saath HTPC FREE FREE FREE.

Tu uske paas kya Illusion Electra's ka budget leke gaya tha kya aur usne tujhe Lucents 3-way setup bana ke diya isliye badla le raha hain .

Ithink what Ajay basically needs is this

Intellinet Network Attached Storage Appliance With Bill And One Year Manufacturer Warranty gifts in india at rediff shopping.

or this

External Storage - Vox 500Gb (Nas) Usb 2.0 External Hard Drive Exsa-35N-500G-K (Vox) - eCOST.com - electronics, computers, laptops, mp3 players

Ajay _ I would recommned you take a stroll around on Lamington road to find out what you can get over the counted. yes Gurus can build you stuff config it and get it running but believe me it isn't easy keeping all this in running condition unless you are a total geek and know it in and OUT.
I have been doing this stuff since donkey years and what it comes to maintaining stuff its hell.

Its not like apna ICE VICE ki instal kiya , CD dala aur Naachana Chalooo.....