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[benn600]

Does anyone know of a Drobo like solution that is less expensive?  It doesn't need all the features or Drobo.  I'm mainly interested in a way to take 3 drives ... maybe up to 5 ... and create a nice RAID 5 array.  I'm gradually adding drives to my backup scheme and it would be very useful if I could add some redundancy to my backup while combining the space to a single drive so I don't have so much overhead with each drive alone.

It needs to be as inexpensive as possible.

In summary, I want to keep 3-5 drives in a compact device with single power supply and single data port -- USB, Firewire, or Ethernet would be fine.

[newsposter]

go buy a $200 appliance that will take 3-4 drives.

[benn600]

I am not finding any.

[horse]

Why do you need RAID in the primary storage and the backup system?
If you are doing RAID for a speed advantage by striping the data, then that would be another thing, but then you are conecting via Ethernet, Firewire or USB.

We use RAID for backup in production for speed and because the backup is an archive store and contains data not on the primary system anymore.

From your other posts you have
RAID on the main system
RAID on a backup system
Offsite backup

and also looking to use a Internet based backup

I need to find out what disk manufacture you prefer, so I can buy some stock :-)

Anyway here are some NAS at Newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=40000124&Description=RAID+Ethernet&name=Network+Storage

But most are not cheap . . . .

[benn600]

That's very true.

The drives I'm talking about are actually my offsite and it's somewhat half-offsite.  It's complicated.

You're right.  It wouldn't be necessary to add redundancy to the backup.

[dcwebman]

In summary, I want to keep 3-5 drives in a compact device with single power supply and single data port -- USB, Firewire, or Ethernet would be fine.

You're probably talking about using SATA drives (and I think there is one like this), but I think I'm going to order one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817332008

I have plenty of IDE drives sitting around that I can finally take advantage of and instead of having 4 external drive enclosures, this will be nice to have one USB & one power supply. The AMS products are getting pretty decent reviews so you may want to see if they have something else that might fit your needs.

[benn600]

So does that provide still four separate drives to the OS?  That wouldn't be difficult to provide four drives over one cable and would not have the disadvantages of a cheap RAID solution being poor support if something goes wrong.  This looks like a pretty standard device -- definitely a good option.  I have lots of IDE hard drives as well.  I'd say a bunch of 40GB, 80GB, 120GB, and a few 160GB.  I have the larger drives in our computers but don't need the space.  I could downsize them to the 40GB drives--no real drawbacks because everything is stored on the server--and then put 3 160's and a 120 in this case.  Although, lol.  I've got a better idea!!!

This is a ripoff!!  Think about that.  I could take my 4 drives and get 600GB of space but four times the drive failure rate --more because the drives are older.   And a much greater power demand of four drives vs. one.  Plus added complexity and more overhead with multiple drives where you'd want to keep 10% free on each vs. 10% free on the entire 500GB drive.  Or I could take that $120 and get a brand new 500GB drive!  Wow--it's questions like this that complicate life!  I personally would be better buying more of the internal drives and then using my old My Book external enclosures.  I still have about 9 of them UNUSED!!!

[dcwebman]

From reading the description of that device, you can combine drives so they don't have to be 4 separate drives. My problem is I'm running out of USB ports and A/C outlets. When you have 1 outlet and 2 UPS's plugged into it for 2 computers and almost all plugs filled, we're probably getting close to a fire hazard.

But it sounds like if you have a bunch of old My Book enclosures, you might have an answer. I'll give you a tip if you throw a couple my way. BB has 500GB drives less than $100 this week.

[benn600]

I bought a drive a week ago because of a sudden "CLAIMED" drive failure.  I'm gonna see if it's the same one and get a PRICE MATCH!  Everytime I buy a product at BB, I seem to get either a price match or a 10/12% off coupon.  Great!

Unfortunately, you or someone else asked for some of the enclosures.  I'd be happy to spread them around but remember they are SATA only.

I read more and that device uses JBOD.  That basically is RAID0 where it stripes data on all the drives so I think you lose everything if one fails--yikes.  But like I said, is it worth $130 to save 4 old drives when you could just buy a brand new drive that competes well with the total capacity of all those four drives?  And is newer.  And faster.  And maybe more reliable (at least not times 4 failure rate).

Addition: It's the Seagate 500GB drives.  Unfortunately, I'd like to stick with WD on all the drives so they are at least the same brand.  Newegg has some 500GB SATA drives for $110 I think with no tax/free shipping so that would be $105 at Best Buy (approx with tax).

[dcwebman]

After talking with a friend, I went the complete opposite direction. I ended up getting two of those Seagate 500GB's at BB and they had an offer for $50 off a D-Link DNS-323 which has gotten pretty decent reviews. Plus the 323 has a following of people doing hackable things with it. My current "server" with a 320GB drive has a matching external 320GB drive attached to it for my backups. I will end up using the 323 as my media storage with Raid 1. I will then use the external 320GB drive as my offsite backup drive. I need to archive stuff first and have a bunch of IDE drives I can use for that so hopefully I'll be okay with the 320GB backup for awhile. If not, it will be time to upgrade to at least another 500GB, SATA this time. I'm still considering Mozy for my other offsite backup of the most important data.

My "server" will then be transformed into my HTPC. It won't be the greatest because it's a slimline computer (Compaq Evo D530U) but will be good enough to finally be able to use theater view. I'm also thinking of switching to Netflix so that way I can view the downloaded movies on my TV. Then it's time to upgrade to a gigabit network. Slowly but surely.

[benn600]

Gigabit isn't really needed with SD video.  Even HD video can be transferred without any issues.  It only takes maybe 30 Mbps to transfer high definition video.

But for data transfers, gigabit is completely worth it.

[dcwebman]

But for data transfers, gigabit is completely worth it.

That's pretty much what I'd be using it for since the 323 would be my main file server.

[dcwebman]

Benn, I think I found what meets your original request and it comes in black or silver.
http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/SearchDetail.asp?productID=15625
http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/SearchDetail.asp?productID=14176

[benn600]

That is exactly what I would like.  Unfortunately, the price is higher than I think I'd be willing to pay.  Those look very nice though.  It just allows users to take any old drives and quickly and easily make a RAID set.  It's a lot less expensive than Drobo!  I'd build my own but it would be impossible to get something that small with enough drive bays using standardized components.  And even with standard components, it wouldn't be possible to build it for that little money, ~$250...so it is a good value.  I'm going to keep that in mind!  Good find, thanks!