[mythtv-users] Network Drive Storage Questions and others.

[Kevin Kuphal]

Douglas Wagner wrote:
> Ok, so i'm REALLY starting to look into this and quickly.  Couple more 
> questions for all of you:
>
> Debating between going hardware raid 5 and just a bunch of non raid disks.
>
> I'll start with the questions:
> 1) Can you convert from Raid 1 (Mirroring) to Raid 5 without 
> loosing/moving the data? 
Yes, by copying between RAID sets, but not as an in-place upgrade.
> 2) Can you add disks to a Raid 5 without having to move data off the 
> Raid/Reconfigure the Raid (i.e. can you add the disk in place)
Yes, in newer versions of the raid tools but all the drives/partitions 
must be of equal size

> 5) For HDTV, should I be looking at Gigbit Ethernet to appropriately 
> stream data over the network or can I get away with 100BT?
I'm doing it with 100BT, even 100BT to switch 1 and that connected to 
switch 2 where my other computers are.  No problem with HD playback.  I 
did have some trouble recording to HD across one of my switches ala 
network storage but I think that was my switch more than the speed.
> Here's the thing, at this point i'm looking at one or two drives but 
> being expandable in the future.  I'd like to go with a pair of 250g 
> now (potentially Mirrored) and add to that in the future to build up a 
> raid 5...depending whether the wife feels like the data on the PVR is 
> too good to replace or not. 
I've gone back and forth on that myself and I've settled with no RAID 
and simply use LVM to expand the disk storage as I add newer differing 
sized drives.  Nothing I have is critical enough that I couldn't lose it 
and anything I feel is somewhat important (DVD rips which would take 
alot of time to re-rip), I simply burn the files to dual layer DVD as 
data and keep the copies.  I don't find the investment and headache in 
RAID to be worth it for the data I'm looking to protect.
> Obviously if the verdict is "Na, we can loose it" then i'll look at a 
> non-raid solution since frankly raid 5 is just expensive and Mirroring 
> is just stupid when you're talking about adding more disks in the 
> future (have to add in pairs).  Otherwise I need some kind of 
> extendable solution...the epotomy of which would be starting with 2 
> drives now and adding a drive at a time in the future.
Exactly...

Kevin