Recommendations for my HDA

[justin]

First post!!

About me: As my username states my name is Justin. I have been a Linux n00b/enthusiast for many years. I like aviation and technology, and my goal is to one day be a full time pilot . For now I work support/help for a technology company in the city.

Hardware:
AMD Opteron 170
4GB DDR 400
10/100/1000 LAN
10/100 LAN
3 x 1TB Western Digital HDD
1 x 500GB Western Digital HDD
1 x 750GB Segate External HDD

I would like to setup the HDA too maximize the space, but also protect my data. I was thinking some type of RAID, but I wasn't exactly sure what would be best. I currently have 450GB of data, mostly music I have ripped from disc, pictures from the past 10 years, and some movies. I plan on upgrading my router and switch soon, so I can have Gigabit LAN for the whole network.

Justin

[moredruid]

Here you can calculate all kinds of RAID levels with your disk setup.

basically I'd use the 3x1TB disks for a RAID set, possible even ditch the 500GB disk and buy another 1TB to put into the RAID set (then you could have a 2TB RAID 1 setup), but considering your data need at the moment this isn't necessary.

[justin]

Thanks.

Do you recommend running the OS on a single drive and raid the storage, or all on the same raid?

Justin

[moredruid]

depends. are you going to tweak your OS a lot then I'd suggest putting it in a mirror (or create a backup each time you change something).
If not, a single disk should be OK. usually the amahi install shouldn't take more than an hour or so, and you can restore the apps you were using with a few clicks. You should make regular database backups then tho if you use a lot of apps.

[NeverSimple]

I would like to setup the HDA too maximize the space, but also protect my data. I was thinking some type of RAID ...

Or... use the greyhole storage pool. It's very flexible and protects your data in a useful manner for a homeserver. Look around the forums and google a little for more info.

Good luck,

Richard