Hi, Free Agent,
You could set up a "storage bank" with 2 3TB or 4TB (bare drive) HDDs and
an external enclosure, and then add to it as resources permit.
I've been collecting since the late '90s, and sometime in 2008, I looked
at the motley assortment of external HDDs (and USB hubs, power supplies,
extension cords, etc.) on my desk and decided to fix the problem with a
more permanent solution. It took me a couple of years to get it in place,
but it now "works like a charm."
I do something similar to fred-bloggs -- with WD-RED NAS 3TB drives in
two separate NexStar HX4 Enclosures (not a "raid" -- just storage). I
stagger-cycle these drives so that I replace one in each box yearly,
after it's been in use for four years. That way, I only replace two
drives per year -- about $200 total at NewEgg (watch for sales).
One HX4 is the "primary," and the other is a "mirror." It's rare indeed
that both "boxes" -- or the same drive in each box -- would fail at the
same time. New files get copied to the primary. Once I set up the HX4s, I
wrote a simple batch file to backup any changes (new files - deleted
files) from the primary to the mirror daily at 5am. Two drives are film
(by genre) -- and two are television series.
The "primary" is on my home wireless network (ASUS RT-N66u Dual Band),
and I have two recycled small-footprint Win-XP Pro computers (with hdmi
graphics cards and wireless kb/mouse) attached to the two tvs in the
house. Any film or tv show can be accessed through the network by any tv
at any time. I use Media Player Classic to view. Hulu? Netflix? Amazon
Prime? Nope -- don't need 'em. Oh, and the entire OTR collection is
stored on one of the tv drives -- but it's only about 1TB. Nothing beats
listening to the "Battling Bickersons" at breakfast!
Rule # 1 around here is that if there's a fire, one of the "boxes" is the
first thing we grab (after the cats and each other).
I think that this will probably meet my needs until SSDs reach closer to
price parity with HDDs. They're not there yet, but in say, 5 years, I
should be able to get a 2TB or 3TB SSD for about $100-$150. I'll then
switch to those. Given my age, I suspect that I won't be worrying about
this very much in 20 years. . . .
Hope this helps!
Cheers!
------------------------------------------
"fred-bloggs" <fred-bloggs@hahahotmail.com> wrote in
news:56d6909f$0$41807$b1db1813$926ec78a@news.astraweb.com:
> On Tue, 01 Mar 2016 23:24:18 GMT, Free Agent <freeagent@nospam.com>
> wrote
>
>> I'm losing my second Seagate Expansion drive in under a year and want
>> to rethink my options.
>>
>
> <snippage>
>
> I use Synology NASs (not in RAID) as short term, offline backup. Long
> term backup is on DVD/BDR. I keep a catalog (titles,size,location) of
> local drives, NASs and DVDs in case of failures.
>
> Hard drives fail.
> https://www.backblaze.com/blog/how-long-do-disk-drives-last/
>
> DVDs fail, less often, verify discs when writing.
>
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