Old pc, back up sloution?

Mark W · #1 (**permalink**) 10-25-2006, 02:43 PM

I got a new pc recently and now i have an 'old' xp3000 and 5 spare ide drives, 2x160gb 2x120 a 250 and an 80... what to with it?

Suugestions welcome...

I thought maybe making some sort of back up soloution with it. Maybe stuff if with hard drives in and make it some of raid server thingy linked to my main pc by gigabit ethernet?

I dont think the drives I have will be much use as is cos they all need to be the same size dont they ?

250gb ides can be had well cheap so i tht maybe get a few more 250 drives to make something, presume i would need a raid pci card or something?

It would be best to use the old drives as they are all healthy, could i raid the 2 160s and 120s as 2 pairs and then add another pair of 250s, making 730 of safe raid backup?

Does this make any sense to anyone ? Could you nle edit of these files across giga bit ehternet?

GTWCMT · #2 (**permalink**) 10-25-2006, 05:04 PM

well, as you claim to know everything about computer..\LOL
Your are talking about PATA, and you proberly wont be able to do that on your old computer as its a fairly new include on modern computers.

What you can do is either;
set up a FTP server or your own video server to stream content or just store video ( I guess youre all knowing so I wont have to tell you how to do that)

OR

Set them up as a Shared drive, You need to right click on the drive to set it up,( as your all knowing I wont need to tell you about how to set up the security)

I would set it up as shared drives, maybe cluster the systems

Mark W · #3 (**permalink**) 10-25-2006, 05:17 PM

I have never claim to know everything about computers... far from it.

PATA is the name of the ide drive interface isnt it. Are you saying I cant build a mirrored raid server using pata drives, does it have to be serial drives? I didnt think so....

As for online storage, well at a bit rate of over 3Mbit/s for dv that would be a bit impractical really wouldnt it.

I have a web site with 10gb of space but that is used for compressed versions of my films.

SO

Can anyone tell me how easy / practical it would be to add a raid controller to my pc and configure it as a safe back up sloution via giga bit ethernet and can you nle from a source through giga bit.

Marc Peters · #4 (**permalink**) 10-25-2006, 05:19 PM

Mark I'd use it purely as back up. You could edit across a network, but windows networking being what it is, you'll find yourself throwing the PC out of the window from time to time. Little point in making a RAID array for speed then, but definately for redundancy.

Mark W · #5 (**permalink**) 10-25-2006, 05:29 PM

Thanks Marc, so I presume I get a raid card and bung it all together with g bit ethernet and simmer gently - job done. Can one purchase raid 5 pci cards?

Hope this makes sense as I am at the edge of my envalope of understanding here ....

I only really wnat it for ultra safe but still accessible storge.

GTWCMT · #6 (**permalink**) 10-25-2006, 05:34 PM

No Mark W,

If you back up to the server, then your not editing directly, 100 MB/s Bit rate is around 45MB/s but I would think that your Drives would be more like 23MB/s

If you store on your new computer then move it to the old computer then there would be no issues with the data rate.
You cant built SATA RAID on IDE drive as they are two differnet things, you would need to PATA then together to make the RAID, RAID card are either SCSI or SATA and PATA. So with what you got, its not going to happen on the IDE, PLUS I guess that you have lots of data on your old system. This would have to be removed before you raided the drives.. How many gig's of data you got?

Mark P, I suggest FTP as this by passes windows, and therefore voids the issues that come with windows.
If Maark W was to run his own stream server, he will not use up bandwidth limits on his current host and can strean his own work

GTWCMT · #7 (**permalink**) 10-25-2006, 05:37 PM

Originally Posted by Mark W

Thanks Marc, so I presume I get a raid card and bung it all together with g bit ethernet and simmer gently - job done. Can one purchase raid 5 pci cards?

Hope this makes sense as I am at the edge of my envalope of understanding here .... I only really wnat it for ultra safe but still accessible storge.

Google RAID 5, I Dont think that it will work across computers and controllers, Auo FTP back up is simple and effective, Its just a few things that you need to do. All you will need is a high speed net card, some software and very little knowledge

Marc Peters · #8 (**permalink**) 10-25-2006, 05:48 PM

You can get Parallel ATA RAID controllers. You could use a few of the drives you already had, but the total size would be limited by the smallest.

Mark W · #9 (**permalink**) 10-25-2006, 08:57 PM

Oh I think all that is not needed actually... if i forget the idea of using the old drives, probably reckless in a backup sysytem i could try something else...

I forgot my mb has 6 sata ports, so presumably, assuming the mboard bios and disc controller supports raid arrays in combination with a non raided sys drive I could have 4 big raided drives on board... doh! Much more elegant and I am sure i could nle all files then. I could also, I presume, back up an image of the sys drive to the raid array and be super system safe too.

I think i need to do a bit more research and RTFM !

I had better stop all this random posting and think about this a bit more.

edit

And a better use for the spare pc and drives would be that media centre pc I have never got round to getting set up.

miwhel · #10 (**permalink**) 10-25-2006, 09:42 PM

What about his and hers editing suites?

Also vegas supports network rendering, though I don't know how effective it would be.