Re: Re: Compressing DVD ISO Images

[Mal Lansell <mal@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Phil Harris wrote:

>For media servers do you *REALLY* need RAID though?
>
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8< snip

I understand what you're saying, but I would never rely 100% on the
Raid5 solution - I would still have the DVDs available to reinstall if
the very worst should happen (and in the case of TV series, I keep a DVD
backup of the separate episodes that can just be copied directly  onto
the hard disk)

However, I consider a drive to be far more likely to fail than the
controller card - especially if left running 24/7.  I also expect a twin
drive failure to be a rare occurance as well (yes, I know if you buy all
the drives at the same time that this is more likely, but I don't do that).

Copying all those DVDs to restore the data is a big task, even for a
single drive's worth.  Raid 5 should reduce the number of times I need
to do it - hopefully to the extent that I don't actually need to do it
before I would have to anyway due to switching to a new format.

So, yes I'm prepared for the worst, but I reckon giving up 1 drive in 8
is worth the additional (but not perfect) robustness.

Mal