RAID Vs. JBOD Vs. Standard HDDs

Ravengbc writes "I am in the process of planning and buying some hardware to build a media center/media server. While there are still quite a few things on it that I haven't decided on, such as motherboard/processor, and windows XP vs. Linux, right now my debate is about storage. I'm wanting to have as much storage as possible, but redundancy seems to be important too." Read on for this reader's questions about the tradeoffs among straight HDDs, RAID 5, and JBOD.

At first I was thinking about just putting in a bunch HDDs. Then I started thinking about doing a RAID array, looking at RAID 5. However, some of the stuff I was initially told about RAID 5, I am now learning is not true. Some of the limitations I'm learning about: RAID 5 drives are limited to the size of the smallest drive in the array. And the way things are looking, even if I gradually replace all of the drives with larger ones, the array will still read the original size. For example, say I have 3x500gb drives in RAID 5 and over time replace all of them with 1TB drives. Instead of reading one big 3tb drive, it will still read 1.5tb. Is this true? I also considered using JBOD simply because I can use different size HDDs and have them all appear to be one large one, but there is no redundancy with this, which has me leaning away from it. If y'all were building a system for this purpose, how many drives and what size drives would you use and would you do some form of RAID, or what?

Two words: RAID 0

[Richard McBeef]

Nothing can possibly go wrong. Especially if you use, like, 10 disks.

Re:Two words: RAID 0

[erik umenhofer]

Place it under a rain gutter as well. Uptime and data retention increase 59.544%.

Don't worry about losing your media files

[NotQuiteReal]

You can just download them again, right?

Re:Two words: RAID 0

[Richard McBeef]

Uptime and data retention increase 59.544%.

Actually, it's 59.5449999%. So it's 5 nines no matter how you look at it.

Wait a sec...

[GFree]

Out of all the details you're still working on, you decided to ask Slashdotters about storage?

Why not the "windows XP vs. Linux" bit? Do you want 100 responses or 1000?

Media Server?

[foooo]

Media Server: n. A euphamism for digital porn storage.

Re:RAID

[alexandreracine]

Does something in the harddrive pop up and tell you?

Actually, the failed hard disk will personnaly walk to you.

Nuh-Uh

[rustalot42684]

You're wrong. What if:

• a psychopath hires a hitman to destroy his media center? The hitman comes in, destroys all 10 drives with a large axe, and leaves.
• a crazed velociraptor claws open the case and destroys all 10 drives, then mauls him.
• His power supply suffers extreme spontaneous combustion and explodes all 10 drives.
• Steve Ballmer is angered by that fucking pussy Eric Schmidt and throws a chair which flies across the country and smashes into his computer.
• a meteor crashes into the house and destroys all the drives, but leaves everything else untouched.
• he becomes prone to sleep-sysadmining and accidentally formats them all.
• His house is the target of a nuclear attack. (Didn't think of that one, did you, bitches?)

Raid 0 won't protect you, man!

Re:Wait a sec...

[Anonymous Coward]

I want 7,000,000 [google.com]

Re:Nuh-Uh

[rustalot42684]

And, of course, by RAID 0, I mean RAID 1. Must click 'Preview' next time.
Perhaps a Post-It note on the monitor to remind myself.

Re:Two words: RAID 0

[CajunArson]

Two words: RAID 0 Nothing can possibly go wrong. Especially if you use, like, 10 disks.

For the love of God and all that's holy will someone mod this 'Funny' instead of Informative? I get the joke, but there's always somebody who won't!
(Then again... maybe people who won't oughta make a 10 disk RAID 0, hell mod it insightful sucka!)

Re:Media Server?

[ScrewMaster]

Media Server: n. A euphamism for digital porn storage.

Only if you make all your network file shares pubic.

Re:Two words: RAID 0

[jollyreaper]

So long as we're giving crackhead advice.....

D00D!!! The best mote l33t way to back this shiznit up is to do a pkzip span across multiple floppies. Use 5.25 low density to show you know old school. Backing up a terrabyte should only take you, what, long enough that the first disks are dying of bit rot before the last disks are done? RAWK!!!!!

PS you can increase the write speed of your hard drives if you pry off the tops and shoot in some WD-40. If your priest blesses it, you get WWJD-40 and that's even better!

Re:Is Google broken today?

[gEvil (beta)]

Seriously though, how hard is it to type "RAID" into Google?

Not hard at all... [killsbugsdead.com]

Re:Nuh-Uh

[smittyoneeach]

They told me 0 is the new 1!

Re:Two words: RAID 0

[tomhudson]

Don't laugh - I once used 127 floppies to back up a 350meg hd. You can buy a computer nowadays for what that drive cost me. (Of course, the same can be said for the 80 meg hd a few years before, or the ad lib 8-bit sound card, or the 14" vga monitor ... or the dual external 5-14 floppy drives before that ...)

Re:Two words: RAID 0

[Stephen Samuel]

I would -- with a video camera to record the look on the users' face when they realize that their entire data store is inaccessible.

I would, of course, be using a different 10-drive raid-0 pack to record the tragedy -- but I'd be safe because it's my disk pack (which makes it impervious to catastrophic failure).

Re:Nuh-Uh

[Architect_sasyr]

Two words...

Chuck Norris

Man, Raid 10 + Raid 5 + Offsite backups can't save you now!

Re:Two words: RAID 0

[Guido von Guido]

Crap, that reminds me--I gotta do some backups.

Re:Duh

[ozmanjusri]

you are in favor of ZFS and you recommend it to others, even though you haven't tried it yet.

Hell yeah.

Cool but untested tech is always best recommended to others before you try it. Preferably LOTS of others.

Re:Do some research first?

[grcumb]

Wikipedia has a very informative article regarding RAID and the various levels, in fact here it is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID [wikipedia.org]

Nonsense! Everything you need to know is in the RAID 5 song:

10 TB of disk on the wall, 10 TB of disk
You take one down
Pass it around
10 TB of disk on the wall!

10 TB of disk on the wall, 10 TB of disk
You take one down
Pass it around
0 TB of disk on the wall!

(My friend Rich actually came up with this. I like him too much to slashdot him, though.)

Re:Nuh-Uh

[empaler]

Jack Bauer? Bah. Your mother is the new Jack Bauer.

Re:Nuh-Uh

[CCFreak2K]

What if: a crazed velociraptor claws open the case and destroys all 10 drives, then mauls him.

Randall Munroe? Is that you?

Re:Nuh-Uh

[Wite_Noiz]

They told me 0 is the new 1!

Freaky, that's the exact excuse I used for failing my CS binary course

Re:Nuh-Uh

[cheater512]

I keep my backups in the parallel universe. Its the only way to keep my data safe in case the solar system falls in to a black hole.

Re:Nuh-Uh

[maxwell demon]

Are you sure you failed it? I've heared F is the new A.

Re:Nuh-Uh

[Wdomburg]

Bah. Chuck Norris is the new Chuck Norris.

Re:How the hell did this make the front page?

[Floritard]

You're telling me. Any topic that generates 380+ comments worth of discussion is obviously a wasted endeavor.