Swap and Go Hard Drive

I just recently learned that i can not pull a blade/tray from the caldigit svr2 esata drive (JDOB) unless i pull both. They also told me that the blades must be even, meaning if i have a 250 on the top then it MUST be a 250 on the bottom.

I purchased this system to get out of having to buy entire housings for new space. In total i have 3.5tb with about 600g free. one of the blades in my svr2 (250g) is 85% full and is not being used for any current project. The other blade/tray is currently being used on 3 projects.

What HDD do i need to be able to swap blades whether it is even or not. Such as having a 750g blade running with a 250g blade in the same housing?

I need to add 1tb and i dont mind buying another housing so long as i can swap odds.

i want to start a hdd library on a shelf with dated labels and client names.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

By definition, a RAID enclosure requires all the drive to be the same size if RAIDed. If using then as JBOD, then that is not RAID, rather just a bunch of unrelated disk drives in the enclosure.

RAID's need to be able to evenly split up the bytes of a computer word across several disks to increase speed of a transfer. Loose one of the disks and you loose the RAID capability.

Most of the simply internally RAIDed boxes can not be used to swap in-out drives. Buy a SATA enclosure and build it up with a good Highpoint card that supports JBOD, and RAID levels.

If you don't need the transfer speeds of a RAID then JBOD your disks and you can then swap them out to you content.

Why JBOD when you can afford to RAID? RAIDs are striped with parity for both performance and reliability. JBOD? You probably can afford disk failures.



www.strypesinpost.com

IMHO

If my enclosure is raided then if one blade has a problem then all of the data on that drive (say 3tb) is destroyed. If i am in JBOD then only that drive/blade is corrupt and the others can still function.

This is why i am seeking a JBOD option without having a million esata cables. It cheaper to buy just a raw swap drive than to buy several enclosures. Plus i have a 20x23 foot workspace. I would say that wires and cables on the floor take up 15% of the room.

I use about 3-6TB per year. i have a stack of non-connected drive with previous media. Every year between may and august i have to buy new drives.

A swappable enclosure would be wonderful. Then all i would need to do is create a drive library on a bookcase.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

>If my enclosure is raided then if one blade has a problem then all of the data on that drive (say
>3tb) is destroyed.

Bad info.
[en.wikipedia.org]

Most RAIDs I've worked on are either 5s or 3s or a combination of one of them. They are ALWAYS RAIDed for SAFETY. One drive fails, you simply buy a replacement and restore the RAID. Data intact. No sweat, simple as that.

In fact, it's a JBOD that you lose data on. Sure, you get more drive space but what happens if the footage on one drive fails? It's going to be an expensive and time consuming disk recovery service that isn't going to bring back anything useful. Usually it means a reshoot or more work for the graphics department.

Btw, that info's also in "Optimizing your Final Cut Pro" which is certifiably Apple level one stuff.



www.strypesinpost.com

Really?????

Thats new info to me. Thanx

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

i saw some gtechs (1.5TB) but they have appendages like G-Tech Raid 2 or G-Tech Raid 0 and so on.

Does this mean it is preset to the config of raid 0, raid 1, raid 2........... that cant be changed?

If that answer is yes, then what is the best config if i have been on JBOD and happy with it.

I think that my skepticism has allowed me to purchase reliable drives ( calldigit , crossfire smart disk only so far).

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

You can use different capacity of drives if you use JBOD mode without a problem.

If, however, you are using performance (RAID 0) or Protected (RAID 1), the (drives) have to be identical.

JON
so i can just buy one of your 750g trays and put it into drive 2 even if drive 1 is 250?

BTW, what is the best way to store the drive i remove. I was thinking ziplock bags may be a good choice to keep the dust away. Also i was thinking of a small dehumidifier in an enclosed cabinet.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

I dont think there is a best place to store Hard drives other than the usual places that dont get frequent temperature changes. A fire proof box for ex or storage closet. Best to make a copy though and put that in a separate place.

Michael Horton
-------------------

Mike i think i need to revisit my rate sheet and add a charge for long term storage. maybe 45% or the drive cost.

I do need doubles incase the unhappened, happens.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

Since Jon from CalDigit is in this thread he might know the answer to that question. It is a huge problem that is for sure. What do we do to future proof digital media? Right now only option is to send it to film and store it in caves.

Michael Horton
-------------------

J. Corbett,

Yes you can buy just one module off an odd capacity. You cannot however use it with another odd size drive & RAID it, you could only use it with the other odd size drive as a JBOD.

Mike said:

Re: Swap and Go Hard Drive
Posted by: Michael Horton (IP Logged)
Date: May 20, 2008 03:53PM

Since Jon from CalDigit is in this thread he might know the answer to that question. It is a huge problem that is for sure. What do we do to future proof digital media? Right now only option is to send it to film and store it in caves.

Michael Horton
-------------------
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I say:

It's a good question. Everyone knows that spindled mechanical drives don't last forever. One school of thought says that you could archive the hard drives & spin them up every once in awhile, every couple years or so......

In any event, I've heard the debate on & off on this for a good long while now.

About the best answer I've heard on this is to transfer hard drive media / data to DLP tape, which at least has a shelf life of 20 years or so. But of course you'd have to re-digitize.

I try to visit this forum daily, I think Mike knows this & am glad to help when I can.

For those reading this thread who don't know the term JBOD - I'm about to add it to the FAQ glossary. It stands for 'Just a Bunch of Disks'. A RAID is a Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks. or a Redundant Array of Independant Disks. The 'redundant' part meaning that one disk can fail and the others will have a copy of that lost information.

Just for clarity, RAID 0 is as much a raid type as the other protected schemes. So a general statement that all RAID's are protected isn't true.

Of all the RAID types, only RAID 1 is actually "redundant".

Sprocketz.

RAID 0 though, offers NO protection.

Jon

Exactly my point.

It is still a type of RAID. Only RAID 1 is redundant. The others are predictive.

I can see how my post can be read differently than intended. I meant RAID 0 is as much a type of RAID as are the other RAID schemes which are protected.

Some companies are making protective sleeves like these [www.granitedigital.com].
I would use anti static bags as well.

Ah yes, quite right, I should have said that RAIDs offered additional speed or protective backup. I think it's correct in the FAQ, anyway.

good info. I was under the impression that raid sent parts of the info to each drive.

but raids 1 creates redundancy therefore auto duplicate.

Raid 2 is not creating a duplicate but is a backup and can be used to restore data in that array.

yay or nay

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"