I picked up a new Mac Mini, base model, have it all setup in my HT and it is fantastic. EyeTV 250 has been tuned to all clear quam and then mapped to the correct guide info. What I would like to hear from everyone is what has worked for you on external storage for compressed DVD's and recording HD from eyeTV. I was thinking of using a RAID but need to do some research, hence the reason for my post. After doing some reading I see that there are many configurations but please post your storage setup. itunes is not going to be an issue for me because I will pop my ipod into a cradle if I want to here music instead of having to flip on the Epson to see what I am doing.

Much appreciated,
Jacknimble

RAID defininetly! http://z09a0222gshv273.imageshacknow.info/img/3044************************

Nothing worse than losing all your data after a year of putting it on there, trust me.

RAID definitely

Well, I'd change that slightly, and say "RAID for the right reasons, definitely; RAID for the wrong reasons, definitely not." The thing is, there are many types of RAID, via hardware and/or software, and there are even some types of "RAID" frequently mentioned that aren't RAID, as in redundant, at all...like RAID 0.

Most commonly used around here, RAID 0, 1 and 5. We also use a lot of JBOD instead of any RAID.

And, as Ted found out using his Drobo, which runs a proprietary software form of RAID 5--as in, any single drive can fail and the array can recover all of that data--RAID alone isn't backup. Even if you have a RAID 5 type enclosure with multiple hard drives, and can suffer a single drive failure, you still need to have really important data backed up elsewhere.

Can you give us an idea of how much space you think you'll need--how much you're willing to spend--and if you're already considering certain devices?

But, jack, what do you mean by this:

iTunes is not going to be an issue for me because I will pop my ipod into a cradle if I want to hear music instead of having to flip on the Epson to see what I am doing.

In this forum, hardly anyone recommends this approach--do you realize there are different ways to control music without turning your display on? The two most popular: you can VNC or screen share in from another Mac, or use Apple's free remote app on an iPhone or touch.

Most commonly used around here, RAID 0, 1 and 5. We also use a lot of JBOD instead of any RAID.

And, as Ted found out using his Drobo, which runs a proprietary software form of RAID 5--as in, any single drive can fail and the array can recover all of that data--RAID alone isn't backup. Even if you have a RAID 5 type enclosure with multiple hard drives, and can suffer a single drive failure, you still need to have really important data backed up elsewhere.
What I would advocate is RAID 1, a.k.a. duplexed disks, so long as the enclosure easily allows swapping out failed drives. Professionally I have and do program on many different platforms, but above all I have been a Stratus programmer/SysAdmin for the last 23 years, since 1986. In all that time, having dealt with many Stratus machines (it is a proprietary, fault tolerant system) and endured too many disk failures to count, I have not lost a single file due to disk failure (nor had a machine crash due to a disk failure) -- I have never had to resort to restoring a backup tape, simply because of a reliable, hot swappable duplexed disk system. Yes, of course it is mathematically possible that you have both partners of duplexed disk fail before you manage to replace the first one to fail, it is unlikely in the extreme. Especially if you keep a spare drive on site, I'd wouldn't worry too much about backups.

Duplexed disks have another advantage -- what happens if a RAID 5 enclosure itself dies? Maybe you don't want to buy another one, maybe the company went out of business. But with duplexed disks you could take one and put it in any SATA enclosure and they will be readable.

But don't ask me about good RAID 1 enclosures -- don't know. Ideally you would want something that gives you easy pop in/out for the drives like a Drobo.

What I would advocate is RAID 1, a.k.a. duplexed disks, so long as the enclosure easily allows swapping out failed drives.

Can you give us an idea of how much space you think you'll need--how much you're willing to spend--and if you're already considering certain devices?
In this forum, hardly anyone recommends this approach--do you realize there are different ways to control music without turning your display on? The two most popular: you can VNC or screen share in from another Mac, or use Apple's free remote app on an iPhone or touch.

The amount of space I will need for DVD's is about 400GB right now, assuming a compressed size of about 2gig's per movie using HB with the APT setting. I was thinking of a RAID 1 like the fanless MyBook sold by Costco online $300, the mirrored TB model that is supposed to be swappable if the drive goes down. The major negative is that you have to use WD drives according to the literature. Of course I have not really looked into the specs because I wanted to get info here before doing any real comparing.

chefklc, I understand your point about backups in a separate location, matter of fact need to redo my iTunes library but to backup 400gigs of movies right now would take like 100 burned dvd's, unless what you mean is for me to have to separate TB drive with one used as a backup through time machine.

As for the music, I will not be using this room very often to listen to music unless we have a party so I really did not want to house 40 gig's of music on the drive. I am rather new to using Mac's so I will learn more about iTunes sharing. I am well aware of VNC because I just spent the last week working from home and using logmein to work on my system at work. I know it is a different thing but same concept.

Mike

The amount of space I will need for DVD's is about 400GB right now, assuming a compressed size of about 2gig's per movie using HB with the APT setting

So basically all your media, including room for EyeTV recordings, will fit on one big drive. So you have a lot of options, even avoiding RAID altogether: once all your media is loaded, you could simply do a SuperDuper backup clone periodically to a second drive, then remove it for safekeeping. (The thought being that with two drives active in a software or hardware RAID 1, granted you're protected from a single drive failing, but both drives would be equally at risk for accidental deletion, viruses/corruption, lightning strike or electrical surge damage, fire, theft and any trouble relating to the bus or caused by improper disconnection from the desktop.)

So at this point, simplistically, the original cds and dvds would be your first copy, the digital copy on your first big drive is the 2nd copy, and then that drive either simply backed up or mirrored in RAID 1 to another drive is your 3rd copy. That's not bad. (I personally wouldn't do the dvd backup thing with so much content.) The problem many of us face is what to do in terms of redundancy and backup as our media libraries grow--and they grow fairly quickly. So enjoy your blissful < 1 TB phase while you can.

As an aside, are you sure you want to compress all of them down like that? What would your plan be when you really wanted the best quality--find and pop the actual dvd in? You have a very expensive projector--are you satisfied with the Handbrake aTV setting on your 100" screen?

I was thinking of a RAID 1 like the fanless MyBook sold by Costco online $300, the mirrored TB model that is supposed to be swappable if the drive goes down. The major negative is that you have to use WD drives according to the literature.

Right, you'd probably get that much cheaper at Newegg or Amazon, but that doesn't seem like a bad price with the better Costco warranty and return policy--and based on how problematic WD enclosures have been you just may need that added protection. As long as you're allowed to go inside and access the individual drives without voiding your warranty.

That's always been the negative with these commercial external enclosures a la WD and Seagate--the fact that you had to send the whole thing back to the manufacturer for any warranty claim, with no hope of getting data off that drive or having it returned to you. Many have been forced to crack the things open, voiding the warranty, just to try to recover their data. That reason, along with a few others like being able to upgrade the drive to a bigger size, are why many of us here recommend buying enclosures/devices separately, then filling them up with drives purchased separately. (I have to admit, I've purchased--and opened--my fair share of these Seagate/WD MyBook type enclosures over the years, often to get at the drives inside because the price of the enclosure w/ drive was much less than the price of the OEM drive alone.)

If you have any PPC Macs, make sure that particular MyBook isn't affected by the "WD not being able to boot PPC Mac problem."

All that said, I do really like Ted's advice to go RAID 1. I do RAID 1 with this particular eSATA/USB 2 external enclosure which has hot swappable drive trays:

http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/wiebetech/silver2/

of course, I didn't buy it for the ridiculous price of $379, I knew this was just re-badged Stardom hardware, I think I paid $125 for it years ago; it's still at Newegg as the Sans Digital MS2UT for $150 or so:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111006

it only holds our main iTunes library, which is about 425 GB right now--all Apple lossless, no video--and I rotate a third drive in, let duplicate automatically, and my wife then takes one back to her office off-site. Main reasons why I bought it were because of the 1) trays and 2) upgrade path: started off with three 300 gig SATA drives, then upgraded to three 500 gig drives, and at some point soon I'll swap in a trio of WD 640 GB drives to be able to add new music this year, since the price of drives keeps falling--several very good 1TB drives were $88 this weekend! I've never regretted this decision, since the one thing I spent the most time on building and tagging was my music--and even though we've kept all our cds boxed up in storage, a big iTunes music library is the the one thing I'd least like to recover or rebuild from scratch. (And, just fyi, I don't keep the 2nd drive tray running in that RAID 1 mode, I slide it out just slightly so if there were a bus or electrical issue, it's safe.) Nicest thing about this particular model is it automatically rebuilds independent of the computer or OS, just slide the 2nd tray in, bingo, it starts rebuilding, even if your Mac is asleep, off or disconnected.)

If you think you want to step up to the increased cost and complexity of a ReadyNAS/Drobo RAID--don't think that that device alone is enough protection, it's a false sense of security like Ted says above, unless you also back up anything important--read Ted's recent Drobo thread, he was lucky to get his data back but he almost lost his whole array because once the drives are "in" the Drobo, you lose the ability to pull any single drive and recover content from that drive because of the proprietary software and file system (unlike a NAS using the ext2 filesystem, where a single drive could be readable on a Mac w/ OS X.)

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1125829

to backup 400gigs of movies right now would take like 100 burned dvd's, unless what you mean is for me to have to separate TB drive with one used as a backup through time machine.

I'd say probably start with an external RAID 1 enclosure directly attached to the mini--whether you designate partitions for SuperDuper and/or TM is up to you.

Lots of people like TM, and I think it's a great addition to OS X. I have my Dad, mother-in-law and sister using it religiously. While I value TM, I don't use it that much--of the 6 Macs up and running in our house, only one (my wife's 24" iMac, her best and main work computer, has a big TM volume.) I'd rather have SuperDuper bootable clones, so I'd be back up and running within minutes. (It takes ages to restore from TM.) Besides the 400GB of music that I already mentioned--all our other "entertainment" media, so EyeTV, TV shows, dvd rips, downloads, whatever, maybe somewhere between 8-10 TB total--is not really backed up, it's just a bunch of disks--either inside Macs, connected over firewire, I have some USB AirDisk action going on, a bunch of hot swappable firewire enclosures--maybe only 10-15% of that is itself backed up--and that's rare or expensive stuff that I couldn't or wouldn't want to replace. But it's also almost all available over gigabit anywhere in the house, at any TV or Mac, and I can move things around very quickly. Me, I'd rather spend one-third the price of the Drobo on this JBOD enclosure:

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=n82e16816111030

that I can plug into the USB port of my Airport extreme if I wanted to. But that's because I do take inordinate care with respect to backups.

This also makes for some good reading:

http://hivelogic.com/articles/2008/04/regarding-backups

As for the music, I will not be using this room very often to listen to music unless we have a party so I really did not want to house 40 gig's of music on the drive

well keep giving this some thought as you live with your system, very big, very fast drives for the mini are quite affordable--I have a WD 320GB caviar black in my Macbook and it flies in the HT--and 2.5" 500GB models are below $100 now.

Life Long learning is where we stand today. So many possibilities that each person can think about when it comes to what we all think is just a simple question. I really appreciate the links and I am even going to talk to my wife about possibly using SuperDuper instead of TM, she does video editing when trying to teach teachers.
I have a lot to think about and that is a good thing, so i will report back once I have had time to do my research.

As for the DVD issue, I have been going back and forth on this one for quite sometime. What I think I am going to do is to rip a TS folder to the drive and watch it and then watch the same compressed scene. The only reason I had decided to go with the compression was to shrink the storage size. Plus, this past weekend I installed PLEX, which chefklc I know you have no use for, but I did see a setting for upscaling and the image did look noticeably similar to the upsclaing on my bluray.

Lastly, I am going to try the two options presented earlier.

Thank you for the info and I will look into each and every suggestion. By the way I know how it feels to loose a drive and that is why I am trying to find the best solution.