[Wylug-discuss] Help needed with 'failed' Linux software RAID 10

[Aaron Crane]

Dave Fisher <wylug-discuss at davefisher.co.uk> wrote:
> 6-10TB of data in a home office set-up.  Broadly speaking, I have
> about 2 GB of business-critical data, 10-20GB+ of system files and
> important databases, while most of the rest is multimedia

Have you thought hard about whether you *really* need to keep several
terabytes of multimedia files indefinitely?  I'm assuming the majority
of that is video, because 6TB of audio would be about 20,000 hours,
even at CD-quality and losslessly compressed, and that's really quite
a lot.  (How many years of your life would you spend just listening to
audio you already have?)  I know my life got a lot easier when I
decided to start deleting almost all video files after watching them
once.

Of course, some video files will be worth more to you than others;
footage you've shot yourself would be the most obvious example of
high-value video.

If you can get your storage needs down to something under 2TB, you'll
be in a position to look at cheap, consumer-grade equipment.  2TB USB
disks are currently less than £125 with next-day delivery.  At that
price, backups seem relatively easy: buy a second one.  (And always
remember that RAID doesn't eliminate the need for backups.)

Just a suggestion, before you sign up for large amounts of additional
pain and/or expense.

-- 
Aaron Crane ** http://aaroncrane.co.uk/