I am dealing with this issue in a very primitive manner.
I have about 1.2T of online disk.
The host system is my primary machine, XPPRO with only two physical drives 
in the case on the machine power supply. The other disks are in individual 
USB cases.

All backup is performed manually on a schedule. No encryption or compression 
is used anywhere.
I believe all Hds (NTFS) are Seagate or Maxtor because of the user friendly 
attitude of the disk utility.
The nature of the data is simply stuff I find interesting, Old music, books, 
interesting web sites, etc.
The matters of keeping the dupe rate down and indexing the complex are 
separate issues.
It is usually easier to add another drive than solve issues that come up.
Redundant or mislabeled data is has lead to most of the bloat.

John Ferrell    W8CCW
"Life is easier if you learn to plow
       around the stumps"
http://DixieNC.US

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Apptech" <apptech@paradise.net.nz>
To: "PIC List" <PICLIST@MIT.EDU>
Sent: Friday, February 08, 2008 5:48 AM
Subject: [EE]:: Adding many hard drives to a system


>I want to add numerous SATA drives to a LAN.
> 8 would do, more would be good. This is by definition a
> "server" requirement but lacks most of the rigour associated
> with the term. Aspects such as backup, mirroring etc need
> not be addressed here.
>
> "All that is required" is to be able to read and, less
> often, write files at "an acceptable speed". ie not stupidly
> slower than if on a typical PC. Application is mainly access
> to photos. Files are typically in the 1 MB-3MB range but
> there MAY be a  Quantum leap for new files to 10MB+ each.
> (RAW rather than JPG).
>
> Drives are typically 300 GB range but newer one will be 500
> MB and maybe 1 TB soon. Optimum $/GB is about at 500 GB
> point. . (2TB are on the market but too dear yet)
>
> Longer term this will probably become a more orderly
> arrangement of fewer larger drives.
>
> QUESTION:
>
> Best cheap way to do this?
>
> Two obvious ways are
>
> 1     Several multi SIDE cards in 1 PC. Say 2 x or 3x  - 4
> drive cards.
>
> 2     Add USBS front ends to drives.
>
> Option 2 is less certain and dearer.
> Option 1 is liable to create more PSU hassles.
>
> Any other good options?
>
> Does anyone to an SIDE tower at a price that costs notably
> less per slot than the HDD that goes in it?
> Anything of seen that takes NxSIDE makes the disk cost a
> minor part of the exercise.
>
>
>
>
>
>        Russell
>
>
> Just for information:    If using RAW at 10 MB+/photo. If eg
> a wedding takes 3000 photos all up that's 30 GB for one
> event. Requirements grow apace. Taking less photos may help
> :-). (Wedding can be pre-photos, hair stylists, bride
> preparing, limo to wedding, outside, wedding, outside again,
> guest greeting, formal groups, bridal group photos,
> reception and dancing till late, Numbers add up.
>
> As this is NOT my 'day job' there aren't too many of these,
> but enough to need something better than at present.
>
> 1st recent China visit produced ~ 9000 photos.
> 2nd produced ~ 3000.
>
> I don't want to go to RAW format but it seems it might be a
> good idea, alas.
>
>
>
>
>
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> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist
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