I need more storage space for my digital video collection and I am trying to figure out the best option. I currently have two hard drives. One is dedicated to Windows and my applications. The other is dedicated to my digital collection and is full. I could try to add a third hard drive, but I am looking for a more scalable solution. Also, I'd like to consider something more secure, such as RAID 1, and one that allows me to share my collection with my other networked computer. So, it sounds like I need a RAID 1 solution that I can place on my network. I've looked at the Pug Server product (pugservers.com), which is on the right track. But, I wasn't impressed with their maximum storage capacity of 200GB. I would need two or three of these just to get started. I'm wondering if a dedicated File Server would be best, but I'm not even sure where to begin. Any advice would be appreciated.

-Jim

You've omitted the most important bit of info. What storage capacity are those drives you have? Even 250 to 300Gb hard drives now fall into the 'affordable' category, so if you need to add storage space using larger drives might be the most obvious and immediate answer. You DON'T need 250Gb plus for your OS and programs!


If your needs for staorage are indeed extremely large, perhaps you could cinsider a unit such as this SOHO File Server, which can accomodate a drive of up to 400Gb, and have up to 3 USB connected drives attached to it as well.

The drive for my OS and programs is relatively small. My data drive is 200GB. I filled it up quickly with digital video once I started capturing my son's basketball games on it.

I'm looking for a networked solution because: 1) I'm running out of drive bays and power on my machine, and 2) I want to share my files with my media receiver (as well as other computers on my network.)

The file server that you suggested is interesting, but I'm also looking for redundancy.

These are the NAS devices that I've found so far.

Buffalo HD-H1.OTGL/R5 (buffalotech.com)
Pug Server Basic (pugservers.com)
LaCie Biggest F800 (lacie.com)

Thanks.

-Jim

Hi there. This is Steve from pugservers.com.

Just to let you know, the Pug Basic can now go up to 400GB (RAID 1) and the Pug Advanced can do 800GB (RAID 5).

Hope that helps you in your search!

Have you considered other, cheaper ways of storing your home movies? Say recording to DVD?

Are you using decent compression for these movies? How much space is one taking up?

Thanks, Steve. Your website still shows the basic RAID1 maximum of 200 GB. So how much is the 400 GB RAID1 basic server?

Good question, Coconut Monkey. The problem is that what I'm storing is raw footage in AVI format. These files are uncompressed, which is what I want. But, of course, they're very big.

You could buy multiple hard drives of 200gb, possibly changing them out and categorizing them, putting the older video's on the drives that are out of the computer. Could get too impractical though, having to open and close your case and looking for certain videos. Just an idea.

If they are your raw data, then I'd see that as all the more reason to have a safer and more permanent storage medium for them than simply keepin them on a hard drive. Even, that is, if you have to split the files into smaller portions and then rejoin them again later when they are being worked on. Whether it's still photos or movies you are working with, if you only store your 'negatives' on the hard drive, you are running a big risk with them!

Are you sure it's uncompressed? Raw video takes up a LOT of space. A typical 20-minute video file (768x576, 25fps) would take over 40GB! With the right compression you can have a much smaller filesize with a minor dip in quality. Take DVD video for example - looks fine right? It's compressed! A movie-length feature can take up around 4Gb on a DVD.