Storage Options for HTPC

[xl]

I've been looking at the Buffalo TeraStation for a large storage solution for my HT Mac Mini. I guess I can get the same storage cheaper with some cheapy external HDs. However, the one thing I like about the terastation that other solutions lack, is the ability to have RAID 5, which is great for data integrity. So my question is this. What are you all using for storage on your HTPCs that provides for good data integrity? I'd hate to have everything on my 200 GB external HD lost because the HD dies.

[Gatorhead]

I was thinking about the same thing. I would hate to loss all these movies I'm ripping. I need to start looking for an external drive"s". In the meantime, the files that Handbrake produces are pretty lightweight. So I think you could burn a fair amount of them onto a data DVD. Heck most of them are only around 1.25GB, so you should be able to fit around 300 of them on a single DVD. Have you ever seen that Lacie Two Big 1TB drive? Man that thing is sweet.

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10490

[ShaneHale]

The nice thing about the Buffalo Terastation is that it is a Hardware RAID. You don't have to rely on a software RAID which can fall apart. I just had a RAID fall apart because a drive went missing durring a software update. Disk Utility saw the drives, saw the RAID but 1 drive was now outside of the RAID. Lost most of my movie collection.

The downside of the Buffalo Terastation NAS is that its a NAS. You will be limited to the speed of your network. For most of us thats a 10/100 network. For the lucky we are talking 10/100/1000, and it won't be much of an issue.

I read some problems with the OS-X and the Terastations but can't seem to find anything regarding it now.

Personally I am going with two 300 GB Seagate drives, mounted in MiniStacks, using the Firewire 400 ports in a daisy chain. That combo'd with the 60GB internal should be good enough for my DVD Collection.

Shane
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