jeromeharris wrote: > As part of my Touch-based system, I'm planning to buy a large-capacity > USB hard drive to hold my entire digital music collection (currently > about 2000 CDs, plus a small number of downloaded files; the number of > both will slowly grow. I figure that at this point I have c. 1.5TB of > data to store, and that a 3TB drive should be enough "future-proofing" > capacity). > > I will get a small silent computer to run LMS (probably one of the > "fit-PC" models); the computer and hard drive can sit next to my Airport > Extreme router in my apartment's hallway. The server computer will be > Ethernet-cabled to the router, and I don't need the hard drive to be > bus-powered--a power supply is fine. > > I have a few questions regarding choosing from among the brands and > models of 3TB USB drives available, and configuring the drive for best > operation (I suspect I know some of the answers, but I want to > check)--also, one question about the OS for the server computer. > > > Drive Choice: > > -- Does platter speed matter? I doubt that it would, but since I see at > least one 7200 RPM drive among many drives selling for under $200 (I'm > in metro NYC; I haven't even yet looked at online-only sellers), I would > lean towards a 7200 RPM drive unless there's a reason not to--is > there?; > > -- For future flexibility (say, speed of copying all that data to a > backup drive), would it make sense to favor a drive with additional > interfaces (USB 3.0, FireWire 400/800, eSATA), over a "plain vanilla" > USB 2.0 drive?; > > > Drive Configuration: > > -- Does the drive format matter? My various laptop and external drives > are all NTFS (I transitioned from FAT32 some years back--as you can > probably tell, I'm a ol' Wintel guy; my wife is firmly in the Apple camp > ;->); > > -- Since enclosed drives often come with various types of pre-loaded > software, I'd be inclined to delete every bit of that stuff from a drive > intended only for storing the music library; is that okay? The only > exception that occurs to me is software possibly necessary for drive > management functions, especially for implementing standby mode/wakeup > functions--but wouldn't the host server computer's OS handle that? Is > there any utility software that I should leave on the library drive?; > > -- The entire drive should be set up as one partition, right? > > > Server Computer OS: > > -- I have zero experience with Linux--and, BTW, only trivial experience > with Mac OS; I currently use Windows XP--I expect to be forced to > migrate to Windows 7 or 8 (I accept but resent having to climb learning > curves that sometimes accompany new OSes, and the time and money costs > of buying new computers, finding and installing new hardware drivers, > etc., unless there's clear benefits...okay, rant over!). The price > difference between Linux-equipped and Win7 Pro-equipped models of > fit-PCs is over $200 (sigh). Since I may soon be heading towards Win7/8 > on my non-server machines, I may just take this server purchase as an > opportunity to "get on board"--but if I was willing to learn about > setting up and maintaining a Linux-based server, I could save the price > of a 3TB drive. My intuition leans towards buying the Win7 machine, > cursing the expense under my breath; thoughts? > > By the way, my sincere thanks to garym, guidof, aubuti and JohnSwenson > for your answers to my "SBT system architecture" questions--really > helpful to me, and hopefully useful to others moving along this path.
Here's how I set mine up. I have 3 USB hard drives, you need at least one extra for back-up and 2 is better than one with the second one preferably off site. You don't want to have to rip everything again, so don't buy just the 1 drive for the server, get a back-up. I got a laptop that is exclusively for the server, it's Win 7 64 bit. Way overpowered, but I got a good deal and it can be used for other things as well if needed. It is left on 24/7 with WOL (Wake On Lan) enabled it goes to sleep when nothing is playing and wakes up when I hit play on the Touch's remote. It's easy to set up with Windows. On the USB drives, yes remove ALL software also make sure that they don't have some Auto Sleep function, I know I had issues with Seagate drives having this, and it can cause problems if the drive wants to shut down while you're listening, yes I've seen that happen. Doesn't matter about NTFS or FAT, but I've got all mine as NTFS just because Windows seems to like it a bit better and I don't have the "file name too long" issue that I've had in the past. And the USB 2.0/3.0/ eSATA/Firewire speed, it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Sure faster will help with the initial loading and stuff, but that's something you'll have to decide, "how much is your time worth" type thing. I haven't had any issues with USB 2, but that's what my laptop has and I'm not gonna try to change that with a laptop. But yeah that initial copying of 1.5 TB of data can take around a day, its not something you'll have to do very often. And the speed isn't an issue while playing music, even Hi-Res. Hope that covers most of your questions. I still don't know how I coped before the Touch. I mean 400 disc changers just don't work the same way. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ rayman1701's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=41326 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=96069 _______________________________________________ Touch mailing list Touch@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/touch
