2 Drive Server to replace USB External Drive

[drumminhands]

So, I have an external USB drive from WD (MyBook Studio II). It runs RAID 1. The drives are old and I'm looking to upgrade. I don't think that I can just switch out the drives. So, I'm looking for an alternative. Hopefully, something that I can just upgrade drives again in a number of years without replacing the whole device.

Do you all think a small 2-bay FreeNAS box is the way to go? Will it be a similar cost to a new MyBook duo? http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1260 Or is a FreeNAS box a sledgehammer to solve this job?

I appreciate any recommendations.

Thanks.

 

[nojohnny101]

i'm going to say FreeNAS is probably more than you need. your analogy seems to fit.

building a quality FreeNAS box would put you well over what you spent on that mybook duo

 

[anodos]

A properly designed freenas server will cost significantly more than the WD thing. Expect to spend $400-$700 on the base system (no drives).

See here: https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ll-a-proper-home-freenas-setup-cost-me.28936/

 

[Robert Smith]

Or is a FreeNAS box a sledgehammer to solve this job?

When did that ever stop anybody from doing anything? LOL

But seriously, what is your usage scenario? If you want bit-rot protected storage, with optional snapshots, where speed is not too important, FreeNAS is a great choice. On the other hand; If you want to render large videos, then some kind of direct attached storage is usually much more performant.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

<cough> Dell PowerEdge T20 $179 </cough>

 

[anodos]

<cough> Dell PowerEdge T20 $179 </cough>

That's another option. If you don't mind big, noisy, and used (like cyberjock's mom), you can get a decommissioned server on ebay.

 

[Stux]

Either your FreeNAS is a backup of another system, or you're still going to need something to backup your FreeNAS. Depends how you would feel if you lost ALL the data spontaneously on your FreeNAS.

Maybe though, this is an excuse into looking into upgrading from a MyBook to a FreeNAS, rather than merely replacing it ;)