Windows 10: Bunch of old HDD's - how to use as NAS backup

Hi there
If you have a few old HDD's available why not use these for backing up NAS etc.

To do this IMO the best way is as follows :

1) Get say a 4 Bay (powered) HDD container with USB3 connector -- really cheap one with no built in RAID etc works really well. 2 Bay ones are also good if you only have 2 spare HDD's. Really cheap -- around 40 USD for 2 bay ones, a bit more for the 4 bay ones.

2) If your NAS is a Linux system make sure package mdadm is installed - this is a RAID (software package) package - usually installed by default as RAID support is built into all Linux kernels these days.

3) connect the bay to your Nas. You'll see 2 / 3 / 4 HDD's depending on how many bays you've populated/

4) format each HDD -- use EXT4 as it's the fastest and most reliable --- as root mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb for example where HDD's are /dev/sdx x anything.

5) now create a RAID device -- once created the external HDD container can be moved between different systems with no probs at all.

I would create a RAID 0 array here as it's not going to be online all the time --you are using this as backup so utilize maximum space and speed -- the chances of BOTH your backup device AND the NAS failing at the same time aren't at all likely so as root type : mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md0 --level=0 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sdb /dev/sdc

The above creates an array of 2 HDD's -- you can create another one of another 2 HDD's or create a single array of all your HDD's

6) now format the array -- in the example I've shown as root type : mkfs.ext4 /dev/md0 where md0 is the RAID device you created.

7) simply mount the device to a mount point and you are good to go

as root type mount /dev/md0 -t auto -o rw /mnt/DV1 (or whatever your mount point is).

If you move the box to another NAS / Linux VM etc then simply mount /dev/md0 with the mount command as above.

Works fine.

In fact rather than mess around with Windows volume spanning / storage spaces etc I start up a Linux VM , mount the array and then have it as a networked shared drive to Windows. Works a treat and makes good use of older HDD's --why chuck them away.

Note though if attaching a 4 bay array to a laptop via USB3 - even though the bay itself will be powered I'd still connect the bay to the laptop via a POWERED usb 3 Hub -- 4 X 4 TB HDD's working as a single RAID 0 device need a powered hub in most cases !!! --poor little laptops weren't really meant to have 16 TB of spinners attached to them !!!!!!

Cheers

Jimbo

:)

 

get windows 10 and disk mirroring

Hi RE,

Had a look at Storage Spaces before writing but could not see how to get it to work between 2 router attached usb HDD and my Laptop. The VR900 offers a NAS service with the 2 usb HDD like ReadyShare for Netgear, not true NAS but OK for home media / file
sharing from PC or Android devices. It works well for my needs, the only problem is how to create auto Mirror / Backups

I need 1 usb HDD to be a Mirror of the other and be able to auto update the prime usb HDD (or both) from specific files on my PC. The Prime usb HDD/s need to be No Deletes, renames and New Files.

Currently, I am endevouring to fully understand RichCopy4 to see if that can perform the required actions with minimal duplication.

I have tried a single drive NAS (with a usb3 port) for home use, which worked OK when it worked but the way the Mirror was produced on an attached usb3 HDD resulted in constant failures. I am tired of flaky software used by the type of device within a pensioners
budget. I want drives that go into Standby reliably and work when wanted. I have used SyncToy2 with some success but some files show up as errors when updating from Win 10 Pro. OK for first write but errors forever afterwards.

 

Windows 10 backup (using "Windows 7" tool) does not work

exactly my condition..works with usb hdd, doesn't work on NAS.

 

If it's intended as a backup, wouldn't it be better as a JBOD instead of RAID0 Jimbo? Or do you want a bit of performance in it too?

 

Hi there.

@Golden

Performance is the issue here if you are backing up a lot of stuff -- also the cheaper multi-bay HDD boxes don't have JBOD or RAID switches on them -- my solution was (IMO) the best bang for buck with the fastest performance --especially as one is likely to be using older slower HDD's - such as 5400 RPM spinners or those with only 64MB cache sizes (a small cache size makes a HUGE difference in HDD performance - run a lot slower -- that's why cheaper HDD's have small cache sizes !!!).

Using RAID 0 you get parallel I/O streams which speeds the thing up even on slow HDD's. You don't need in this instance to worry about data loss --- there's more chance of all the atoms of air rushing to a corner of a room than BOTH NAS AND the RAID 0 array going defective at the same time.

RAID 0 also uses all the HDD space efficiently - balancing I/O across the array evenly. With the Linux MDADM RAID facility you can also mix HDD sizes too.

BTW you could use the HDD multi bay box as a cheap NAS itself -- or at least as a network share -- in this case you can use RAID 1, 10, 5 or whatever you like depending on how many HDD's you have available. The software RAID facility allows you to specify type / options etc --- simply google Linux software RAID or google for MDADM.

Cheers
jimbo