[jksellman]

I currently run a HR-20 with and external dock and 2TB HDD(6 months old)
I think that from what I have read a RAID method would be my best insurance against future HDD Failure.
Can I add a RAID enclosue and another 2TB HDD and still have the programs on my orignal HDD get copied on to the second HDD and be "watchable"?
Do I need to have the two HDDs be the same make and model?

 

[kaminar]

I currently run a HR-20 with and external dock and 2TB HDD(6 months old)
I think that from what I have read a RAID method would be my best insurance against future HDD Failure.
Can I add a RAID enclosue and another 2TB HDD and still have the programs on my orignal HDD get copied on to the second HDD and be "watchable"?
Do I need to have the two HDDs be the same make and model?

RAID 1 (mirror) should be possible, up to 2TB..always best to have same make/model HDD..especially approved drives and/or recommended external enclosures..see the thread link below >>

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=183572

Good luck!

-=K=-

 

[unixguru]

I currently run a HR-20 with and external dock and 2TB HDD(6 months old)
I think that from what I have read a RAID method would be my best insurance against future HDD Failure.
Can I add a RAID enclosue and another 2TB HDD and still have the programs on my orignal HDD get copied on to the second HDD and be "watchable"?
Do I need to have the two HDDs be the same make and model?

It can be done but it's not simple. You cannot just move an HDD from a non-RAID configuration into a RAID configuration and keep the content. RAID controllers will add a layer of stuff on the drive to manage the RAID functionality which will slightly reduce the space available for the host filesystem. Here are general steps needed:

1. configure new RAID enclosure for RAID-1 and put one new drive in it
2. initialize filesystem on new RAID enclosure by booting DVR with it connected
3. connect both enclosures to a PC (this might be a problem if all you have is eSATA on the enclosure)
4. follow instructions here to copy contents of old enclosure to new
5. put new enclosure on DVR and boot to make sure stuff is there and plays
6. move old drive to new enclosure (can do this while enclosure/DVR is on) it will start a RAID-1 rebuild where it will mirror everything to the old drive (this will take awhile - will be faster if you turn off DVR during process)

I personally have never put mismatched drives in a RAID configuration but it should be ok as long as the new drive is approximately the same. The RAID volume size will be the size of the smaller drive minus the overhead needed for RAID.

 

[P Smith]

While good RAID controller will keep configuration setting in NVRAM (what is need for RAID-1 ? Drive's status: OK, BAD, Rebuilding, etc. For RAID-0, add strip size) it wouldn't use one byte on the drives. So, it depend - some RAID boxes will go to rebuild RAID-1 with old and new clean drive; just need to know for sure.