What secure storage solution do I need?

[SpinUp]

I need to get a storage system that gives me at least 30TB of usable storage and features redundancy for failed drives (I'm currently thinking 4x 10TB+ drives in RAID 5 would be best).

I've currently got a 36TB WD My Book Duo external drive set up in RAID 1 giving me ~18TB usable storage. This is pretty much full, and ideally I'd like something that is quieter (and in general, more reliable) than this.

It's exclusive purpose is archiving files (90% video files,10% other data), with a need to regularly add to it and occasionally browse and retrieve from it, so doesn't need to be super fast, but either needs to operate extremely quietly, or it needs to be ok for me to power it down when not in use.

I'm fine with it being connected via USB 3 or 3.1 rather than ethernet as I wouldn't be using any internet connected functionality that a NAS would provide.
In an ideal world it would feature some sort of system to provide automatic backups and version control from specific folders on my internal drives, but when I delete files from these folders on my internal drive, they are kept safely on the RAID setup.

I know ideally I should be following the 321 rule but for now, with the volume of data I'm looking at, this is the best I can afford.

So in short, all I really need is the equivalent of an external USB HDD, but that allows RAID5 (or similar) so that a failed drive doesn't lose me everything.

I understand 4x10TB drives alone may cost £1000, so I know it's not going to be cheap, but my budget is effectively zero so I need to keep costs down as much as possible.

Any recommendations anyone could make would be much appreciated!

 

[uOpt]

Raid 5 kinda sucks. The problem is that after one drive fails you resync another one. That resync is putting extreme stress on the old drives at a time where you can't afford another failure.

 

[SpinUp]

Raid 5 kinda sucks. The problem is that after one drive fails you resync another one. That resync is putting extreme stress on the old drives at a time where you can't afford another failure.

What would you recommend then? Raid 6?
Do you have any recommendations on my primary questions?

 

[uOpt]

What would you recommend then? Raid 6?
Do you have any recommendations on my primary questions?

I use ZFS zraid3 (aka "raid7") in a dedicated computer with ECC memory. Raid6 is OK, too, it avoids the primary problem I describe above.

USB kinda sucks because of the possibility of cables and connections failing.

I don't know how far along the Windows port of ZFS is if that is what you are using.

 

[SpinUp]

I use ZFS zraid3 (aka "raid7") in a dedicated computer with ECC memory. Raid6 is OK, too, it avoids the primary problem I describe above.

USB kinda sucks because of the possibility of cables and connections failing.

I don't know how far along the Windows port of ZFS is if that is what you are using.

It sounds a little too involved and expensive for what I need.

Think of me as someone who would just go and but a single external HDD, but wants something that adds some sort of protection so a single failed drive doesn't loose everything.

 

[_Gea]

With Raid-5 there is a real danger that even a bad sector on a degraded Raid during rebuild can mean a whole array lost. With disks in the multi-TB range, avoid Raid-5. Much better is ZFS Z1 where the same problem results mostly on a single bad file that is reported as bad.

If possible, prefer a larger 3disk Z1.

Btw.
If you use Windows, ZFS is already quite usable with some remaining problems of Windows integration as an alternative to Raid-5.
https://github.com/openzfsonwindows/openzfs/issues

Open-ZFS 2.2.3 now can extend a Raid-Z ex from 3 disk Z1 to a 4 disk Z1 (already in Windows ZFS) but maybe I would wait some time unless I would use such a new feature...

 

[mwroobel]

Any recommendations anyone could make would be much appreciated!

When dealing with multi terabyte drives, RAID5 is a sub-optimal solution. I would suggest either double (or if uninterrupted uptime is important triple) parity solutions. If you want a set-and-forget solution that is relatively inexpensive and reliable you may want to look at one of the Synology NAS boxes, they are pretty easy to deal with.

 

[uOpt]

If you want USB and want to keep it simple you could also back up to 2 USB hard drives separately (no RAID). Also has the advantage that it easily scales to more disks.