Getting rid of my Drobo, need other options.

[drkwtsn]

Currently I have a Drobo with a Droboshare and I can't stand it. It is the most unreliable NAS I have ever seen, and crashes ALL of the time (this is my experience, your mileage may vary).

When its working, I use it for a Media server for my MacMini that runs PLEX mediaserver. Other than that, it stores the occasional pictures and music files, but mostly movies (DVD Rips, some BluRay).

I am looking at replacing it with a 4-5 Bay NAS that supports expansion. I currently have 4 - 1TB drives I will be putting in there, and would like to replace them with 2TB drives as I can afford them.

I have given some thought into building my own and running FreeNAS, but I am unsure if this will suit my needs... plus I like the all-in-one of a qNap device, or something similar... but those seem to be so expensive!

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

-Derek

 

[mydssbin]

try this article

 

[hellbringer]

Or if you are looking for a more finished product and less hassle installing & troubleshooting stuff yourself, try unRAID:
http://www.lime-technology.com/joomla/

Pro:
- Can withstand 1 drive failure without a problem
- If a second drive fails when data is not rebuild, only the data on that particular drive is lost.
- Easy expansion
- Mix PATA & SATA drives
- Mix drives of different sizes
- Handware independant (can use any SATA/PATA controller you like, easily transfer array to another system)
- Runs from a USB stick (no more space wasted on your HD's)

Con:
- Not free
- Not as 'self healing' as the Drobo