FC5 + NTFS....easy or not??

[prophotodx]

Hello,

First a little background on me, I am a photographer looking for long term storage of my digital photographs. Hard drives are the way I want to go, but I don't really want 10 external drives on my desk. Each drive will have a backup copy, If one fails I will manually replace it and copy/verify the data from the other.

This is just a start, and I will have to add more as time goes on. Eventually I will buy a rack mount server, but I have no space for this type of setup as of now. (Hopefully I will be able to do that in about 2-3 years when I move)

I am in need of online storage of 8-10 320 gig drives. I can purchase external usb drives and attach them all to my workstation, but I want to explore all available options. I currently have a small file server running FC4, just a few files, mainly customer invoices, CUPS printing, and VSFTP.

My thought is to build a new server machine to hold all the drives in one large ATX case, and install FC4 on it. The issue is that I want to be able ---at any time--- to pull the drives and hook them to a windows machine and access the data, ---without linux---- when all else fails.

I love the speed of my server, especially since it is only a 1 gig p3, but the current drive format is ext3. I will be copying data from the workstation to this machine through the network with a backup program like Retrospect with byte by byte transfer and compare.

Can FC5 support full NTFS read/write? Will the drive be able to be read by Windows? Is this something a relative linux noob could tackle (with a little help from his pals at Tek-Tips of course!)?





DBX
(Try it my way, it might work...)

 

[TrojanWarBlade]

In my experience, my windoze machines and drives have failed me repeatedly over the years and I have had corruption after corruption.
My Linux machines, however, have only let me down once and even that was partially my fault and so could have been avoided.
With that in mind, and the understanding that even a very dead linux machine could still be booted with a Knoppix CD/DVD and all the files still accessed via that and over the network from there to any windoze machine, are you really sure you want to go NTFS? Linux is not known for solid NTFS access and I would not recommend it.


Trojan.

 

[LawnBoy]

Your storage volumes could be FAT32. It's security sucks, but on a home network might be OK.

 

[MonkeyX]

I don't know about easy but here's a link for you:

http://home.gagme.com/greg/linux/fc5-tips.php#ntfs

nor am I positive that it is read/write or just read.

 

[TrojanWarBlade]

NTFS support in Linux has always been questionable.
FAT32 is probably a very poor idea so I re-iterate the question, do you really need NTFS?
Are you insisting on that because you think it's the only way you could access the data if your Linux failed to boot?
If that's the case then I suggest you reconsider because as I stated earlier, you can always use a Knoppix CD or DVD as a fallback.


Trojan.

 

[IPGuru]

I am a bit of a newb to linux myself but I would still agree with Trojan

Linux installed on 1 drive with your datadrives mounted seperatly using ext3 or similar

if the Linu PC fails you can pull the drive put it into a fresh machine & boot from a live PC

also they ccould be eassily returned to a replacement Linux box once this is available.

The most important thing in your case is to keep duplicate copys of all data, on seperate hard disks as a minimum
Raid 5 could also be an option (A dead drive could then be hotswapped without loosing data)
preferably also on non volatile media located at a remote site (DVD or Mag tape).

 

[gbaughma]

What kind of drives are you planning to use, that will give you roughly 3TB of storage?

Why not look at a terrabyte server... something like

http://www.buffalotech.com/products/product-detail.php?productid=129&categoryid=27

... that's only 2TB though....


Just my 2¢

"In order to start solving a problem, one must first identify its owner." --Me
--Greg

 

[plamb]

why not write it to DVD that has an auto loader

 

[prophotodx]

Thanx for the suggestions, I believe I am going to go with a linux distro such as freenas. I have done more research and I can't seem to find any widely used -----and reliable----- way to write to ntfs from linux.

plamb, as far as dvd's, there are multiple reasons why this is not a reliable archive, and that is what I am looking for, archive.

DVDs CDs etc have not been around as long as hard drives

The US government did an independent test of cdrs and dvdrs and found that on average they only last 3 years.

Everyone thought the superdisk was the wave of the future in the early 90's and now you can't even find them, same with zip drives, etc.

DBX
(Try it my way, it might work...)

 

[crgrindele]

Why not download the ext2/3 driver for windows, I know for a 100% fact it exist because I have and use it. It mounts a ext based file system that you can read and write to just like any FAT or NTFS File system.

 

[prophotodx]

Really....Is that from Microsoft? Please add a link...

DBX
(Try it my way, it might work...)

 

[crgrindele]

This is not a MS driver, MS HATES Linux, I believe this is a open source driver. But here's the download link. There are others but I have had more success witht this one. Reguardless of the name it should see your Ext3 filesystem. If not I will give you access to my FTP server and you can download it from me directly.

http://www.fs-driver.org/download.html

 

[BocaBurger]

If you really want your data protected, you need on-line storage and off line and better yet, off site storage. There used to be a few companies that made optical tape drives that had huge storage capabilities, but they were costly.
I would not trust the governments option on CD life, I have some very old CDs that are still good. You should think about a CD or DVD changer type backup device and put a set of files in a safe deposit box once a week or month, depending on how you value the data.



BocaBurger
<===========================||////////////////|0
The pen is mightier than the sword, but the sword hurts more!

 

[prophotodx]

Yes, you have cds that are good today, but what about tomorrow? I want my images to last 100s of years. I still have an offsite copy of everything on hard drive and a dvd or cd copy, but I will not rely on just one of either dvd/cd or hard drive. I do value the gov't opinion because they were able to take a cross section of thousands of cds/dvds. The more data in the better data out. Plus who is to say that an online storage company is going to be in business next month? If I had a few terabytes of data and they told me I had 2 days to remove it or loose it I would be SOL. What if they just disappear? What happens then? A safe deposit box of the size I would need would cost an arm and a leg!

I think we are kinda off topic now.....Thanx for the help!

DBX
(Try it my way, it might work...)

 

[LawnBoy]

Plus who is to say that an online storage company is going to be in business next month?

And who's to say that you'll be able to read those hard drives or CDs 10 years from now? Try to play an 8-track tape, or a metal cassette tape, or a phonograph record these days. Technology continuously changes, and nothing is sacred.

Your desire to find a media for your work that will last 100s of years is just unrealistic. Better to plan on moving your work from one media to another every 5 to 7 years.