ilovejedd

Yeah, but the internal HDD came with the older MicroServers already which is a nice bonus. I just wish HP had made it just a wee bit bigger and retained the full size 5.25" bay and 6 SATA slots. That really would be perfect for unRAID Plus. Oh well, at least with current drive densities (up to 4TB), having only 4 slots isn't too restrictive. I reckon I'll just use the free version of unRAID for this one (for 8TB of data). That or Windows 7+SnapRAID or FlexRAID and use it as CableCARD DVR. Alas, no such deals here. I think cheapest I've seen it is around $250 after rebate. That's still half the price of the Gen8 G2020T, though.

I don't mind the switch to slim ODD but it's a shame HP didn't keep the internal SATA like in previous models. It's perfect for use as cache drive.

And lastly if in the future I needed more storage could I link two of these beauty's together or would I be better getting a bigger unit when the time arises? so are you saying that I would be better building a different/larger one in the first place rather than a couple of these? How easy is it to link different servers together? You can't really link full unRAID servers together so they show up as a unified share unless you use some other software on another PC (e.g. FlexRAID View). If you think 4~6 drive bays (4x hotswap, 1x ODD, 1x internal) isn't enough for you, then I suggest getting a build that can house more drives. One thing to consider: Right now, the MicroServer is limited to a maximum of 10TB (5x2TB data, 1x2TB parity) but eventually we'll be getting bigger hard drives. unRAID currently can't utilize bigger than 2TB but it will be able to do so eventually. How much storage do you need now and how quickly do you anticipate needing more space? If you don't need a ton of space right away and have a fairly slow-growing collection, what you could do is just buy drives as you need them. Then, once you've filled up all your drives, replace the older, smaller drives with bigger ones. Caveat, the parity drive needs to be at least as big as the largest drive in the array so if you only have 2TB drives and want to move to 4TB, you need to replace both the parity and the data drive to be able to utilize the bigger space.

With the number of drives you have in there (I counted 18), it's hard to tell. On second look, I think there might be 24. I think some of the drives were obscured by cables...

Okay... My eyes are glazing over after all the reading. I just need an easy way to do differential copies to a folder in the unRAID server. Unfortunately my usual xcopy source target /d /e /v /c /i /g /h /r /y isn't doing the trick. All the files are getting copied everytime instead of just new and changed ones. I remember seeing unRAID has rsync. I have an rsync client (cwrsync) installed on the computer I need to copy from. I just had it for creating a local mirror of the php.net website. I have no knowledge of the inner working and intricacies of rsync so any help in this direction would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Yep, know what you mean. I actually did do extensive research prior to buying the case, I just didn't place a lot of value on being able to use hot-swap bays. Now, I'm wishing I went with the Centurion 590 instead. I'm happy I opted for a modular power supply for my build. At least unneeded power supply cables are eliminated. Going with 5-in-3's is actually a bit more expensive and with SoCal weather being what it is, I'm reluctant to dump my drives in such a cramped environment. Anyway, this is just on the off-chance that I out-grow 9 drives in the immediate future. I want to move to rackmount eventually and I'll probably dump the unRAID build to a Norco RPC-4020. I've already calculated power draw and my current 520HX should suffice.

Since I already took a picture, figured why not? Specifications: Antec Three Hundred, $60 Corsair 520HX, $110 Abit AB9 Pro, $85 Intel Celeron 430 Conroe-L, $40 Kingston 2x1GB DDR2 667, $35 ATI Rage XL 8MB, $10 Sandisk Cruzer Micro 1GB, $10 unRAID Server Pro, $75 Planned Expansion (on the off-chance that I might need more than 9 drives): Cooler Master Centurion 590, $65 Supermicro AOC-SAT2-MV8, $95 Supermicro ATX JBOD Power-up Control Board, $25 SATA Internal to External 8-port adapter, $30 300W 80+ efficient PSU, $50