Sapien

OK thanks for your help. I did download the Mac version but now I'm wondering how anyone would be able to use it on any of their products.

Thanks Trurl. thats very helpful. I understand the Mini can only support 2 Sata connections (with some modification to the non server model) and then only 2.5" disks fit internally, so it would have to include more mods to route the sata connection out of the casing and add external power for the larger disks. As far as I'm aware only the latest Mac Pro support 3.5" disk and has any Sata connections. So mac products are kinda ruled out for Unraid ? Thunderbolt 1/2 dont seem to have many options for Sata enclosures (if that protocol is more reliable). So its basically a PC build I'm looking at here? unless anyone uses a Mini and has some workarounds?

Ok thanks, I understand the parity must be at least the size of the largest HDD. Would this rule out the Mini as a server?

Hello All, firstly, I'm new to this, so please have some patients if my terminology and methodology is a little off. I have 2 laptops in the house that are used for general entertainment (web/streaming ect) and also for working on images and video (Adobe suite/FCPX). I have lots of music/films etc and a fast growing collection of images and footage. Up until last year I was just using WD my passport 2/4TB usb 3drives and it got a bit too much to keep track of everything and I had no back up contingency or built in redundancy. I want to build a network based storage and grow it as I need more space/can buy more drives. I currently have 3x 8TB WD Red NAS drives and a mac mini (late 2012 with USB 3(X4)/Thunderport 1/Firewire/HDMI/1gbE) on hand. I understand this is not ideal and at the moment each 8TB drive has a separate USB 3 casing, so 3 of my 4 USB slots are taken on the back of the Mac Mini. And at the moment I am just using Carbon Copy Cloner to clone 1 8TB to another (the 3rd is new, hence looking for a new method). I have about 10tb of data now and I *think* I can set it up with Unraid using one drive for parity and having 16tb of space. I am also aware that this is not a back up solution but more just adding some redundancy for drive failure. Back up solution is stage 2. So, assuming I keep the mac mini, could I buy a 2/3/or5 bay USB 3 case to house the 3 HDDs and expand later (as I have ran out of usb3 slots) without loosing too much data transfer speed? I would edit from the network if I could but its not necessary as my workflow uses a external SSD and then to archive once the project is complete. Also I connect the mac Mini using Thunderbolt (1) direct to the working laptop along with all 3 units connected via our router (mainly just for the media access). I am also open to rethinking how to do this but utilising the hardware I already have. At this stage I have not tested Unraid as I want to get the HDD housing first. If you didnt exit this post after 'I'm new to this' and got this far, then thanks for your time reading Josh