How to rip to NAS?

The size of NAS needed depends on what Raid configuration you intend using as well as the numberof cd's you will be ripping

Forgive me as i am a total luddite with this sort of thing but what is the Raid configuration?

I reckon 2000 cds but this would grow in time as i still buy them.

What i really want is all my cds and any music i downloaded in the future to be playable in the highest quality through my system but also be able to access the files from a computer elsewhere in the house for using there. Also that my cds could be stored in the loft making space for more vinyl in the listening room.

Suggestions:

1) Don't bother with RAID

2) Budget for a cheap USB hard drive (for regular back-ups which you will keep out of home eg at work)

If you really have a need for RAID then you should still to do 2) anyway. Personally I think RAID is added initial cost and ongoing maintenance costs for little if any tangible benefit. Remember it is not the same as a proper back-up.

Using FLAC you could get circa 2000 CD's on a 500GB drive or thereabouts. Maybe get 750GB or 1TB and use spare capacity for other stuff.

If it must be WAV then up to double the above I guess.

HTH

Google for Raid.  I am sure you will find the answer. RAID is a technology for duplicating data so as to protect against disk failure.

2000 CDs would likely take 800 GB or less if you rip to a loss less flack format.

Hard disks are not that expensive, so you might buy a NAS with two 2TB hard drives.

You can get 3TB drives, but I would be wary about using them unless the NAS specifications state that they are supported.

I use dBpoweramp to rip to my computers hard drive, and then copy the files to my NAS use Windows explorer.

I have a Mac Mini so I rip the cd to my hard disk ( you can use whatever rip software available - dbpoweramp is good but you could use iTunes if set properly ) and then copy the file to the NAS using the Finder. I rip in Alac which is Apple Lossless format. It also permits to keep the metadata pretty much intact just in case you eventually buy a streamer.

Yip

Noooooooooo ...

(Sorry to come over all "Rita Hayworth" with a dramatic swoon but I want to make sure info is correct.)

"RAID" (which usually when it's talked about here generally means RAID5 which is a single parity drive) is there to ensure sustained data availability in a corporate environment in the event of a drive failure. Should a RAID5 array have a failed drive replaced then until that replacement drive is rebuilt - which can take tens of hours on big drives - then the array is still in a degraded state and a power fail or additional drive failure will generally result in all data being lost.

RAID is *NOT* a substitute for backing up your data.

Data storage is now almost disposably cheap - certainly £80 will get you a 2Tb drive which will hold 3,000 CDs at full bitrate and £80 is an insignificant amount against the time it takes to rip those 3,000 CDs.

For domestic uses I am a big supporter of running mirrored data storage devices where the mirrored drive is a viable entity on its own - i.e. if its "twin" or the NAS itself fails then the drive can be shot into a replacement NAS and the data still remain intact. You do not want to experience the pit-of-the-stomach feeling of losing even a terrabyte of data!

Phil

It depends what value you place on your music ( and your time invested in the ripping process).

Looking at your quoted 2000 albums, if you average €15 per album, that's 30 grands worth of music.

Worth protecting in best possible way IMO.

I use RAID 5 on the NAS and also have locked away USB copies.

800 GB should be about correct for 2k CDs in FLAC (at compression level 5).

Get a 2 TB drive. This will give you enough head space for future music purchases.

I wouldn't do any RAID, but simply keep a copy on an external USB drive, as already suggested earlier. I have a 1 GB HDD in my laptop. This is my backup of the NAS content. I never need to fully recopy as I always keep both archives syncronous. Whenerver I get something new, I just copy it to both drives. 

Subsequent changes in tags are conducted on both drives in one go. I use foobar 2000 as a tagging tool and here I am monitoring both drives and sort according to the tags. So if I edit one track, it will actually change two files.

Yeeeeeeees, IMO. Much better to have belt and braces

As long as it is understood that any sort of striped RAID is not a substitute for backup then I'm happy - but mostly this isn't the case and people trust their entire data pool to it with no backup for if it all goes Pete Tong!

Phil

Agreed Phil, I even have the hard back up music spread across 3 seperate 1tb USB drives.

My nrml use NAS drive is a 12tb unit with 6 drives. I have previously experienced 1 drive failure and when replaced ( under warranty) the unit fully rebuilt itself.

I am Ali lucky that I live close to the irish main Naim importer and we have an informal (friend) agreement that we have a copy of each others data to be sure, to be sure !!

Paul

You can use XLD on either Mac or CD Paranoia on a Vortexbox ... the Vortexbox will rip to FLAC, XLD will rip to various formats - AIFF or ALAC are preferable to WAV for metadata. XLD uses CD Paranoia under the bonnet. XLD consults accurate rip to give you a nice report saying what a great rip it has done. 

Metadata apart ... a rip is a rip is a rip. Any half decent software can rip a CD. No magic required. 

With 2005 Mac Mini .. then I'd connect it to a Naim DAC/Streamer using a hiFace (what OS are you running? Snow Leopard or earlier?) ... should sound pretty good - well really good in all honesty. 

You could use the Mac Mini with two 3 TB Firewire drives - on the second one just keep a copy of the first ... there are lots of ways to achieve what you want. 

Vortexbox would be my choice if you are using a Naim streamer, Mac Mini if you are using a Naim DAC .... the Naim UnitiServe is another option. 

Whatever you choose .. heed Phil's words and back it up. Keep the back-up locked away somewhere 

Now, i will be 35 next week so have no excuse for not keeping up with the formats but as ripping to hard drives etc. became popular i was just discovering vinyl after not having used it since i was a little boy. I therefore ignored all the articles in magazines regarding digital much to my cost now.
What are the differences between WAV and AIFF? Are they both uncompressed? 
For peace of mind and as has been said the price of storage is fairly minimal i would like to rip to the highest quality that i could.
Also, as i will not be using these files straight away and would need something to back up the NAS would buying an external hard drive and ripping to this and then if/when i get a streaming device i could then copy the hard drive to the NAS sound like a good idea? It would be cheaper and also mean that when it came to needing a NAS device it would be more up to date or cheaper than one i had bought say a year previous that had only been used to store the files on but never accessed?

Use the search function on this site, you'll find all the answers you are looking for... best way forward, seriously...

Alan there are some good 'basics' articles on Wikipedia, too.  If you look at the "cd ripper" article there, there are links in the article to more about the different formats.

Can I also add that AIFF is a very poorly supported format in the real world ... most NAS UPnP servers have patchy support for AIFF at best.

Cheers

Phil