I have been using storage spaces on a Windows 2012 R2 server for 3+ years now and it's been fine. I have 6 x 3TB drives in a parity storage space using REFS (not NTFS) and run a SMART monitoring ("WindowsSmart") program that emails me every day. I have no idea why this functionality wouldn't be built into the server. Twice it's reported questionable health (one time was CRC errors due to a bad cable, the other time, the drive was accumulating errors); I replaced the drive and the array rebuilt quickly. This is software, not hardware raid, of course, and it does sometimes pause when copying lots of new data.
The most important data (documents, family photos and videos) are backed up to CrashPlan. I'm currently pushing 5TB there. I have it set to throttle uploads to 5mb/sec (I have TimeWarner-now-Charter's '200mb down/20mb up plan without caps) and, while I can't say how long it took to initially synchronize, it keeps up nicely now. I back up raw VHS family video captures, which are 14GB/hour so the originals are always available.
The data that's not backed up onto Crashplan is backed up onto a local QNAP 8-disk NAS that I was able to pick up for a great price. I stick old drives into it and use RSYNC to manually duplicate the remaining data across the QNAP's varied 1.5 and 2TB drives. If one of them croaks (and it happened once), I just replace it and hope the Windows 2012 server doesn't croak until the data is copied again.
But all the stuff I wouldn't want to lose in a fire is in Crashplan. It's very inexpensive in the US (something like $60/year for unlimited backup storage) and kind of a no-brainer for anyone with the upload bandwidth and no cap. And yes, I have recovered some accidentally deleted files, although I can't swear they're all available.
The only thing I'd do differently is use NAS drives in the server instead of cheaper desktop drives. The prices are much closer now than they were back in 2013. I noticed when the one drive was failing that copies to the server would pause for 30 seconds at a time, but the array never dropped offline. Presumably NAS drives wouldn't exhibit this problem.
I have different opinion from most of these posters -- I like the Smart TV functionality, maybe as long as it's Android TV. And it's the only way to access 4k content right now.
Last week, I bought a Sony 4k/HDR TV with built-in Android TV. It came with Netflix (4k/HDR10-capable for a couple of extra $/month), Amazon (4k-capable, even Prime), Google Play, YouTube, VuDu (use that for Ultraviolet), Hulu, Crackle, Sony's 4k-capable streaming service, and a built-in media streaming client that works quite well.
I went to Google Play and installed Plex, which looks like a slightly older version from my Roku but works perfectly.
There is also built-in Google Cast -- formerly Chromecast and a Sony streaming service where I got 4 semi-recent 4K/HDR10 movies for signing up.
After experimenting with these built-in options and ensuring that the HDMI connection with the audio return channel works, I unplugged the Roku 3 and Chromecast from my A/V processor. For the last week, used just the built-in apps over the set's wireless AC streaming.
They work perfectly with the exception of Plex, which detects that the TV is not DTS-capable, so it converts streams to Dolby. This is true -- but the A/V preamp does decode DTS and DTS works fine over the HDMI audio return path. So for DTS content, I use the built-in media client and connect to the DLNA server built into Plex which doesn't transcode video or audio. The quality is absolutely fantastic and no glitches, even streaming 4K Netflix or Amazon Prime over my wireless network.
I watched a bit of 4K content from Netflix and Amazon Prime -- while from our seating distance, the 4k is a bit better than upscaled 1080p, HDR is what really seems to make the difference. It'll be a while before that's available on outboard boxes and I'll either have to plug it into the TV's HDMI 2.0 ports and hope the ARC to the processor still works or replace my A/V processor.
I also enabled all the privacy options. The TV tells me that it can't install firmware updates unless I disable an option, but I can temporarily do that, check for and install an update, and then re-enable the option.
So having this all built into the TV is beneficial. With Android TV, maybe smart TVs have finally caught up.
Same boat here -- had to go to progressives this year. For every day life, they're fine (I'm now typing on a laptop, which is naturally lower and in the closeup vision sweet spot), but they drove me nuts for desktop use (30" and 24" monitor just below eye level, about 30" away). I went back to the optometrist and had single-vision glasses made with those specs, using my old frames. They were expensive because of the anti-reflective coating and high-index material to keep them as light as possible, but so worth it. With my prescription, the rest of the world is somewhat fuzzy but not to the point where I can't identify people from across the room.
Cheap reader glasses won't work for me because I need a negative something or other (diopter, add?).
The optometrist also offered "computer glasses", which have a much more compact area for distance viewing but the cost was as high as progressives ($400 frame and lens) and they couldn't be my every day glasses -- that is, he said I shouldn't drive in them, they'd be a pain at movie theatres, etc.
I both live and work off Loop 360 (just north of the bridge in the photo) but fortunately only have to drive about a mile on the highway. Even that's bad enough to make me appreciate working from 7am to 3:30 or 4pm, at which time traffic is very reasonable -- I simply won't go back out between 5 and 6 to join the slow crawl. You'd think a city as tech as Austin could at least figure out how to synchronize traffic signals.
Slashdot Mirror
I have been using storage spaces on a Windows 2012 R2 server for 3+ years now and it's been fine. I have 6 x 3TB drives in a parity storage space using REFS (not NTFS) and run a SMART monitoring ("WindowsSmart") program that emails me every day. I have no idea why this functionality wouldn't be built into the server. Twice it's reported questionable health (one time was CRC errors due to a bad cable, the other time, the drive was accumulating errors); I replaced the drive and the array rebuilt quickly. This is software, not hardware raid, of course, and it does sometimes pause when copying lots of new data.
The most important data (documents, family photos and videos) are backed up to CrashPlan. I'm currently pushing 5TB there. I have it set to throttle uploads to 5mb/sec (I have TimeWarner-now-Charter's '200mb down/20mb up plan without caps) and, while I can't say how long it took to initially synchronize, it keeps up nicely now. I back up raw VHS family video captures, which are 14GB/hour so the originals are always available.
The data that's not backed up onto Crashplan is backed up onto a local QNAP 8-disk NAS that I was able to pick up for a great price. I stick old drives into it and use RSYNC to manually duplicate the remaining data across the QNAP's varied 1.5 and 2TB drives. If one of them croaks (and it happened once), I just replace it and hope the Windows 2012 server doesn't croak until the data is copied again.
But all the stuff I wouldn't want to lose in a fire is in Crashplan. It's very inexpensive in the US (something like $60/year for unlimited backup storage) and kind of a no-brainer for anyone with the upload bandwidth and no cap. And yes, I have recovered some accidentally deleted files, although I can't swear they're all available.
The only thing I'd do differently is use NAS drives in the server instead of cheaper desktop drives. The prices are much closer now than they were back in 2013. I noticed when the one drive was failing that copies to the server would pause for 30 seconds at a time, but the array never dropped offline. Presumably NAS drives wouldn't exhibit this problem.
I have different opinion from most of these posters -- I like the Smart TV functionality, maybe as long as it's Android TV. And it's the only way to access 4k content right now.
Last week, I bought a Sony 4k/HDR TV with built-in Android TV. It came with Netflix (4k/HDR10-capable for a couple of extra $/month), Amazon (4k-capable, even Prime), Google Play, YouTube, VuDu (use that for Ultraviolet), Hulu, Crackle, Sony's 4k-capable streaming service, and a built-in media streaming client that works quite well.
I went to Google Play and installed Plex, which looks like a slightly older version from my Roku but works perfectly.
There is also built-in Google Cast -- formerly Chromecast and a Sony streaming service where I got 4 semi-recent 4K/HDR10 movies for signing up.
After experimenting with these built-in options and ensuring that the HDMI connection with the audio return channel works, I unplugged the Roku 3 and Chromecast from my A/V processor. For the last week, used just the built-in apps over the set's wireless AC streaming.
They work perfectly with the exception of Plex, which detects that the TV is not DTS-capable, so it converts streams to Dolby. This is true -- but the A/V preamp does decode DTS and DTS works fine over the HDMI audio return path. So for DTS content, I use the built-in media client and connect to the DLNA server built into Plex which doesn't transcode video or audio. The quality is absolutely fantastic and no glitches, even streaming 4K Netflix or Amazon Prime over my wireless network.
I watched a bit of 4K content from Netflix and Amazon Prime -- while from our seating distance, the 4k is a bit better than upscaled 1080p, HDR is what really seems to make the difference. It'll be a while before that's available on outboard boxes and I'll either have to plug it into the TV's HDMI 2.0 ports and hope the ARC to the processor still works or replace my A/V processor.
I also enabled all the privacy options. The TV tells me that it can't install firmware updates unless I disable an option, but I can temporarily do that, check for and install an update, and then re-enable the option.
So having this all built into the TV is beneficial. With Android TV, maybe smart TVs have finally caught up.
Same boat here -- had to go to progressives this year. For every day life, they're fine (I'm now typing on a laptop, which is naturally lower and in the closeup vision sweet spot), but they drove me nuts for desktop use (30" and 24" monitor just below eye level, about 30" away). I went back to the optometrist and had single-vision glasses made with those specs, using my old frames. They were expensive because of the anti-reflective coating and high-index material to keep them as light as possible, but so worth it. With my prescription, the rest of the world is somewhat fuzzy but not to the point where I can't identify people from across the room.
Cheap reader glasses won't work for me because I need a negative something or other (diopter, add?).
The optometrist also offered "computer glasses", which have a much more compact area for distance viewing but the cost was as high as progressives ($400 frame and lens) and they couldn't be my every day glasses -- that is, he said I shouldn't drive in them, they'd be a pain at movie theatres, etc.
What if we require all Senators (heck, all Congress-critters) to wear cameras? Now that would be fascinating to watch.
I both live and work off Loop 360 (just north of the bridge in the photo) but fortunately only have to drive about a mile on the highway. Even that's bad enough to make me appreciate working from 7am to 3:30 or 4pm, at which time traffic is very reasonable -- I simply won't go back out between 5 and 6 to join the slow crawl. You'd think a city as tech as Austin could at least figure out how to synchronize traffic signals.