Ditched the NAS, gone back to local storage

Tinkering
41

I’ve tried loads of USB enclosures, some of which broke. I’ve settled on an Inateck as the most reliable I’ve yet found (I have three of them now).

Yep, NTFS is the way to go imho.

2 Likes
42

exFAT is better than NTFS for read/write on Linux, and MacOS. Both have no troubles with reading, but writing is limited/experimental in NTFS on those operating systems.

43

Thanks Danny. I usually use exFAT on USB drives when I’m transferring between Windows and MacOS, but in this case I’ll be writing to the drive in Windows and reading from the drive in Linux. I had thought that NTFS was natively supported in Ubuntu and that exFAT required additional software, but I could be wrong. I’m guessing that once configured correctly I could use either file system with equal success.

44

both require modules, but different distributions push different things… the important part is that the exfat driver has stable writing support – Ubuntu ships with writing, but the repair mechanisms for ntfs suck on Linux.

45

I thought exfat wasn’t native to either Windows or Mac OS. Did that change?

46

It’s been included since Windows Vista SP1 and Mac OS X 10.6.5

As for Linux, you need a kernel module via patch or FUSE – but both solutions work well, unlike the world of NTFS.

47

Hi Mark,

I’ve just received my Sonic Transporter i5 + MR and now I need to buy some local USB storage.

Should I buy an external hard drive or a fanless enclosure and a WD red hard drive? I need a silent device.

Thanks in advance and best regards,
ZP

48

I like the WD My Passport Ultra 2 TB. Cheap at ~85.00. If you really need silent, you could guarantee it by going with an external SSD drive but that is a lot of money.

49

Excellent Drive that is also USB 3.0

50

I’m about to relegate my QNAP NAS to backup duties and move to locally-attached HDDs on my MacMini core.

Question - what happens to the Roon database when I do this move? The music folders and files on the harddrive should be identical to those on the NAS, but will Roon start a re-scan? If so, do I lose all the edits which I’ve spent quite some time on (box sets, album recognition & the like) - or is there a smart way to avoid this? I’m really hoping that I don’t need to do that again!

Thanks very much all - interested in your experience with switching storage locations.
All the best
Andrew

51

Assuming Roon Core is and remains running on the same machine:

  1. Make a backup of your database (make sure Roon is not running when copying the files)
  2. Remove old data path
  3. Add new data path

If all goes well, Roon will match all its database entries to the new location and all edits will be preserved.

52

Thanks very much @RBM ! Yes, not switching the core, just the store location
Fingers crossed…!

53

I need to replace my external drive (older USB 2.0 connected direct to my Mac Mini) and wondering if i should just move my files ( >300GB ALAC) to my Mac Mini’s internal drive, or buy a new USB3.0 external drive to be attached to the Mac Mini directly or attached to my new router, a Linksys WRT 3200 ACM, this router also has an eSata port. The Mac Mini is not an ‘audio only’ machine, it’s used as the family computer as well.

Also, I use an optical network attached to my router that runs to a MicroRendu in another room in the house. I also stream TIDAL, probably more than listening to my own files honestly. So not sure what direction to go in in terms of SQ and making sure Roon is running it’s fastest.

Thanks

54

If it was possible I would move the files internally and then use an external backup. I would not attach it to the Router no matter what your choice. In the least you would be adding extra network traffic and another layer of potential complications.

1 Like
55

Thanks…by ‘adding an extra layer of network traffic’, is this because the computer and/or Roon is requesting the files from the drive which are passing through the router to the computer then sent back through the router again to the endpoint?

56

That is correct, and I’m usually skeptical about the implementation of things like eSATA ports on Routers since managing storage is not its primary function.

2 Likes
57

+1 for @Rugby’s comment on network access. I’ve now switched from my NAS to local storage and had a wonderful evening of listening with no dropouts or skipped tracks. Happy that my switch went smoothly following @RBM’s advice - Roon just carried on where it had left off with all my edits in place.

I hope this performance improvement will continue - was on verge of upgrading my network switches since it seemed they might be the problem, but now I’m wondering whether it was just that my oldish NAS wasn’t up to the job (good for backup but not for real-time delivery of music over the network)

2 Likes
58

Decided to follow your example, Hopefully this estimate is a bit off though!

.SJB

59

3.7 months :grimacing:

60

I use CrashPlan too. Keys for success:

  1. During initial backup, don’t let your computer sleep/turn off
  2. I killed Roon Core for the week of the initial backup.
  3. I unplugged my local PC backup drive so no local backup was taking place.

Please make sure your music files are all backed up locally too. And don’t keep your backup drive connected to your computer (air gap it), so that it won’t be hit by malware.

No way any of us wants to re-rip!