Lightning strike destroyed my Raid array and music collection

Thanks for posting this. Sorry for your loss. Good to emphasize that RAID is not a backup. Lots of raid horror stories on the web (google raid not a backup). I have 3 backups (off line) at 3 different locations, and I’m still paranoid.

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Sorry for your loss. And thanks for the reminder.

I’m quite good at unplugging everything when I go away for more than a day, but my offline backup is woefully out of date…

Sorry for the loss…a warning for others…having an (1) offline (2) powered down (3) backup set (4) in another location - is an ideal…not always possible but you should tick at least the first (3) of the boxes.

It also should be noted that no matter drives in your raid…it is NOT A BACKUP unless you have all replicated elsewhere.

I just had to upgrade my backup NAS drives from 2x6TB JBOD to 2 x12TB JBOD and the old drives will be archived…Disk is fairly cheap than to the prospect of totally starting again.

a warning too that disks need to be spun up from time to time to avoid seizing up and also note that SSD are also prone to failing if left powered off for long periods to to their NAND based chips needing power to maintain data over long periods.

a good view here https://youtu.be/mSOKKaRtRO4

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Really sorry for your loss @thegruf I hope that Islay single malt is a good one, I’ll drink a Lagavulin for you tonight :tumbler_glass:

I haven’t updated my offline backup since before I joined Roon. I’m going home now to do it.

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My music is duplicated in various places so it would not have been a complete loss had it happened here but it is sobering to be reminded of what can happen. I do have an off site solution but I have never put it into action. Time to act.

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sorry indeed about your loss @thegruf :disappointed_relieved:

let’s post a feature request :wink:

@thegruf presumably the Roon database would be a list of all your music?

Wise words and thank you for prompting on the subject! It needs to be stated, once in awhile.
Sorry bout your collection of course, but it seems you are taking this with an admirable attitude.

Sorry to hear of your misfortune. Hopefully, you can reconstruct your collection from source media.

When you replace your array you might consider going the FreeNAS route (http://www.freenas.org). IX Systems develops and maintains FreeNAS and has competitively priced SOHO arrays.

I went the home brew FreeNAS route a year ago because of concerns about the robustness of the Linux based appliances from Taiwan. None of the Linux based devices has check-summed metadata making them prone to in-place bit rot as the disks age. Also, none were using ECC memory or server grade processors designed to ensure reliable execution of long running processes.

Here in the US, lightening is a concern so I have either a UPS or a power conditioner on all expensive internal loads.

Since everything has a computer in it these days, I have whole house surge protection installed in the service panel. All services should use shared earthing points to prevent ground loops between power and TV antenna, cable TV, Internet, and phone services.

I sceond this, FreeNAS works well. I went with a FreeNAS Mini from iXSystems. Great support also.

Worst feeling in the world of digital storage. All that time and money and care…

You’re welcome to share my Plex library in the meantime. Sure you’ll find some stuff you lost in there. :slight_smile:

BTRFS Raid6 saved my butt during the last storm. A power surge nuked one of my drives but BTRFS was more than happy to rebalance and get back to it. Rockstor is a great OS if you prefer the whole GUI approach.

This is likely to be the most effective of all available devices for surge protection but I believe they still don’t cover a direct lighting strike. If someone is going to spend money on protection, the service panel stuff is the way to go.

But I’ve been told by a few experts that the best protection of gear for a direct lightning strike is still the old fashioned air gap (unplugging gear from the wall).

A surge (like from a fallen power line, for example) and a direct lightning strike can be very different things. Surge protectors can help with the former (so can still be worth having) but can be useless with the latter.

Hope things work out for the OP. Very sad to read but thanks for sharing and reminding us of very important lessons.

long day in the office,
Just to thank everyone for their generous and supportive comments.
Quite humbling really that there is still some decency in humanity.

FreeNAS - yup that’s definitely where I am going

Now - have you all reviewed your backups ?

Tell what is super neat if you haven’t found them already is the little usb3 hdd caddies on ebay for less than a tenner. I grabbed one a while back, works a treat and you can just stuff any 2.5 sata hdd/ssd you have lying around into them and convert it to usb. Do your backup (Macrium highly recommended for whole disk imaging) and leave it in your desk at work or whatever.

Keep looking back on this and cant believe the timing, solid backups for ages, compromise it for work without thinking it through and bang.
Found a 128GB memory stick that I use in the car - Woohoo
Only about 2GB actually on it - Boo
Got my precious Immersion disks too
But wahaay -the rebuild has started, only 0.998TB to go

Lagavulin - mmmm

thanks again all

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Funny that you mention un-plugging from the wall. My Dad (old man :wink:) taught me from a young age to power down and unplug as many household appliances as feasibly possible when an electrical storm was coming. I still do it to this day. My wife and her family think I’m an idiot.

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Probably because they didn’t pay for any of it ! Funny how the people that paid for the stuff worry the most. Same problem at my end :grin:

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Hi, first post here. This thread finally persuaded me to sign up.

I have had a PC wrecked by lightening twice. Both times the strike fried the motherboard. Luckily, this was years ago before I had the kind of massive music, video and photo collections that we all have these days and I had data backups to tape (remember that!)?. Anyway, both tines the surge came down the phone lines and fried the modem as well as the m/board. So as well as unplugging from the mains, it may be worth unplugging any ethernet connections from the modem/router you don’t need while away or when lightening threatens. I don’t unplug the phone line while away, or the router, because the CCTV needs them.

What I learnt was to backup my NAS to another one periodically and keep it, unconnected, in our detached garage. Photos are also backed up to the cloud - now those you really can’t replace.

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Argh! I know the feeling. I also lost my collection many years ago. Fortunately I kept the CD’s so it could be rebuilt.

Been doing this to extend the life of the otherwise-always-on equipment, but this is a much better reason!

My Synology DS918+ uses the Btrfs file system.

"As of version 4.12 of the Linux kernel, Btrfs implements the following features: Checksums on data and metadata (CRC-32C)"

My music is stored at a Synology NAS and backup on daily basis to Synology C2 Cloud backup. Works excellent. It is only not a free service.

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