Unit #1 for client audio projects is a Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ with four 500 GB drives, providing about 1.3 TiB of storage.

Unit #2 for personal projects and general data is a Thecus N5200 Pro with four 1000 GB drives, providing about 2.7 TiB of storage.

These two units are then duplicated off-site and connected by a fibre optic link (currently running at 100 Mb/s while the rest of the network is running at 1000 Mb/s).

One of the reasons for the upgrade to the Thecus units for personal storage is that they can grow to 3.6 TiB of storage with the addition of one 1000 GB drive to each. We are in the midst of a film scanning marathon that is seeing me scanning my Velvia slides to 36 MB files and my son scanning our family negatives to 18 MB files. We’re running the Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED in multiple shifts between the two of us. It was my son’s summer job.

With the addition of this storage and a subtle change in my storage model, I decided that it was time to re-think how the NAS units got loaded. I am still ingesting to a local hard drive; 750 GB for the main audio workstation and 250 GB for the photo workstation.

I use ViceVersa Pro from TGRMN and have loved it for many years. I use it to compare the work or release folders on the local machine with the target shares on the NASes. It then pushes the files that are older or non-existent on the NASes to both NASes. In the case of the audio workstation, it can push both client projects and personal projects to the two NASes and their off-site mirrors. We do NOT propagate deletes.

In order to avoid heat-soak of the RME Multiface AD/DA converters attached to the audio computer, I wanted to shut it down after a push session. Rather than just use ViceVersa’s scheduled run system and run the backup sometime when I am sleeping, I wanted to start the backup manually as soon as I was done and then have the machine shut down.

There is an undocumented command within Windows XP called “Shutdown”. Click on run and then enter “cmd” to open a DOS box. Type “Shutdown” (w/o the quotes) and hit enter. This will provide a list of parameters.

To shut down the computer enter
shutdown -s
To abort the shutdown enter
shutdown -a
And to change the default 30 second timeout to 60 seconds enter
shutdown -s -t 60

You can add a script for ViceVersa to run after it’s done, so I added the shutdown command to a batch file. I made this ViceVersa configuration an auto-run shortcut on my desktop. Right above it, I made another shortcut with shutdown’s abort command in it.

Now, when I’m done for the day, I can run the file pushout routines and still have the computer shut down as soon as it’s done–while I’m sleeping.

If you want to do off-site with NAS units but without the interconnection and the constant checking and alerting–in other words, you want a backup unit that just sits there off-site and is brought together with the main one every few weeks–then I would strongly suggest RAID-6 for both. This is the configuration I would suggest considering if you live in an area subject to major earthquakes and/or wildfires. It’s obvious that my California mentality hasn’t fully left me!

For “office” type work, all of the files reside on the local Thecus NAS. We run an update routine from our 24/7 Mail client PC to backup those documents nightly. The mail itself is pushed out as per the above model. Again, we do not propagate deletes.

A complete set of backups from local to off-site also run nightly on the photo computer, although that is not kept up every night. All this is done with ViceVersa Pro.

One of the neat things we do with ViceVersa is for JPG files in the images shares, we do not propagate changes from the local to the remote NAS. In that way, the image on the remote NAS is more like a “negative” for the family digital cameras that shoot JPGs. In that way, if one of my sons edits an image and wants the original back–and violates our rule that derivatives are renamed–we still have the original. I’d rather risk losing the derivative image than the original should the local NAS fail. We also do that with WAV files as we have had some minor modifications made to WAV file metadata with earlier versions of software. It does not seem to be an issue with the current software.

I have two Studer A80s that I use for high-quality master tape transfers. They are not equipped to handle the speeds and track formats found in most of my oral history work. As I delve into a large oral history project, I found I needed more work space, and didn’t have much room to store the A80s elsewhere.

I asked my handyman who helped me build the studio in 2005 to make me two A80 covers. We sketched them up and a few days later he brought them over. The exterior wrap-around is solid oak 1×6s. The top is 3/4 inch oak veneer plywood set in. Inside, there are 1×4 poplar strips running around that rest on the A80 frame and against the top. These were glued in and the glue holds the top in. Only the frame is screwed together. We opted not to bother hiding the screws. Presented as a hopefully creative solution as space utilization is always a challenge.

As to the Racal Store 4DS instrumentation recorder shown on top of this A80, please read this post:
http://richardhess.com/notes/2008/01/09/using-the-proper-toolsand-dont-try-this-at-home/

The round-pin power cords using the PH-163 connector come in two versions. The difference between the two versions is that the hot and neutral are reversed. The ground is always in the same centre position.

Volex power cord model #17280 has standard polarity per UL 817 and CSA 895B.

Volex power cord model #17952 has neutral and hot lines reversed.

There is only a risk for maintenance operations. There is no user risk under most applications.

In viewing the PH-163 connector from the end so that the centre earth contact is above the other two, then the neutral is on the left and the hot or line is on the right in the standard #17280 cord set.

In viewing the PH-163 connector from the end so that the centre earth contact is above the other two, then the neutral is on the right and the hot or line is on the left in the reversed #17952 cord set.

There is a discussion of this at a Department of Energy site.

Both items are listed at www.allied.com

Newark Electronics has a page showing both.

1. Using Wiremold Plugmold strips with receptacles on 6″ centres. This is my favourite and I put three of these in my studio. Hint: They will just fit on the narrow dimension of 2x lumber so I have them on the back of 2×6 studs holding the shelving.
2. Three-wire, 1-foot extension cords. I found some that had a through receptacle on the plug end, so you didn’t lose the plug in your power strip and still supplied the wall-wart. A wide selection from CyberGuys (Thanks, John).
   1-foot cords without feed-through: Best buy (Thanks, Bill): Jameco, others: Cables To Go, SF Cable
   1-foot cords with feed-through: Cables Unlimited Power Strip Liberator Plus (also at TigerDirect and TigerDirect.ca)
3. Two-wire, 1-foot extension cords with three receptacles. These used to be available at Radio Shack in the U.S., but I did not see them in their online catalog. Maybe they are still in the stores. We no longer have Radio Shack in Canada. It is now The Source by Circuit City. Brian from OKC found these 6-inch ones with one outlet.
4. Dedicated power strips for wall-warts, such as the Furman Pluglock. I actually haven’t used that exact product personally, but it looks like a good idea.

What is easier to use than ready-made BLOG software, so I guess Richard is finally Blogging!

I hope you like this and find it of interest. Please let me know of any changes or topics you might like addressed.

Enjoy!

Note: This post has been put in every top-level category because it appears that a post is needed in each top-level category if the sub-categories are to be visible.

Note 2: The Tips & Notes blog and the Formats & Resources static pages of this sub-site replace the Tips and Resources static pages on the Web site. And, there is integrated searching across both the blog articles and the static pages.