Use a g-Raid for DLNA playback?

Not sure if this is the right forum for this topic, but here it goes.  I currently have an OLD Win XP used as a home server to store lots of photos and video. The short story is that I'm thinking of making the switch from my current laptop to a Macbook Pro for photo and video editing, and also wanted to be able to play both on my DLNA TV.  The solution that the salesman (genius?) at my local Apple store came up with was, instead of ALSO getting a new home server, simply keep the files on a g-Raid external drive, giving access to all videos and photos to all the different components on my home network.  I could then use the Macbook to edit, and just store everything on the g-Raid. He said if the files were not readily readable by my TV, that a simple solution would be to use an Apple TV (and thus how I got onto this forum).
So my questions:
1.  Does this sound like a reasonable way to get rid of my current home server?
2. Is the g-Raid going to offer DLNA playback for my TV, and will my other computers have trouble accessing videos or photos?
3. Would I simply download NEW media directly to the external drive, then edit on my Macbook, or download onto the Macbook first, edit, then just store it on the g-Raid?
Sorry again if this is the wrong forum, and thanks for any suggestions or thoughts.
Tom

Hi Javicbr
using an extrenal drive for FCP won't make your computer run faster.
the thing is that your Mac has the internal hard drive, and it's on that drive that the operating system (OS X) is installed (the startup disc). its also on that same drive that the application (FCP) is installed.
that means that when you are running FCP the Mac is already accessing the disc drive for operating system level calls and application level calls ... if you also add the enormous disc access requirements of reading and writing video data, on the same hard drive, it causes performance problems, you get dropped frames, and generally life is not good.
using an external drive for your media (scratch disc) will take that disc access burden off of the startup disc, it means that when running FCP media playback will not be interupted by system and application level calls ... responsiveness will feel snappier, there will be fewer dropped frames, the sun wil come out and you will find a $100 note in old pair of pants that you haven't worn for years. (maybe)
a single drive in a FW enclosure will be fine for basic DV editing needs. when you move up to working with higher data rates such as multiple streams of DV (multiple layers of DV in the same timeline) or for Uncompressed SD and HD then you will need a disc fast enoughto handle that kind of data rate ... thats when you need RAID disc. the G-RAID is a good solid drive with FW800 connectibvity for faster data rates. there are other options. also the SATA raids are super fast and will handle even more media bandwidth.
good luck
Andy

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    274
    Creating a RAID 0 Array.
    If you are configuring the Windows boot drive into a RAID 0 array, then you need to use the Intel option ROM method for creating the array.  Tapping Cntl-i at boot up will get you into the Intel option ROM firmware setup utility.  Once the array has been created then boot up your image recovery disk and load the array from your image backup.
    If you are creating a RAID 0 data only array then you can use the IRST when running Windows to create the array.  You can also use the Intel option ROM firmware setup utility.  Even though this HP VISTA RAID setup article is dated, it does have some excellent information.
    Launch IRST.
    You can observe in the above image the status of the hard drives attached to the Intel SATA controller.  Now click on Create. Select Optimized Disk (RAID 0) then click on Next.
    Configure the RAID 0 array by selecting two hard drives of the same size and click on Next.
    Next click on Create Volume.
    A warning window will appear.  Click on OK.
    The new RAID volume is now created. However, you now need to use Windows Disk Management to ready the volume for use.
    Creating a RAID 1 Array.
    If you are configuring the Windows boot drive into a RAID 1 array, then you need to use the Intel option ROM method for creating the array.  Tapping Cntl-i at boot up will get you into the Intel option ROM firmware setup utility.  Once the array has been created then boot up your image recovery disk and load the array from your image backup.
    If you are creating a RAID 1 data only array then you can use the IRST when running Windows to create the array.  You can also use the Intel option ROM firmware setup utility.  Even though this HP VISTA RAID setup article is dated, it does have some excellent information.
    Launch IRST.
    You can observe the above status of the hard drives attached to the Intel SATA controller.  Now click on Create.
    Select Real-time data protection (RAID 1) and click NEXT.
    Configure the RAID 1 array by selecting two hard drives of the same size and click on Next.
    Next click on Create Volume.
    The new RAID volume is now created. However, you now need to use Windows Disk Management to ready the volume for use.
    Creating a RAID 5 Array.
    A RAID 5 array will require three to four hard drives. While it is possible to convert a RAID 0 to a RAID 5 array, I recommended that you consider building the RAID 5 array from scratch rather than use a conversion method.
    If you are configuring the Windows boot drive into the RAID 5 array, then you need to use the Intel option ROM method for creating the array.  Tapping Cntl-i at boot up will get you into the Intel option ROM firmware setup utility.  Once the array has been created then boot up your image recovery disk and load the array from your image backup.
    If you are creating a RAID 5 data only array then you can use the IRST when running Windows to create the array.  You can also use the Intel option ROM firmware setup utility.  Even though this HP VISTA RAID setup article is dated, it does have some excellent information.
    The following procedure will build the RAID 5 array with three hard drives using IRST.
    Launch IRST.
    During this create process, I will be using the last three hard drives
    listed in the above image under Storage System View.  Now click Create.
    Select Efficient data hosting and protection (RAID 5) and click
    On Next.
    Select the three hard drives for RAID 5 and click on Next.
    Review the volume creation selections then click on Create Volume.
    Review the final warning then click on OK.
    Now click on OK and review the final array status.
    Creating a RAID 10 (0+1) Array.
    A RAID 10 (0+1) array will require four hard drives.
    If you are configuring the Windows boot drive into the RAID 10 (0+1) array, then you need to use the Intel option ROM method for creating the array.  Tapping Cntl-i at boot up will get you into the Intel option ROM firmware setup utility.  Once the array has been created then boot up your image recovery disk and load the array from your image backup.
    If you are creating a RAID 10 (0+1) data only array then you can use the IRST when running Windows to create the array.  You can also use the Intel option ROM firmware setup utility.  Even though this HP VISTA RAID setup article is dated, it does have some excellent information.
    The following procedure will build the RAID 10 (0+1) array using four hard drives using IRST.
    Launch IRST.
    This create process will be using the last four hard drives listed in the above image under Storage System View.  Notice that the hard drives are not the same size.  Two of the hard drives are 1.5 TB and two hard drives are 2 TB.  While it’s recommended to use all hard drives of the same size, it’s not required. The RAID 10 creation progam will pick to two smallest hard drives for the striped pair and then the two largest hard drives for replication pair but not the opposite as the two largest hard drives if used as the striped pair would not fit on the two smaller hard drives for replication.  Now click Create.
    Select Balanced performance and data protection (RAID 10) and click
    on Next.
    Select the four hard drives for RAID 10 and click on Next.
    Notice that IRST is set to create a RAID 10 volume with the capacity of 2.7 TB.
    Review the volume creation selections then click on Create Volume.
    Review the final warning then click on OK.
    Now click on OK and review the final array status.
    Conversion from RAID 0 to RAID 5
    If you have a RAID 0 hard disk configuration and you are concerned that a hard drive failure will cause your PC to crash or results in data loss then you might have an option to use RAID 5.  A RAID 5 three drive configuration can survive a single hard drive failure but not two failing hard drives. While there are other RAID configurations possible, this document will only be addressing a three hard drive configuration using the Intel SATA controller.  Some of the newer HP PCs can accommodate three hard drives and can be configured when ordered with RAID 5.
    Observe the below image.  This PC has a RAID 0 2.7 TB array.  To build the RAID 5 array, you will need to add (configure) an additional hard drive into the array. Click on Manage and then add an eligible hard drive to the array.
    Note: all data on the hard drive to be added to the array will be lost since parity and data from the existing array needs to be written to the added hard drive to create the RAID 5 array.  Take backups of your existing array in case something goes wrong.
    Once you are on the Manage screen then click on Change type.
    The following screen will appear:
    Select the drive to be included into the array and click on OK.
    When the migration process begins, the Status is now indicating migrating and the Type is RAID 5.  The hard drive added was 2 TB which meets the minimum amount.  BE PATIENT!  The migration process will take a very long time for an in place migration to complete.
    It’s much faster to delete out the original RAID 0 volume, create the new RAID 5 volume and then reload the original RAID 0 image from your backups. I recommend that you consider
    this method verses the in place approach.
     Click on Status to show the migration progress.
    RAID 0 to RAID 5 Observations
    I was able to shut down and boot the RAID configuration before the migration process had completed.  The in place migration method was very slow, about 3% per hour and hence my recommendation to use a differnet method.  Booting up from different hard drive before the migration process has completed results in a BSOD on boot up.
    After completing the RAID 5 conversion, I did receive a message from IRST indicating that one or more volumes is protected against a hard drive failure.
    Other RAID Migrations
    While there are other RAID migrations options available, they can be platform (chipset) specific.   Review this Intel Chipset article on supported RAID migrations.  Even though the Intel RAID migration has a safety function built into the process in the event of a power loss or shutdown, it’s always best to have a complete set of up-to-date backups.
    The migration process can be painfully slow.  The migration time is largely dependent on the hard drive sizes and the number of hard drives involved in the overall migration.  In some cases it might be faster to build the RAID array from scratch and then load the data back to the array verses using an in place migration process.
    It is possible to increase the overall RAID array (volume) size with some RAID configurations by adding hard drives to the array.   The overall size of the array may be limited by how the array had been previously formatted by Windows.  Review the information under the Considerations topic in this document.
    *********updated August 21, 2013
    If you are using SSDs in a RAID 0 configuration then you will need to have the Intel 7 or 8 chipset plus Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) version 11 or higher to get Windows TRIM support to function. The latest version of IRST as of 8/21/2013 that I have seen is 12.7.1036.
    *************DISCLAIMER***********
    There may be inaccuracies with the information contained in this document so please consider that when using RAID.
    *************DISCLAIMER***********
    HP DV9700, t9300, Nvidia 8600, 4GB, Crucial C300 128GB SSD
    HP Photosmart Premium C309G, HP Photosmart 6520
    HP Touchpad, HP Chromebook 11
    Custom i7-4770k,Z-87, 8GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650,GTX 760
    Custom i7-4790k,Z-97, 16GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Plextor M.2 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650, GTX 660TI
    Windows 7/8 UEFI/Legacy mode, MBR/GPT
    Attachments:
    RAID for Consumer PCs.doc ‏3761 KB

    Great document
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  • Use of NAS disk for project material

    I intend to buy a new computer. I have used and vill continue use a 2 TB NAS disk in the system to store photos, documents and videolips. It is a Synology DS111 with Gigabit Ethernet connection.
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    Stefan,
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    In any case, I think that you would be much better served by making changes to both your hardware plans and workflow more along the lines of the following:
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    Do nightly backups of media and project files to your DS111 (orgainze your directory structure so scratch, cache, and output files can be easily ignored from the backup)
    This plan with give you way more speed and improved redundancy as well (as the DS111 is only a single drive unit).
    With your new faster system you would probably enjoy using the local drives for photo editing work as well, especially if you go with the 2x RAID 0 array option.
    Finally, you should probably increase the RAM of your new build to 32GB; what Windows 7/8 does not use for programs is does use for disk caching and that tends to speed things up for photo and video editing workflows.
    Regards,
    Jim

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