Won't boot...
Do the fans start and LEDs come on, or is it totally dead?
Dead: check the PSU.
Does it crash with any error message or sequence of beeps, what is it?
Do you still have support or warranty on it, who did you get it from etc.?

Also, are you looking for a system which can run PT in case your primary box fails, or just a system which you can backup existing session files onto?

If it's just data storage.
Buy a cheap usb2 or firewire to IDE cart. Sometimes called a caddy.
Then swap hard drives in and out of it.
[[url=http://[/URL]="http://cgi.ebay.com…"]I have one exactly like this.[/]="http://cgi.ebay.com…"]I have one exactly like this.[/]
A 500gig drive is like 100 bucks... If you fill it buy a new one. If it's really important buy a redundant double for each drive.

2Ply wrote: raid server sitting around doing nothing,

So your looking to move up? Crapped out a server and now it's time to move on? Maybe [[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.storager…"]JBOD[/]="http://www.storager…"]JBOD[/] would be more to your liking? Large hotswappable fw disks may also look good to you.

I personally don't worry about back ups because I have memorized every single digit on the 820gs that I have.

I pray that I never get hit in the head though ;)

2Ply wrote: Hello Everyone,

Were looking for a reliable and large/expandable ProTools back up system, or back up ideas for our recording studio. We have a few external back up drives, but we need more space and would love to have some sort of expandable backup system. We do own a HP Proliant ML 3500 dual Xeon raid server sitting around doing nothing, (It needs some help wont boot up). Anyone able to point us in the right direction, or give us some ideas? We would love you for ever. :)

Have you considered a modern tape system for backup? Something like the HP Ultrium range of SCSI drives will give you 400 or 800 GB on a single tape, either as an incremental archive or as "bare metal" recovery from a disaster. You can rotate tapes to have (say) backups of 1 week, 1 month and 6 months vintage, or else assign 1 tape per project.

As for your dead server, you don't say in what way it is moribund. Do you get any screen message at all when booting? Can you get into BIOS setup? Will it boot into the Recovery Console from the Windows CD?

You can go easy on the last sentence from your quote.

Thank you all for your help. Sorry i was slow to get back on here, had a marathon session. As far as my Server, It turns on but says it has an invalid system disc.

I did find a storage/back up solution,

http://www.studionetworksolutions.com/products/product.php?pci=10

Expensive, but exactly what I'm looking for. Just thought id pass on my find to anyone els with a similar problem. Again thank you all for your time.

What does the globalSAN X-24 go for? Dollars wise.

$2400.50c and some time is what the system would cost me.

The globalSAN X-4 was quoted to me for $6000.00, with all the software upgrades i would need to get everything working together. But I'm still shopping :)

1.5tb of redundant storage for 6 grand.
I'm in the wrong business.

If all you computers are networked, you can make a shared folder where all data to be stored is put, then from one terminal capture it to the portable HDDs.

Also a good idea to have whatever you back up to in a different location from your originals. Like, locked in a fireproof safe.

Greener wrote: 1.5tb of redundant storage for 6 grand.
I'm in the wrong business.

Actually it reads 3 Terabytes of shared storage operating environment. So you are still in the wrong business.

If I had 6K I would pay off my truck. Then I would set up the repackaged Microsoft server 2003 that is now going as a headless Windows Home Server. Buy me some hard drives and fab up enough twisted pair to link together a hand made shared storage operating environment of my own:)

Wait a minute. I already did that :) Wonder if I paid my truck off?

4 * 750gig drives.

That's 3tb of overall storage. But if you have doubles of everything. You only get 1.5tb.

I agree with getting a Server box running. The cost would pay back with time saved eventually.