Storage options

Hi,

I am after some advice i have been using drivepool + Scanner since beta which some of you may know.  I have got my hands on some new hardware and i am now looking at different options for storing data.

New hardware to tinker with.

1x Adaptec ASR-52445 28 port Controller

1x HighPoint Datacenter 7280 Controller 36 port Controller

1x FlexiRaid Data Protection + Storage Pooling

4x 3TB WD Green

Ok i am currently running 12x 2TB Wd Greens under DP with duplication on it is mainly used to store Movies,Music that stream to every room around the house as well as other stuff that is it's main use.   I have 4 kids so it gets a hammering from time to time now i have never had a problem with the current setup at all it's easy to expand and DP support is A+ when/If there is a problem. My problem is with duplication on i am running out of space with the current setup yes i could add the 4x 3Tb to boost to available space but i think i am wasting far too much Space using duplication.

After many hours on the net a lot of people point towards Raid for anything over 6TB of storage and hardware raid at that software raid is a no go in many people's eye's hench the controllers to tinker with.

Snag 1 is in order to set up the raid with either controller i would need reformat the drives and lose the data.

Snag 2 is i have no idea if it is possible to expand the size of the array if and when needed i have read some controllers do support this but i have a lot of reading to do before i find out if either of the two controllers i have do that.

Snag 3 If i did go hardware Raid can i still use Drivepool

Snag 4 and the biggest of them should there be a problem with hardware Raid or multiple drives there is a good chance all the data will be lost.

Now the benefit of the RAID is Parity which not only provides recovery if a single drive fails but also requires a loss of only 2TB storage on my current 24Tb setup which means i would gain about 10Tb of space back which when you think of it thats a hell of a lot space wasted in duplication but that is the only option i have at the moment.

Now i know i need Backup and i am under no delusions Parity/duplication is no form of backup but that is something else i have to sort at a later date.

Then there is FlexiRaid not sure on this i have read the forum some of you use it with great success hench me buying it to try it.

Now i would like to try them all see which is best but sadly i don't have the spare HD's to do that without risking losing the data i have.

i use Crashplan for critical Data Backup but it's simply not suitable for large files.

Is there any future development with Drivepool to support parity i think this would be  a great option for Drivepool as from what i read file duplication is a primitive solution for drive failure.

Some of you that use flexiraid if you have a step by step guide on how to setup parity to use with DP i would be grateful as i would like to try it.

So there are my questions i am not set on using any particular option at the moment so you advice will ultimately lead to my final decision.

Thanks in advance for all your advice and suggestions'

Lee