Advice with Software Raid

[konkwastaken]

Alrighty so, long story short i have decided to make a home server. I already know all the hardware i am going to buy, the only thing that i'm still unsure of is what kind of os to run.

I have been looking into linux OS' but being somewhat unfamiliar with linux i am finding myself quite lost.

What matters to me is the following.
-I need it to be expandable, as in being able to add more HDDs later without having to reformat, having it automatically detect new drives and re stripe itself. (i know its possible, just hard to find information on the topic)
-A large max file system size, i have been looking into ext3 and it supports up to 16tb, something larger would be preferable.
-compatible with raid 6 (if certain raids are even incompatible in soft raid setups)
-long shot but i was looking into EVMS and data is recoverable even if it was re striping while the power got cut. (would have to be terrifically unlucky but you know, safe than sorry)
-easy to network, preferred but not a necessity. if something that meets the other requirements is a ***** to get working i will still give it a go

So yeah, that sums it up, any and all input is greatly appreciated.

 

[TheComedown]

-A large max file system size, i have been looking into ext3 and it supports up to 16tb, something larger would be preferable.

Im sorry I can't really help with servers, but i am curious what are you going to do with more then 16 terabyte?

 

[konkwastaken]

snip

well its going to be a media server for the whole house, i plan on ripping all of my blu-rays and dvds and it adds up very quickly, for example if i have all of Star Trek on bluray, thats 26 episodes per season and almost 30 seasons in total counting all of the series. 30x26=780 (note, 780 episodes is a rough guess, there may be slightly more or less) episodes which can be EACH about 5gb...so 780x5=3900gb of star trek. Thats one television show occupying almost 4 terabytes.

as you can see it adds up very fast.

(note, i know star trek isnt completely out on bluray, it was an example, although there are plenty of shows in the same boat that are out in bluray)

 

[devotedsniper]

I'm not to familiar with RAID i know how it works but never used it. Wouldn't it be smarter to run a small hdd for the OS + software, and then use the other hdd's for all you media, i know theres the whole well if that hdd goes then i lose it all but its the same with RAID you still lose that data just not in full since it splits it across all hdd's. I also know it's meant to be slower but if your running SATAII hdd's then you won't really notice.

As for what OS i'd say stick to something you know, for me it would be Windows Server 2008 R2 since i'm guessing like most you have windows OS's, with windows 7 and vista it's very easy to share and stream so for ease of use it would be Windows Server 2008 R2 if you wanted a server OS but really a standard copy of Windows 7 can do all the streaming you need (my machine running 7 x64 pro shares to everything in my house with ease wirelessly with no stop, start or loss in quality), i know you'd have to pay £50-£100 for the OS with windows but with linux i can imagine sitting there for hours just trying to get it to run.