You'll need 1TB of RAM first, otherwise you'll instantly run out of memory. And many filesystems do not support files that big.

Besides, you already can do this on your current machine.
try this:
Works on my ext3 volumes.
This will create one file filled with zeros, with filesize 2043G (either ext3 or dd doesn't support larger files). Works even on floppy drive, as long as you use reiserfs, xfs or ext3.

I had to put this amount of space in perspective for me to realize how much space I am actually discussing, here. I did this before but it didn't really sink in until a second time.

At 12 TB I can put 17,975 DivX Movies sized at 700MB each array.
At 4 TB I can put 5,999 DivX Movies sized 700MB Each on the array.

This would be if I was to use the system as a media server. With that in mind I thought that 12TB for on personal server was to much and figured I could split the array in 3 among 3 servers each having 4 TB. As to which servers I don't know.

As per IsaacKuo suggestions. I am debating on using RAID 1 for my production systems. Possibly to ensure maximum data protection I would put 3 drives in RAID 1 thus having two copies of the Main HDD.

This might be a good practice for a MySQL DB Production Server. However, it is worthy to note the RAID 5 is the most popular of all the RAID levels and I am quite sure that some hosting providers utilize RAID 5 but they are likely marginal traffic servers.

There is still much planning to do.

12 Tb eh? Would that be enough to install Windows 7 when it gets released in 2018?

d/l everything on piratebay (for a historical archive of course).

I guess I read the man page wrong.
Anyway I read that most software used alongwith linux doesnt have filesize issues.

BTW, i dont have any storage issues, I am a simple hobbyist user, not some hardcore sysadmin. I just shift+delete whatever seems useless. But I do care about RAM. Still, I guess 12Tb of RAM would slow down startup greatly on my current 2.0 GHz system.

IF you pass "bs=1T" to dd you'll need just one 1TB or RAM, not 12. dd allocates memory when it copies data, and amount of memory is equal to blocksize. Try "dd bs=1M", "dd bs=50M", "dd bs=100M" and see memory usage difference.

Well that's certainly true. But there's nothing wrong with using RAID1 and rsyncing often: belt and suspenders!

Oh, that's easy.. I'd sell it on eBay!

podcasts and free stuff -games, music etc.
The rest for maybe a server and sell some space.
Or just try to put on it a lot of servers - MUD, radio, etc.

Gentoo

Only 12TB?
With todays laws for Data Retention, it is seriously not enough for one month's worth of data traffic for my corporate network, especially when I am forced by law to keep it for 2 years.
The discussion about the validity of RAID5 is invalid. RAID5 has a solid place in high availability data storage, as do other RAID configurations.
You use what is right for the job - not the personal opinion. :P

If you don't already know, why would you buy it?

I would multiply the largest prime number by itself six or seven times around, and output the result to disk - in binary notation.

i would be able to run approximately a month of daly backups on it on a rotation scheme before running out of space
but the firms requirements that backup drives are removed, cloned, one stored in the fire safe and one sent to secure off site storage might prove problamatic

mabie if i put the whole array in the firesafe...

Store GNU/Linux Distributions
Lend movies on DVD and rip them to disk
The occasional game(s)

umm... what else?

It's a violation of copyright laws in many countries. Are you sure this is appropriate suggestion for LQ?