RAID Guide

[Hitman]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

Cool. What do you think of RAID 1? I'm about ready to buy another 250GB drive to put in RAID 1 for backups/mass storage. I guess I'm just a little put off by setting it up and the possibility of rebuilding it in case of a failure. Mostly just because I've never done a RAID setup before...

Also, would you recommend RAID 5 over a single Raptor and two 7200rpm RAID 1 drives?

What I don't like about RAID 1 is that you loose one Drive to Redundancy. There are situations where this is necessary, but not in my situation. What I like about RAID 5 is that it has less overhead, but it does require at least 3 Hard Drives.

I suggest using a Raptor for your OS. As far as what RAID level to use for your Data drives, that really up to you. If you have more then 3 HD's I would go with RAID 5, but if you only have 2 your limited.

[gvblake22]

Yeah, my current setup includes a 74GB raptor for OS and programs/games and a 250GB seagate 7200.8 for backups and mass storage. It works well, but I am getting tired of manually backing stuff up on the 250GB drive and thought that getting another for RAID 1 would be nice because I wouldn't have to worry about backing stuff up manually anymore. I have also thought about just ditching the Raptor all together and just using a RAID 1 setup with two large capacity drives.

[Hitman]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

Yeah, my current setup includes a 74GB raptor for OS and programs/games and a 250GB seagate 7200.8 for backups and mass storage. It works well, but I am getting tired of manually backing stuff up on the 250GB drive and thought that getting another for RAID 1 would be nice because I wouldn't have to worry about backing stuff up manually anymore. I have also thought about just ditching the Raptor all together and just using a RAID 1 setup with two large capacity drives.

RAID 1 is not a replacement for Backup!!!!! There is a difference between Redundancy and Backing Up. Redundancy, is for immediate recovery from Drive Failure. A backup is for restoring Data in case of loss. For example, you accidentally Delete your Picture folder, and it was too big to fit into the Recycle bin, so its GONE. If you have your important files backed up on a External Drive, or on DVD all is not lost. Once its deleted from a drive in a RAID 1 array then its just gone. If your talking about RAID 1 on your backup drive, then thats OK. I backup to an external drive, and keep it in a Fire Proof Box in case of a disaster. All my photos are kept on DVD inside the same fire proof Box.

As far as ditching your Raptor for a RAID 1 array, you will see a major performance drop. I suggest keeping the Raptor, and use RAID 1 as Data Storage.

[gvblake22]

Ok, yeah, I guess I should have chosen my words a little better. I still burn CD's for permanent backups, but that is much less frequent. I mostly just want the security of having a complete copy of all my data on another HDD so if one fails, I can use the other to restore stuff or make a permanent backup on optical media or something and then rebuild the RAID setup. I guess I still have a lot of options to weigh :?

[Capper]

Outstanding HITMAN, thnaks for the quick guide.....we've had a lot of questions about RAID and its benefits and this is a huge help to some members considering the option.

[Hitman]

Originally Posted by Capper

Outstanding HITMAN, thnaks for the quick guide.....we've had a lot of questions about RAID and its benefits and this is a huge help to some members considering the option.

RAID has become very popular as of late, due to SATA, Raptors, and onboard RAID Controllers, and the growing popularity of having more then one HD in your system for DATA. I think its very important that people understand the advantages and disadvantages of each RAID Level. All a lot of people know about are RAID 0 and RAID 1. With MB's now offering Onboard RAID 5 and other RAID Levels people now have more options then before, without having to buy an add on PCI RAID Controller.

[Lead Head]

Originally Posted by Hitman

RAID has become very popular as of late, due to SATA, Raptors, and onboard RAID Controllers, and the growing popularity of having more then one HD in your system for DATA. I think its very important that people understand the advantages and disadvantages of each RAID Level. All a lot of people know about are RAID 0 and RAID 1. With MB's now offering Onboard RAID 5 and other RAID Levels people now have more options then before, without having to buy an add on PCI RAID Controller.

But onboard raid controllers cant compete witht the $300+ Pro raid controllers, correct?

[Hitman]

Originally Posted by Lead Head

But onboard raid controllers cant compete witht the $300+ Pro raid controllers, correct?

Pro RAID Controllers, typically have Memory on the card itself. Depending on which card you buy, they have different RAID Levels that are not available on an Onboard RAID controller. For most home users the Onboard RAID is sufficient. If your running a server a RAID Controller add on card might be necessary.