In my home i have had over time two drives failing. Once probably due to wear and tear when i was still powering down systems each day, and once after a power outtage (head crash probably).

Now I am planning to build a xen virtualized home gateway | file server | workstation. This system will be on 24/7 so the power on wear and tear doesn't apply. I am thinking of buying two Samsung Spinpoint F1 single platter 320GB drives and put them in a matrix raid configuration having the last 133GB or so in Raid 1 mirroring. The itunes library it will be serving will be backed up on an usb drive but the idea is to avoid down-time in case of drive failure. I want to avoid that the family is without internet while the system is reinstalled.

I was wondering however what the chance is of both drives crashing in case of a power outtage. If this chance were fairly high it would make the raid 1 idea moot. it might still protect in case of another random drive failure wich could always happen, though i couldnt tell the likelyhood of that either.

any thoughts?

If the power goes out or the psu blows there is a chance it can take hardware with it. So yes....If a PSU blew or a pretty bad power surge hit your rig it could end up frying any amount of your hardware...

Your best bet would be to get a surge protector for your rig. Buy a power tap surge protector and have your rig powered by it. Also make sure you get a tier 1 or 2 power supply for reliability. It costs a bit more then cheap PSU's but it at least guarantees a reliable PSU running the rig. Those are really the only 2 choices....Raid 1 is mostly for wear and tear dying..If a drive happens to fail you have a backup..But power surges and dying psu's are a different story...they can just take out a few pieces of hardware...none...or your entire rig...you just happen to get lucky or unfortunately unlucky...

Hope that helps...

If you're worried about power outages I'd get a UPS for the computer.

I believe both the previous posters have valid points and that your reasons for looking into raid are also valid. If you're experiencing power outages then you're most likely also getting inconsistent voltage and frequency. Look for a UPS with line conditioning to keep both voltage and frequency within limits as well as provide backup power. As far as RAID, if power fluctuations cause problems with hardware, it can also fry your motherboard. Since most of us at the consumer level use the onboard RAID controller, a motherboard failure means we need to find a motherboard with the exact same RAID controller in order to reconstruct the array.