Raid noob question

[blaze15301]

hello im am compltly new to raid i have never used them.
i would like to use one of them.
i have a wd 1tb
a samsung 180
and i think i have another samsung 120 i know its 120 but not sure witch brand.
i play games overclock and i have tons of music and what not that i would rather never lose.
can soemone tell me what raid would be the best raid to use ive herd raid 0 is bad.
is it hard to set up a raid and how would i got about doing it.
please help me im very confused.
thank in advance .

 

[arkadi]

I don't think you should do anything with the drives you have...
Just do backups to other hard drive.
If you still want to try you have to give us some info...
what mb you have?
Ware your OS installed?
How much data you want to backup?
Will you considerer to buy additional hardware...and what is your budget if you do....
etc....

 

[myriad46]

The short answer is that RAID seems like a fantastic idea, but in the end, with hard drives being pretty fast and efficient at this point, they are not worth the risk. Any professional will tell you that RAIDs are not meant for backup (information security) purposes. They were designed so that if a hard drive crashed, a system could run on the other drives until they had a chance to replace the bad one. If performance is your main desire, invest in a high RPM or large cache single drive, as the performance benefits of a RAID aren't drastically better.

I would recommend having a large system drive and just keep your files there (music, games, etc...), and also have a large backup drive where you keep a copy of all your files, purely as a backup.

It also wouldn't hurt to get a dual layer DVD burner and create a hard copy every few months that you keep somewhere else. It may take a bunch of disks, but it's better than losing it.

 

[sub mesa]

Harddrives are not fast - at all.

However, combining two different models of old harddrives in a RAID0 would give only marginal performance increase and even lower performance in some cases. Also, RAID should not be used unless the person managing it knows what it does and how to recover from failed RAID arrays.

With only 1% benefit and 100% more effort, this is just not a good idea IMO - for your specific situation.

 

[Rock_n_Rolla]

The factor of RAID 0 that will benefit you most is when you play games, since games access your drives (for caching)
most of the time while in the middle of playing. In order to maximize 2 hard drives in raid 0 configuration, its is
highly advisable (and not just me saying this) to use 2 identical hard drives with the same storage capacity and rpms.
As for your situation, since you have a single WD 1 TB hd, i suggest you buy another 1 with the same specs and capacity then
raid 0 config it, in that way, since those WD hard drives spins on the same rpm range, uses the same platter and has
the same density and same caching performance, it will give you faster noticeable seek, caching, copy and loading times.
Just make sure your motherboard supports RAID set ups, if not, then you just have to buy a separate raid controller which is
kinda pricey and not worth buying specially for basic home use.

 

[Cobykills]

The short answer is that RAID seems like a fantastic idea, but in the end, with hard drives being pretty fast and efficient at this point, they are not worth the risk. Any professional will tell you that RAIDs are not meant for backup (information security) purposes. They were designed so that if a hard drive crashed, a system could run on the other drives until they had a chance to replace the bad one.

I am new to RAID too but why do you say its not worth the risk? Is it better that I use an auto software to backup files rather then using RAID?

I myself am planning to rank my files by priority.. some will just use RAID 1 mirroring to prevent harddrive failure and others will be backup online incase of fire. For accidental deletion which I might only be aware of a month down the track I am thinking of having 2 separate copies of monthly backups. Sub Mesa if your reading I heard you recomended using FreeNAs in another post, how long can that lost for accidental deletion?

 

[myriad46]

In my opinion, to counter hard drive failure, just save image files to an external drive. For precious files, backup online or keep multiple copies (another computer in the house, external hard drive with occasional DVD backups). Raids are not immune to file corruption due to the raiding process.

I would say that auto backup is better than raid for the reasons/needs you are descibing

 

[Cobykills]

In my opinion, to counter hard drive failure, just save image files to an external drive. For precious files, backup online or keep multiple copies (another computer in the house, external hard drive with occasional DVD backups). Raids are not immune to file corruption due to the raiding process.

I would say that auto backup is better than raid for the reasons/needs you are descibing

Why for hardrive failure you recommend image files? I have a 1GB HD with videos, documents, and unpacked instalation files (i.e. iTunes setup). Wouldn't an image use up 1 GB too?

But leaving autobackup on wouldn't the backup be at a delay as opposed to RAID? Also will it slow down my PC if its left on all the time?

 

[myriad46]

An image of your hard drive would only take up as much space as the data you have on it, and it will be slightly compressed from there. So, if you have a 1TB hard drive with 350gb of data on it, your image would be 350 at the most.

Using a progam and external drive would add a delay in the sense that it may only backup nightly, or whenever you wanted it to, rather than a real-time copy. The affect to your PC of the backup program running would be negligible, depending on the program.

My point was that RAID is not a perfect solution. It's not the holy grail of data security. It has its share of problems and it can lull you into a false sense of security for your data. For example, if you OS becomes corrupted, or you get a virus, guess what, both drives do.

If your raid array becomes degraded without you knowing and the functioning hard drive is the one that dies, guess what?...

Do what you like. We learn by experimenting. I was just trying to explain that RAID was not designed for the purpose of making sure you don't lose data. It was a down-time reducing/ maintenance strategy.

Also in your signature, I think you mean DDR2 800, which is PC6400. BTW, how do you like the 4870 X2?

 

[Cobykills]

For example, if you OS becomes corrupted, or you get a virus, guess what, both drives do.

If your raid array becomes degraded without you knowing and the functioning hard drive is the one that dies, guess what?...?

Thanks for the info. Maybe ill post a new post with my scenario and tag you too it, then you can comment. But to keep it brief I am planning to get a SSD for my OS, a fast hard disk for program and games then 4 extra hard drives for my files (where I will iether use RAID mirroring, or autobackup). Then ill have online backup and a portable hardrive where I backup stuff there once a month and leave it at another house.

Also in your signature, I think you mean DDR2 800, which is PC6400. BTW, how do you like the 4870 X2?

Yea your right in terms of my RAM (been a long time since I bothered with the latest news on RAM, now they have DDR3 operating in triple, I guess onl upgrade more end of next year).

As for by graphics card its pretty good I could play Crisis on super high settings at 1920 resolution with a little AA & AF on. The frame rates were 30-50 which the entuthisast say is too low, but its playable and I experience no lag. Only thing is when I play games the fan spins like crazy and its real loud and I can feel the hot air coming our from the sides of my PC.