Raid0 + 2 external backups. How to go about this?

[ultima_weaponx]

Hi guys, I'm setting up a new system and want to expand my harddrive experience a bit.
I've never used more than a single IDE or SATA drive in my life.

I'm thinking I want to run 2x 1Tb Caviar Blacks in raid 0, good idea?

Past that, my true question is when it comes to data protection.
It seems that having TWO copies of the backup data, never both being hooked up at the same time is the good plan, and this means not using raid 1.

Wcat would you reccomend? Can I just buy 2 more 1Tb Caviar blacks (2 for my raid array, then 2 more, each as stand alone backup drives), buy them separate drive enclosures, and then backup my 1Tb raid0 setup onto each drive one at a time?

I suppose the way of doing this is finding a program to make my data into a disk image and copying it through Esata to the enlosures one at a time, maybe once or twice a week? I wonder how you guys do it?

Lots of questions in here. Thanks for reading

 

[apache_lives]

RAID0 if any 1 drive dies you loose all your data, normal stand alone non-raid hdd if you loose that 1 drive you get the same result - you loose your data - whats the difference?

Any important data should be backed up in general

You should look into RAID10 which is esentially the performance of RAID0 and the reliability of RAID1, but you also are equally at risk of corruption, deletion, virus's etc- just be aware.

If it was me? 2 x ~500gb hdd's in RAID0 for performance, and whatever space required for external storage as backup

Intel chipsets also offer there Intel Matrix setup's allowing 2 hdd's to create a RAID0 segment aswell as a RAID1 segment if thats any use to you.

 

[ultima_weaponx]

Yes, I understand the downfall of raid 0. But of course, what i want out of it is the speed.
Raid10 would also mean, since all 4 drives are hooked up at once, some kind of virus or power surge or super hardware failure would compromise all 4 hookced up drives.

I was wondering if...
I had two 1Tb drives running raid 0.

Can I backup that 1Tb of data onto a SINGLE 1Tb drive (external, not used in any sort of raid)?
IF I can do that, I would want to buy ANOTHER SINGLE 1Tb drive to make a second backup on.
At any given time only one backup drive would be connected.

Would this work? Or is this basically what you said you would do?

 

[Paperdoc]

apache_lives, the difference is that in a RAID0 array the failure of either drive means the failure of the entire array, so the probability of this array failure is twice the probability of one drive's failing.

OP, in a RAI0 array, the total capacity of the array of two disks is twice the capacity of the smaller one. Assuming you use a matched pair of HDD's, two 1 TB drives gives you a RAID0 array of 2 TB. So a 1 TB backup unit will only work for a couple of years until your array is half full!

You are right to recognize that a completely separate backup unit that can be disconnected and moved to a different site is the best form of backup. A second HDD unit mounted in the same computer case is not nearly so secure. On the other hand, not many people maintain TWO separate backups - except, of course, pro shops that do programs of complete and incremental backups with several rotating media so that some older backups are available in case the most recent also has a problem. But the never make TWO backups of the SAME thing. What they DO, however, if VERIFY each backup as it is made to be sure it will do the job when needed later!

Before leaping into RAID0 as a speed-up, research carefully. Modern HDD's are so fast the advantage sometimes is small, and it depends on what types and lengths of files you are dealing with. The advantage is small enough that it can be wiped out if you choose the wrong type of HDD unit for the array.

 

[ultima_weaponx]

Thanks Paperdoc!

Sounds like I need to do some more research, but your reply was indeed very informative.
Out of my frustration of loading various folders on my computer and hearing the harddrive moan and read, I really felt the urge to speed up the process, but I should find some documented reports on speed increases available and THEN choose what kind of backup is right for me (just as you said)

Thanks a lot!