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RAID 1 protect against operational failure?

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Please tell me if my thinking is correct. My idea is use two relatively small (40gb) SSDs for the operating system and applications in a RAID 1 array. My thought is that if there was a software failure on one disk, the system could continue to run on just the good disk.

I’m not as interested in RAID 1 for the data disk because there are other ways to back up data, but if the above idea would keep me running, it would be worth the expense of a second SSD.

Would it work this way or is this just off-the-wall? Thanks for any help.

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sped800 said:
Please tell me if my thinking is correct. My idea is use two relatively small (40gb) SSDs for the operating system and applications in a RAID 1 array. My thought is that if there was a software failure on one disk, the system could continue to run on just the good disk.

I’m not as interested in RAID 1 for the data disk because there are other ways to back up data, but if the above idea would keep me running, it would be worth the expense of a second SSD.

Would it work this way or is this just off-the-wall? Thanks for any help.


Well, SSD's have a longer mean time before failure but the biggest reason I can think of to not raid your SSD's is that trim doesn't function in raid. So performance will degrade over time, much more quickly than if trim is done weekly.
If you have external drives for backup, I would just do that. If you are concerned about data loss, (and who isn't), consider getting an Intel SSD as they are rated the best for reliablity. I have my 40GB drive that I paid $100 a year and a half ago, and it is doing well. It has a WEI score of 7.0. not too shabby for a small drive.

If your main goal is performance, I urge you to keep an eye on 80GB prices. They are much faster and with a standard win7 64 bit install you're looking at 20gigs. I used a Win7 lite, but my drive is still over crowded.

buzznut said:
Well, SSD's have a longer mean time before failure but the biggest reason I can think of to not raid your SSD's is that trim doesn't function in raid. So performance will degrade over time, much more quickly than if trim is done weekly.
If you have external drives for backup, I would just do that. If you are concerned about data loss, (and who isn't), consider getting an Intel SSD as they are rated the best for reliablity. I have my 40GB drive that I paid $100 a year and a half ago, and it is doing well. It has a WEI score of 7.0. not too shabby for a small drive.

If your main goal is performance, I urge you to keep an eye on 80GB prices. They are much faster and with a standard win7 64 bit install you're looking at 20gigs. I used a Win7 lite, but my drive is still over crowded.


Ubrales,

Thanks for the response. Disabling trim is definitely the deal breaker. My reason for an SSD is performance, but the RAID 1 idea was for reliability. So just getting the most reliable SSD will take of that.

The greater speed and capacity of an 80gb drive is a strong draw, especially since 'll only be buying one SSD instead of two. This helps a lot.

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Ubrales said:
Your thinking is correct!

RAID 1 for the OS may be redundant. Just have one SSD and perform frequent backups. That will be adequate.


Ubrales,

Thanks for the response. It's nice to know that two SSDs won't be helpful. So actually, my thinking they might was incorrect!

sped800 said:
Ubrales,

Thanks for the response. It's nice to know that two SSDs won't be helpful. So actually, my thinking they might was incorrect!

Black Friday 2011 isn't far away!

I would closely watch prices and cash in on the great deals on Black Friday.

When you do get your SSD, do not defrag the SSD. SSDs do not need defrag and in fact defrag will be detrimental to useful life. As a result of repeated reads/writes, the cells in an SSD do eventually wear out. Fortunately there are 'wear levelers' that will help. Besides, manufacturers put in more cells than what the SSD is rated for, just to compensate for cell wear and loss.
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