How to set up RAID 1 with 2 hard drivers?

[zerkeipro]

Hey guys, I have a mother board that is raid 0 1 0+1 5 etc compatible, but I don't believe that it has a built in raid card.
Here's my motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136016

My budget is $100 and I need two hard drivers, cables, and a raid card.
Any suggestions?

Would this work? :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124011

I'm going to install two SATA hard drives 3.0g/s

P.S. I have a 250GB HD that I just wiped, so I can use that - but won't it be awkward having a 250gb hd set up with a 500gb hard drive as raid 1?
If possible, could I partition the 500gb hd and use the first partition as raid 1 with the 250gb hd?


Thanks a bunch

 

[GhislainG]

Your motherboard has a built-in RAID controller, but the $12 SYBA card doesn't.

If possible, could I partition the 500gb hd and use the first partition as raid 1 with the 250gb hd?

It depends on the controller. You should find more info about your motherboard's RAID controller.

 

[zerkeipro]

Oh, I wish I knew that before I placed the order. I should really read more.

Thanks for your help

 

[leandrodafontoura]

REgarding your question on mixing 250gb with 500gb, Iknow its possible to do so on a Intel motherboard, it has been possible since 2004, so I bet AMD has a equal solution by now.

Anyway, friend, you do not want to RAID 1, that was when a 100GB HDD costed $500, nowadays its best to get a external hard drive for backup purposes.

 

[GhislainG]

You can't expect a $12 card without a BIOS to support RAID. Even if it did, you couldn't boot from it.

A card like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816318002 has RAID support, but it costs a bit more.

Using the motherboard's RAID controller should provide better performance than a PCI card.

 

[zerkeipro]

REgarding your question on mixing 250gb with 500gb, Iknow its possible to do so on a Intel motherboard, it has been possible since 2004, so I bet AMD has a equal solution by now.

Anyway, friend, you do not want to RAID 1, that was when a 100GB HDD costed $500, nowadays its best to get a external hard drive for backup purposes.

I agree with some of the other points made in this thread:
The PCI card is pretty much useless, so I'm going to go with the built in raid controller.

I now have 4 hard drives:
2x 500 GB, 1x250GB, 1x160GB

My mobo can support raid 5, but I'm not 100% what it is or if I should do it.
What do you suggest?
Raid 5
Raid 0+1
Raid 1 and Raid 0 (is this the same as above)?

Also if you could, please explain to me what raid 5 is in layman terms

Thanks a bunch!

 

[GhislainG]

Can you explain why you want to use RAID? Ideally you'd use identical RAID ready hard disks.

If you really want to setup RAID, then create a 500 GB RAID 1 using both 500 GB drives. Then you could create a second 160 GB RAID 1 using the other drives.

RAID 0+1 requires 4 preferably identical hard disks and you lose half of the storage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_0%2B1

RAID 5 requires at least 3 disks and you lose the equivalent of one disk for parity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID RAID 5 will perform poorly with your controller and I wouldn't recommend it with the hard disks that you have. Could you get rid of both the 160 GB and the 250 GB and get another (or two) identical 500 GB drives?

 

[zerkeipro]

Can you explain why you want to use RAID? Ideally you'd use identical RAID ready hard disks.

If you really want to setup RAID, then create a 500 GB RAID 1 using both 500 GB drives. Then you could create a second 160 GB RAID 1 using the other drives.

RAID 0+1 requires 4 preferably identical hard disks and you lose half of the storage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_0%2B1

RAID 5 requires at least 3 disks and you lose the equivalent of one disk for parity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID RAID 5 will perform poorly with your controller and I wouldn't recommend it with the hard disks that you have. Could you get rid of both the 160 GB and the 250 GB and get another (or two) identical 500 GB drives?

I'm setting up a dedicated computer at work that will host a webserver (used by 10 people) and it will host a quick books server. I need the raid so we don't loose our data if one of the drives fail.

I could loose the two smaller HD's, however I prefer to utilize what I have rather than spending more money.

 

[GhislainG]

I understand, but don't consider a RAID as a backup. Unless it isn't important, perform regular backups of your data to an external device that can be taken off site or at least kept in another area. A RAID doesn't protect against file deletions, virus infections or stolen equipment.

 

[zerkeipro]

I understand, but don't consider a RAID as a backup. Unless it isn't important, perform regular backups of your data to an external device that can be taken off site or at least kept in another area. A RAID doesn't protect against file deletions, virus infections or stolen equipment.

Thanks for your expert advice!
I don't worry much about getting a virus or having my equipment stolen, I worry however that may hard drive may fail in which case I would loose my data.

If I am not mistaken, external HDD's can also fail?
So in a sense, the second hard drive w/ raid acts just like an external hdd.

 

[GhislainG]

Thanks for your expert advice!
I don't worry much about getting a virus or having my equipment stolen, I worry however that may hard drive may fail in which case I would loose my data.

If I am not mistaken, external HDD's can also fail?
So in a sense, the second hard drive w/ raid acts just like an external hdd.

An external hard disk can fail, but you have a copy on your system disk and, for people like myself, a copy on 2 separate external hard disks or all important data is uploaded to another site.

 

[zerkeipro]

Ah, I get what you're saying.
So raid is pretty much an expensive alternative to using an external hard drive, so it is much better to use an external hdd?

 

[GhislainG]

RAID 1 (or any other RAID) is not an alternative to backups. While RAID 1 is very good, it doesn't help when files are corrupted or deleted by mistake. Given the choice between RAID and regular full backups, I'd go with the latter. However I usually implement both RAID and daily backups (full or incremental).

 

[zerkeipro]

Thanks for the clarification.
I've decided to go with RAID 1, and use the two other hard drives as if they were external backups.
This way I can do exactly what you've mentioned

For this specific server however, I think this would be suitable as I don't worry much about getting a virus, deleted file, etc..

I've decided that it would be best to use the following:
2x 500 GB (same hd) RAID 1
1x 250 GB backup harddrive that will hold important files
1x 160GB same as above
1x 2GB dropbox account same as above

Hopefully with the utility of this specific hardware and the usage of dropbox we'll have a safe server.

Thanks for your help