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Which Raid?

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Last response: in Storage
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Hi,

Can I get some advice please. I have full tower with 4 bays. I put a smallish SSD in as primary, with the O/S and programs in that. I've currently got 500gb drive which I'm using as 'My Documents'. I've also got two 2tb which backups both the SSD and My Doc, and acts as the storage as I mostly use the box as a media server. I'm getting increasingly concerned the storage HDD's are not backed up, so was considering adding another 2TB drive (replacing the 500gb) and running those three drives as Raid 5. The box has a hardware raid controller.

I have a few questions,.. first off, can I do this? 1 SSD (o/s) + 3 HDD at Raid 5... and can I do this without wiping the SSD?

I realize there will be a performance trade off, but at least the O/S will stay on the SSD - I've read a number of people have had performance problems with raid 5. Is it such an issue?

Is there a better alternative?

Many thanks
Paul

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Storage Expert

A better alternative is backup software. RAID is not a backup, it's for redundancy in case a single drive fails, then computer can remain operational. RAID does not prevent corrupt files, accidental file deletions, or viruses/malware from messing up your drive(s). The only solution for these problems is to make regularly scheduled backups.

As for switching from AHCI to RAID in the bios... if the drives are on the same controller as the SSD, then you will most likely need to reinstall the OS.
Storage Authority

You will not need to reinstall the OS but if they are on the same controller you will need to install the correct driver before going into the bios and changing to raid.

In your case I would just get an external 2tb drive to be your backup drive.
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