I'm adding some storage space to my desktop (Dell), and figured I might as well implement a more robust backup system as well (right now it's all DVDs). I'm thinking of going with two 320GB Western Digital external hard drives, and figure my two options are to use one for storage and one for backup, or set up a RAID with the two drives.
So how hard/difficult/complicated is it to set up a RAID? I'm pretty comfortable with computers, but I'm in no way a technician. Some of the other posts I've read here suggest you really need to know what you're doing to set up a RAID. If so, I'll just save myself the potential agony and go for the storage + backup option.
That depends on what type of RAID you go with. Before looking too hard - first consider out-of-the-box solutions like the TeraStation to see if the price and effort difference is worth doing it yourself.
If you do want to do it yourself, the simplest redundant setup is RAID-1 in which one drive is a mirror of the other so your available storage space is the equivalent of one drive. You can get inexpensive ($15-20) cards (lots are listed on eBay at any given time) that will do that very easily. I set one up in my Dell 650 in about 20 minutes and everything worked as advertised.
More complex setups (RAID 5/10/0+1) will require more expensive hardware and setup and you will need more than 2 drives.
Just one other note - RAID will protect you from hardware failure but is not really a replacement for backups. Catastrophic disaster (fire, lightning strike etc.) may still destroy all your RAID drives. You may still want to periodically back up your work and store a copy in another location.
I was thinking of just going with a simple RAID-1 setup (I can only swing two drives right now). Good point about redundancy vs. backup -- I'll keep burning the DVDs, as well.
Martin
Posted by Scott Buckel on March 8, 2006 at 10:22 AM
Martin - I set one up around Christmas time. I with the urging of a few compuer geek friends set up a RAID 5 and it was simple. I since them set up a RAID 1 for my wife to create dedundancy for her freelance writing and it also was simple.
As soon as I can swing it I will be investing in something like a TerraStation for back up of the growing number of digital files.
I went the Terrastation route and can offer advice on that if you would like. I bought the 1TB version for $750. I run the terrastation in RAID 1 mode. I added Acronis True Image 9 for system backups and SyncBack SE for file backups. Syncback SE is a cool little program for $25.
Adding a RAID array to a computer will be easier than changing a computer to run on RAID. If you change your main system drive to RAID you will have to reinstall the OS and your applications.
So all I need to add a RAID-1 setup is some dirt-cheap RAID controller card off of e-bay? Nothing fancy and expensive? This is sounding better and better. . . .
You get what you pay for!!! Just back up!! Raid is meant for fault tolerance and depending on what array you choose will mean you could hotswap a drive, but still perform on adegraded state system.
Spend the money and go for a RAID 1 mirror on your system drive and a second raid pack for your working drive. 4 disks and a controller....
Personally, I would not bother mirroring your system drive. Mirroring does not increase performance. You can alway reload the OS and programs when needed. I would choose an imaging software suite such as Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image, and keep the image(system backup) on a DVD.
Most hard drives have ~5 year expected lifespans. I'm much more concerned about my personal data than the OS. I can't replace my personal data, but I can reload the OS. My personal data will go forward with me from XP to Vista to whatever comes down the road.
You do get what you pay for in PC hardware. However it is not a linear scale. I usually shoot for middle of the road stuff. The high dollar stuff is just a little faster, but will be obsolete in 6 months and you pay a MAJOR premium for it today. The CHEAP stuff is usually poorly made and could fail prematurely.
Posted by Scott Buckel on March 10, 2006 at 3:15 PM
Mel - out of curiousity why would you not mirror?
If you want to decrease he potential of lost files, to my this seems like an easier way to do it. I'm always looking for ways to add backup that can simplify my life.
Thanks for your suggestions,
Posted by Mel Ladewig on March 10, 2006 at 7:33 PM
I'm not saying that I wouldn't mirror (I do). I just don't mirror the system drive. I mirror my personal data, which I don't keep on the system drive.
For the system drive I take an image of the drive instead of a mirror of it. I can reinstall the image quickly, and it didn't require that I reinstall the OS and all my software to setup.
Here is a quick explaination of how I'm setup
Desktop
C:\ System Drive 80GB - contains Windows, Programs, and 2 GB of virtual memory space. Backed up monthly using Acronis True Image 9.
D:\ Data Drive 80GB - A seperate hard drive in my desktop that contains all my photos. And another 2GB virtual memory. Backed up nightly using Sync Back SE.
Terra Station - set as a network drive
RAID 1 Array 1 - 250GB - My "My Documents" and backup of D:
RAID 1 Array 2 - 250GB - System Backups from Acronis (plus a ton of other data space)
The only reason I don't work the images from the network drive was because I had issues with the PSE organizer. It was too slow opening and reading all the files at once from the drive. I was able to open any single image from the drive seemlessly.
The reason that I use 2 different backup software applications is that they do different things.
Acronis True Image 9 (~$50) - creates a "system image" file. It doesn't just copy all of the files, it zips them into one package. That package can then be reapplied to the system for disaster recovery.
SyncBack SE (~$25)- synchronizing software that compares files across systems and copies the files as you specify.
Posted by Mel Ladewig on March 10, 2006 at 7:40 PM
In fact, to add to the confusion, if I had the drives, space and patience to do it, I would RAID 0 (stripe) my system drive (across 2 disks) instead of mirroring it to gain performance. Striping decreases reliability for performance, but I want my system to start up fast and loading programs from the drive is usually the bottleneck.
The system disk can always be restored from an image, but I want to keep my personal data safe.
Posted by Martin Beebee on March 12, 2006 at 11:32 AM
Thanks again everyone for your replies. I'm thinking of just going with two external drives, and setting them up as a RAID 1, but I can't figure out what kind of controller card to buy.
Guy cautioned that I make sure the card type matches the hard drive type, but no where can I find the "type" for the hard drive (SATA, IDE, etc.) I'm planning to get -- or any external hard drive for that matter. I've looked all over both the retailer's site (newegg.com) and hard drive manufacturer's site (Western Digital), but nada. How critical is this? Seems like if it was that critical, the info on the "type" would be all over the specs. I guess I'll have to email Western Digital and ask them directly, but that seems an awfully burdensome thing to have to do just to buy a hard drive! In fact, from the retailer and mfr websites, it almost seems like "type" doesn't matter for external hard drives. Your thoughts?
Martin
Posted by Mel Ladewig on March 12, 2006 at 4:28 PM
Martin, RAID is not typically done with external USB drives. I'm not sure that RAID is a good solution if you want to use external USB drives. These are usually used to backup data and often have a backup button on them.
The RAID card must match the drive type. RAID is typically done with external drives, though there are some new external SATA drives. The types of drives you are likely to find these days are ATA and SATA. SATA is a newer and faster format. You might be able to find external SATA drives, but I would guess that they could cost you a pretty penny.
I agree with Mel. External drives are normally connected through USB or FireWire (speeds of around 400 megabit per second). An internal SATA drive is about 3-4 times faster (at 150 megabyte per second).
Even at SATA speeds, you will notice mirroring slowing you down on write operations. At USB or FireWire speed it will likely be too slow for effective work (though perfectly OK for backup).
I don't know of any controller cards that will mirror external drives.
Guy
Posted by Martin Beebee on March 12, 2006 at 6:16 PM
Ahhhh . . . So I should be adding internal hard drives for RAID -- not external drives. (I originally thought of adding externals just for the sake of ease -- didn't think about write/read times.)
Since it appears I only have one extra hard drive bay (Dell Dimenion 8300), my only real option is to add one new drive and use it to mirror the main drive. But since I'm running out of room on the main drive (that's what started this whole mess), I'd have to add an external USB drive for extra storage, and that drive wouldn't be mirrored. Yikes, this is getting messy.
Perhaps the easiest solution is to just wait until I get a new computer (that has lots of spare HD bays) to set up RAID, and just stick with adding one internal hard drive for extra storage and one external for backup. . . .
You can stil use something like a TeraStation which handles mirroring internally and can be connected in a number of ways. It is not inexpensive but if storage is your problem it makes more sense than buying a new computer.
Guy
Posted by Mel Ladewig on March 13, 2006 at 11:26 AM
Discussion
18 repliesI'm adding some storage space to my desktop (Dell), and figured I might as well implement a more robust backup system as well (right now it's all DVDs). I'm thinking of going with two 320GB Western Digital external hard drives, and figure my two options are to use one for storage and one for backup, or set up a RAID with the two drives.
So how hard/difficult/complicated is it to set up a RAID? I'm pretty comfortable with computers, but I'm in no way a technician. Some of the other posts I've read here suggest you really need to know what you're doing to set up a RAID. If so, I'll just save myself the potential agony and go for the storage + backup option.
Your thoughts?
Thanks!
Martin
If you do want to do it yourself, the simplest redundant setup is RAID-1 in which one drive is a mirror of the other so your available storage space is the equivalent of one drive. You can get inexpensive ($15-20) cards (lots are listed on eBay at any given time) that will do that very easily. I set one up in my Dell 650 in about 20 minutes and everything worked as advertised.
More complex setups (RAID 5/10/0+1) will require more expensive hardware and setup and you will need more than 2 drives.
Guy
Guy
I was thinking of just going with a simple RAID-1 setup (I can only swing two drives right now). Good point about redundancy vs. backup -- I'll keep burning the DVDs, as well.
Martin
As soon as I can swing it I will be investing in something like a TerraStation for back up of the growing number of digital files.
If I can do it, I am sure you can as well.
Adding a RAID array to a computer will be easier than changing a computer to run on RAID. If you change your main system drive to RAID you will have to reinstall the OS and your applications.
Martin
Spend the money and go for a RAID 1 mirror on your system drive and a second raid pack for your working drive. 4 disks and a controller....
BACKUP!!! :o)
Guy
Most hard drives have ~5 year expected lifespans. I'm much more concerned about my personal data than the OS. I can't replace my personal data, but I can reload the OS. My personal data will go forward with me from XP to Vista to whatever comes down the road.
You do get what you pay for in PC hardware. However it is not a linear scale. I usually shoot for middle of the road stuff. The high dollar stuff is just a little faster, but will be obsolete in 6 months and you pay a MAJOR premium for it today. The CHEAP stuff is usually poorly made and could fail prematurely.
If you want to decrease he potential of lost files, to my this seems like an easier way to do it. I'm always looking for ways to add backup that can simplify my life.
Thanks for your suggestions,
For the system drive I take an image of the drive instead of a mirror of it. I can reinstall the image quickly, and it didn't require that I reinstall the OS and all my software to setup.
Here is a quick explaination of how I'm setup
Desktop
C:\ System Drive 80GB - contains Windows, Programs, and 2 GB of virtual memory space. Backed up monthly using Acronis True Image 9.
D:\ Data Drive 80GB - A seperate hard drive in my desktop that contains all my photos. And another 2GB virtual memory. Backed up nightly using Sync Back SE.
Terra Station - set as a network drive
RAID 1 Array 1 - 250GB - My "My Documents" and backup of D:
RAID 1 Array 2 - 250GB - System Backups from Acronis (plus a ton of other data space)
The only reason I don't work the images from the network drive was because I had issues with the PSE organizer. It was too slow opening and reading all the files at once from the drive. I was able to open any single image from the drive seemlessly.
The reason that I use 2 different backup software applications is that they do different things.
Acronis True Image 9 (~$50) - creates a "system image" file. It doesn't just copy all of the files, it zips them into one package. That package can then be reapplied to the system for disaster recovery.
SyncBack SE (~$25)- synchronizing software that compares files across systems and copies the files as you specify.
The system disk can always be restored from an image, but I want to keep my personal data safe.
Guy cautioned that I make sure the card type matches the hard drive type, but no where can I find the "type" for the hard drive (SATA, IDE, etc.) I'm planning to get -- or any external hard drive for that matter. I've looked all over both the retailer's site (newegg.com) and hard drive manufacturer's site (Western Digital), but nada. How critical is this? Seems like if it was that critical, the info on the "type" would be all over the specs. I guess I'll have to email Western Digital and ask them directly, but that seems an awfully burdensome thing to have to do just to buy a hard drive! In fact, from the retailer and mfr websites, it almost seems like "type" doesn't matter for external hard drives.
Martin
The RAID card must match the drive type. RAID is typically done with external drives, though there are some new external SATA drives. The types of drives you are likely to find these days are ATA and SATA. SATA is a newer and faster format. You might be able to find external SATA drives, but I would guess that they could cost you a pretty penny.
Even at SATA speeds, you will notice mirroring slowing you down on write operations. At USB or FireWire speed it will likely be too slow for effective work (though perfectly OK for backup).
I don't know of any controller cards that will mirror external drives.
Guy
Since it appears I only have one extra hard drive bay (Dell Dimenion 8300), my only real option is to add one new drive and use it to mirror the main drive. But since I'm running out of room on the main drive (that's what started this whole mess), I'd have to add an external USB drive for extra storage, and that drive wouldn't be mirrored. Yikes, this is getting messy.
Perhaps the easiest solution is to just wait until I get a new computer (that has lots of spare HD bays) to set up RAID, and just stick with adding one internal hard drive for extra storage and one external for backup. . . .
Thanks for your patience!
Martin
You can stil use something like a TeraStation which handles mirroring internally and can be connected in a number of ways. It is not inexpensive but if storage is your problem it makes more sense than buying a new computer.
Guy