A question about RAID1

[Captain B.O]

Hi there, I'm wanting to upgrade my computer from it's ancient 150GB (!!) IDE drive to a nice large SATA drive. I was thinking of making a RAID1 array for storage but have one question about it. I always assumed that if one drive dies the other drive can be used outside the array, but somewhere I read if the controller breaks you've basically got two unreadable drives. Can someone clarify this for me? Are the drives in a RAID1 array usable as normal drives or can only the RAID controller (perhaps even the specific model) read the drives?

Thanks.

 

[Surveyor]

If one of the drives fails in RAID1 array you will be able to still use the other. The array will just report as degraded.

You then have an opportunity to replace the failed drive and rebuild the array.

It would defeat the purpose of RAID1 if having one drive fail meant you couldn't access the other.

 

[rpstewart]

Hi there, I'm wanting to upgrade my computer from it's ancient 150GB (!!) IDE drive to a nice large SATA drive. I was thinking of making a RAID1 array for storage but have one question about it. I always assumed that if one drive dies the other drive can be used outside the array, but somewhere I read if the controller breaks you've basically got two unreadable drives. Can someone clarify this for me? Are the drives in a RAID1 array usable as normal drives or can only the RAID controller (perhaps even the specific model) read the drives?

Thanks.

Most RAID1 arrays can be read as single disks in the event of a controller failure but it's not guaranteed. At the end of the day RAID1 is an availability solution and nothing else, you still should have a separate backup which makes this a moot point anyway.