Advice For Setting Up Raid 1

dk345

dk345

dk345

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Joined
30 Dec 2008
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418
Location
York
Hi,

My next door neighbour runs a small business and recently experienced failure of his main OS hard drive on the PC. Luckily for him, we managed to test the drive using Samsung's software before it went, so information on stock and customers details was backed up.

Understandably he'd rather this didn't happen again, so I was looking at getting him a second drive for data, set up in a mirror so that there would be two hard copies. He doesn't have a server and would rather not fork out for one, and seeing as he has so much data and very little patience he doesn't want to rely on any back up software available. He wants something that will do the job silently and efficiently.

So the question is... can you guys recommend some decent and reliable drives for us to use. Also, will using a mirror RAID have any affect on PC performance?

If you think there is an easier and better way to do this, then suggestions are welcome.

Thanks.
 
People that rely on computers for their business really need to get their head around how they work. RAID1 (mirror) offers some protection against sudden failure of one drive of a mirrored pair, the remaining drive will take over the job. However, it offers little protection against file deletion or corruption as information is written to both drives at the same time. Delete it from the main disk and the mirror disk will also delete it so it maintains an exact copy.

He needs a backup solution that involves backup software, and a routine to follow that ensures the operations are carried out correctly. It can be automated but still requires monitoring. An external drive is one method, an extra internal drive dedicated to backups is another. Either disk images can be taken (if essential data files are stored in a separate partition) or file by file backups. Any number of software tools are available to do this. If he hasn't got the patience to look into it then tough - it's his business not mine.
 
Thanks for the reply Chris.

Most of what you mentioned I have already tried explaining to him, but he is a stubborn old gentleman putting it nicely. I think then way to go is using back up software, the only reason he has RAID in his head is because he spoke to friends and the asked Google.

Are there any back up utilities you would recommend, the only one I've ever had experience with is Nero Back It Up, which did do its job,b but i'm sure there are others out there. He's running Vista on his machine, whats the built in back up like? Any ideas?

Thanks
 
Also if he turns the pc off a lot unexpectedly he may well leave uncomiited writes and have long re syncs when he powers on - which may annoy him as he may well not know what is going on..
 
external RAID device like a mybook or one of those new icy box setups or an internal raid controller and drives plus acronis true image (v9 can be had for around £16 in places and is a steal)

i appreciate he doesnt want a software solution but if he left his PC on 24/7 he could do the backups at night time and, depending on how much there is to backup, he could have , say, a weeks backups to delve into.
 
OK, thanks for all your help. I had a chat with him today and have managed to persuade him that using an external drive is the best way to go. Thinking that True Image is going to be the software used as it looks like it's simple to set up and could be set to run during the night, as suggested.

About to go back to Overclockers to find an external, preferably a WD MyBook although there doesnt seem to be stock for any of the larger drives. Thanks for your help everyone :D
 
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