guidance with setting up RAID1

Magic_x_uk · 10 Aug 2011 at 11:55

Hi, will be building a new PC/HTPC soon.

Will have a small HD for the OS (Win 7) not sure what ver I will need.

I also will be putting in x2 Samsung Spinpoint F4 2TB HD's
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-097-SA&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=1955

I wish to use RAID1 (I don't know much about RAID)

basically i want to have a complete back up of all my media in case anything goes wrong. I am under the impression RAID1 allows me to have x2 HD's with exactly the same on both. So if one dies. I take it out, bin it and put another in and it rebuilds/copies itself.

How do I do this within Win 7 please

Thank you

rpstewart · 10 Aug 2011 at 12:13

RAID1 is not a backup, it's an availability solution.

If you want a proper backup get an external caddy for one of the F4s and sync the internal one to the external one on a regular basis.

Magic_x_uk · 10 Aug 2011 at 12:27

okay that certainly sounds another option.

I would have thought RAID1 was a back up. hence 2 drives having exactly the same on each of them. Which in essence is what I would do with a external HD isnt it?

rpstewart · 10 Aug 2011 at 12:29

The key is that the two RAID1 disks have exactly the same contents - the same corruption, the same mistakenly deleted files etc.

Magic_x_uk · 10 Aug 2011 at 12:40

That is something I never thought about. That is a very valid point.

Thank you for that. makes complete sense now.

Is there anything that then can back up what I have on a internal drive to a external drive at specific times etc, certain folders.

Would like to have all my photos on 1 HD within the PC and then know I have a back up on a external of the same.

At the moment. What I do is copy new photos/movies etc over to my external one when I get the chance.

I have to remember to do it. Which of course means I dont do it all the time. Which could lead to me loosing some data if a drive fails.

rpstewart · 10 Aug 2011 at 16:19

There are plenty of file synchronisation tools out there - Synctoy is a decent free one.

Scheduling is possible but has it's drawbacks - it would mean having the external drive on and connected whenever the schedule is due. Ideally a backup drive should only be connected to the source machine when you're taking a backup.