Raid 1 help please...

steveinspain · 11 Apr 2009 at 08:19

I have 2 1TB hard drives plus a 750gb.
One 1TB is fast filling up with music, and I will need more space soon.I have a lot of photos as well.
Now, the plan is to have one HD purely for music, another purely for photo's, then 2 more as back-ups, with a fifth for OS, programs etc..
How do I do this, and is it a good idea ? I know nothing about raid or raid controllers, but do know that I am not very good at backing up or copying over to an external HD.
I can fit 5 HD's into my case, but would an old pc case be a better place to store all the HD's ?
Tell me all you know, clever folks !
Cheers
Steve

FaceplantSi · 11 Apr 2009 at 09:14

Hi Steve,

I have a setup where I run 2 x 1Tb Samsung F1's as RAID 1 (from the onboard Intel ICH10R controller) and that is where all my data files are stored. RAID 1 is mirroring, so the 2 drives are mirror images of each other, and in Windows Explorer I see them as only 1 drive. As I write any files to the drive the PC is actually writing them to both drives. Thus if one HDD fails I have another perfect copy ready and waiting.

You say that you'll have one drive for Pics, one for Music and 2 more as backups. Well, you could put those two backup drives in RAID 1 and then your backups will be mirrored but tbh you might be better off looking at a NAS type solution.

NAS is 'Network Attached Storage' - and if you have a spare old PC kicking around you could use that as a storage box and network it to your existing PC so to copy files across the network into it's drives.

The NAS route would prob be better for the long term as it'll be more expandable as you say you've got room for 5 drives in your current setup.

It'b be helpful to know what your system specs are so we can see what RAID your mobo etc can support as that would help your desicion!

steveinspain · 11 Apr 2009 at 12:27

Hi FaceplantSi and thanks - clearly one of the clever folks !

MoBo is an Asus P5QL pro, 8400 chip and 4gb memory.
I do want mirror raid so would be getting 2 pairs of HD's (ie same size) but know little about NAS. Why might it be a beter solution, apart from being expandable (not that that isn't enough..!)

FaceplantSi · 11 Apr 2009 at 13:35

steveinspain said:
MoBo is an Asus P5QL pro, 8400 chip and 4gb memory.
I do want mirror raid so would be getting 2 pairs of HD's (ie same size) but know little about NAS. Why might it be a beter solution, apart from being expandable (not that that isn't enough..!)

The simplest solution for the time being would be additional internal drives. But if you put 2 x 1Tb drives in a RAID 1 array then you only get 1Tb space, so I don't think that would solve your space problem, and you can't fit enough in your case to get 4 new drives. RAID 1 is a good solution for 'on-the-fly' backup but as both the HDD's are in the same chassis and powered by the same PSU there is still a (slight) chance that both could go pop together, and that would have course be very bad!

Having a NAS box as a backup will of course mean a seperate unit altogether, so in theory should be safer, but of course that box itself could suffer a similar fate - but if it does then you've still got the original data on your main PC.

NAS is a more expensive route, there are specialised units available but even getting an empty NAS chassis and populating with HDD's of your choice will prob be more expensive than re-using an out of date PC (if you have one spare) as it doesn't need much processor power. Something like this might suit with a couple of these drives in? But you are looking at £260 and you'll only have 1Tb storage extra in RAID 1 mode.

From what you say you are rapidly needing more than 1Tb each for Music and Photos? If so, then for absolute safety you'll need at least 2Tb of RAID'ed storage... it's already getting expensive as you can see!

Hence if you have an old system that's not doing much and has some spare drive bays and a network port, then I would recommend putting the extra drives in it and using it as a NAS type unit as it's really just the drives you'll be needing and you can add more as required. You can even RAID the drives in it if you want - so that when you copy data from your PC to the "Music" drive in the NAS it automatically mirrors to it's RAID partner.

It is not an easy choice to make and very much depends on your budget and what level of safety you really need for this data - a cheaper option would simply be some external drives, but they are only single drives so if you move data to make space (rather than copy) and the external dies, so does your data.

steveinspain · 12 Apr 2009 at 06:56

Hmmm.
Thanks again Fella, but its not good news is it - poor old wallet..!
I guess for now it will have to be a few external drives to copy it all to untill I can afford to get a NAS setup sorted.
I am looking into changing the file format I keep my music in to reduce space which may help, but having close to 3000 cds will take space whatever ! I do have an old system but want to use it for internet for the family, so mine can go into the music room for my use.
Much appreciate all your help on this - if you want to help out further, please send money to me at my address...

FaceplantSi · 12 Apr 2009 at 07:07

steveinspain said:
please send money to me at my address...

lol