Raid 1 + Storage/Backup

[Sportive17]

Hi everyone!

This is my first post,and i'm a newbie. I want to set up Raid 1 on my pc,but would like to add a third HDD for storage and backup. How do i do this? Many thanks in advance.

 

[domthecondom]

What do you want the RAID 1 for?

Basicly you need 2 or more Identical harddrives for the Raid

and then another harddrive with enough storage for the backup


But i though Raid 1 is used for Backup, just incase 1 drive fails?

 

[Paul11]

hi sportdive and welcome

as no one else has said it.. Claimed !

anyway, back on topic, as mentioned RAID1 is more for backup purposes. Is this what you meant ?

RAID0 is for speed improvements

im just about to setup my first RAID0 array on the weekend (when my SSD arrive) so im also keen to get some good advice/guides.

 

[ChrisLX200]

RAID 1 is mainly for servers (and it's an outdated system at that). It offers some protection against sudden disk failure but offers little protection against data corruption or file deletions - because any errors you make are faithfully reproduced on the mirror. You can't access the mirror drive directly, it's hidden, so you can't just copy back files that were deleted. RAID1 in a server means less downtime in the event of hardware disk failure as the drive can be quickly replaced and the remaining drive(s) keep the system running. I don't think RAID1 is going to be great benefit to you.

RAID0 on the other hand is commonly used for enhancing performance but at the expense of reliability, failure of either drive loses all the data on both drives. In addition the RAID controler and drivers represent more potential failure points and even if the drives don't fail you can still lose the lot through corruption of the data. It shouldn't happen but it does, usually at the most inconvenient time. Been there done that (more times than I like to think about). So although there is a benefit, treat a RAID0 array like it's definitely going to fail tomorrow and have a backup image that can be restored in minutes. The best use for RAID0 is for the Windows disk, it doesn't need to be big (better if not actually - easier to back up). A couple of 160GB drives is more than enough space for both Windows and any games you might have that would also benefit from reduced loading times. To back that lot up would require 2x2x160GB, or a 750GB disk. You always have 2 full backups in case one doesn't work when you need it most (been there too), and backup programs like to create the new backup before deleting the old one.

Welcome to the forums, hope your visit proves helpful to you