Two Toshibas in RAID or one HGST?

Duvan

Duvan

Duvan

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I'm trying to decide betwen buying two cheaper 2 TB drives or just one, better quality, 2TB drive.

Cheaper:
Since I've heard so much bad about Seagate Barraccuda I'm looking at Toshiba DT01ACA200 2TB.
2 year warranty.

More expensive:
Hgst Ultrastar Kit 2tb Hdd Rtl
5 year warranty.

The idea would be to run the two Toshibas in RAID as mirrors (software).
The price of two Toshibas are the same as one HGST in my country! So if I buy HGST it's just one.
Which would you go for for performance and safty?


Extra:
I'd prefer Western Digital but they have no 2TB drives that aren't slower RPM... well haven't quite figured out what the WD Mainstream drives are running at... any clues? Also 10€ more than Toshiba a piece.
 
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All drives can and will fail - Warranty doesn't cover your data, so don't buy on that alone.

Toshiba would be fine, and a Seagate would as well (their failure rates are over-dramatised).

RAID1 doesn't protect you from data loss (e.g. files deleted accidentally, or damage caused by a virus/corruption, will be mirrored to the second drive).

If you haven't already got some form of backup, then buy an external 2tb drive and backup to that weekly (or daily - depends how important your data is).
 
Thanks.
What about performance in software RAID 1?
I would get about the same read and write speed, not slower at least, than the HGST?
Hard to say of course, but trying to make sure I'm not missing something essential.

So about safety of my files... I assume two Toshibas is a bit safer than one HGST? If one Toshiba breaks I can access the other drive (and I'll notice that one drive is broken, right?).
 
Duvan said:
Thanks.
What about performance in software RAID 1?
I would get about the same read and write speed, not slower at least, than the HGST?
Hard to say of course, but trying to make sure I'm not missing something essential.

So about safety of my files... I assume two Toshibas is a bit safer than one HGST? If one Toshiba breaks I can access the other drive (and I'll notice that one drive is broken, right?).
Click to expand...

Performance wise it should be no different to a single drive - quicker maybe in some circumstances.

If one drive breaks they yes you should still be access the data (and should get a big error message from the RAID software).

RAID is not a backup though - if the data is important then by all means buy a second drive - but put it in an external USB enclosure and back up to it daily or weekly.
 
Thanks for your answers.
Also, the Toshiba says "no RAID" on some web shop. But they still work in software RAID, just not on hardware eh?
 
Or in other words... do all drives work in raid? Software at least?
I saw somebody using RAID with usb memories so I sort of assume so then heh?
 
The drives i have are not "designed" for RAID usage but work perfectly fine in RAID1 for me. I use the RAID hardware built into my motherboard (Intel RST). Most drives will be fine for most home RAID setups, the warranty still has you covered if a drive fails. RAID is not a backup though, it's only for redundancy (if one drive fails the data is still accessible).

141a3c393d2c230f6e5b2849201ee32d.png

Performs very well too:
perf.png
 
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Using RAID introduces complexity and uncertainty. Plenty of cases where people have lost one of the drives, and the 2nd drive is unbootable/unreadable. It will make your machine POST much slower. Will make Windows re-installs/upgrades a little more complicated. etc. etc. etc.

Backups are a much simpler option, and cover you against not just hardware failure, but also against corruption and user error (accidentally deleting things) that RAID doesn't help with. The only thing is that backups need to be automated. If they aren't, you will forget, and then it's almost as good as not having anything at all (an old backup is better than nothing, but still pretty frustrating).
 
Multiple drives in a case causes vibration. Cheap drives are not designed to cope with this. I have 3x2tb seagates, two are very nearly dead. I really would buy NAS drives.

WD Red Pros are 7200RPM, WD Reds less. WD Blacks are 7200RPM but not rated for RAID.

http://i.imgur.com/aEAC2Wy.png
 
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