Thread: First Time RAID

OK,

Here it is... I am thinking about going RAID on my i7 920 system for both redundancy and speed. Can I have both or do I have to choose one or the other? Basically I want to be able to keep my computer running if I have a HDD failure. I back up all of my kids pictures onto an external drive because that is what is most important to me...

So should I just keep backing them up and buy a SSD for speed?
Should I RAID for redundancy?
Should I RAID for speed?

Should I leave it alone?

I can get a new 1TB drive that matches what I have for $70 on Newegg.

Any help would be great.

If you want both redundancy and speed then set up a RAID 10 (1+0). A RAID 1 gives you a mirrored drive so that's your redundancy. A RAID 0 is a striped array (data is broken up and written/read from multiple drives at the same time) so that's your speed. All RAID controllers typically will support the combination of the two so setting up the RAID 10 should be easy, but you'll need a minimum of 4 drives.

If the RAID controller you're using is the one on the mobo, its probably Intel's ICH10R. It works very well and supports simultaneous multiple RAIDs. So if you wanted you could set up a RAID 0 and a separate RAID 1. Keep in mind though the size of your final drive after RAIDing.

x=size of the drive, n=number of drives
RAID 0 ---> x * n
RAID 1 ---> x (no capacity gain for more drives, just redundancy)
RAID 10 ---> x * n/2 (need twice the number of drives, max capacity is the size of the incorporated RAID 0)

The bennefits of the SSD are:

1. No moving parts to break
2. Access time is pretty much gone

Its number 2 that makes them ideal for OS drives, gaming, media processing...but you have to take care of them. Reduce excessive writes as much as possible and never defragment them unless you want to destroy the SSD. The more you write, the faster it degrades the flash memory. Windows indexing, for example, I've assigned to another drive so it isn't constantly updating on my SSD. I have enough RAM that I disabled the page file for my SSD, but I assigned a gig or two of page file to my other drive. They're stable and safe enough, but the cost per gig is kind of prohibitive for storing stuff.

Back to the RAIDs... Remember that if you just have a RAID 0 and lose a single drive, then you lose everything because the data is striped across drives. With a RAID 1 you can lose half the RAID and still be okay. In a RAID 10, you can lose one drive and be fine. You can also lose two, depending on what they are. If you lose the mirror, then you're still okay. Say if you lose the first drive in mirror 1 and the second drive in mirror 2 then you're okay. Lose the same drive on both sides of the mirror and you're doomed.

When I was using RAID. I did RAID 0 (striping) on my OS drive for performance and RAID 1 (mirroring) on my data drive. Doing both IMHO is a bit of a waste. My OS drive only contains the OS and my apps. As long as you periodically back up your OS drive, mirroring really isn't that important. Data on the other hand, unless you regularly back up, would benefit from mirroring. I stopped doing both and now just rely on backups for both. I use an 'offline mirror' of sorts. I perform a drive to drive clone to a second disk I attach via an external SATA dock. Once the backup is complete I unplug it. It saves wear and tear on the drive and I can store it in a secure location.

For performance, a quality SSD will outperform most 2-drive RAID 0 setups on even the fastest mechanical drives.

I am using RAID-0 for my games. I have a 500GB junk drive for my backups and important files. I also have my Windows Home Server back-up all of my boxes.