help with raid 1 please

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nakedmolerat

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#68588 25-Sep-2010 13:25

i need help with raid 1.

currently i have one samsung harddrive in my desktop (system / datas etc). i would like to buy another drive and setup it as raid 1. any advise the best way to do this?

should i go for software raid (win 7)? is this reliable enough?

for software raid, if the main drive died, can the computer boot?

i prefer not to reinstall everything all over again (too lazy and dont have much time). any shortcuts to setup the hardware raid?

k1wi

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#384307 25-Sep-2010 13:33

Personally, I don't recommend firmware RAID (as in Intel's Matrix RAID and its derivatives), I tried it with my Win7 64bit drive and while it was great, I ended up losing my whole array when the bios became corrupted. Plus, for quite a long time Intel's official RAID controller used software that was known 'lose' drives (intel matrix raid Storage manager).

If your looking to backup your data I'd recommend purchasing an external HDD such as the WD Mybook or the Seagate Freeagent and configuring it to back up your files automatically. Depending on your level of paranoia (which isn't a bad thing) you can also unplug the external HDD from the computer and power source except for when your using it to back up.

Generally speaking, Operating Systems can be reinstalled, Recovering Data files is more complicated.

nakedmolerat

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#384314 25-Sep-2010 13:51

yeah, i already have NAS and external USB drive to backup files.

however, i think i should also have raid 1 just in case the other 2 failed. i wont be at peace until i have this setup and running. the hardware raid is definitely better?

dukester

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#384324 25-Sep-2010 14:24

This is quite a good article explaing all the raid differences, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID
As far as I am aware you will need to do a full reinstall as the raid setup requires drivers from the word go to set the drives up which wipes the drives ready for a windows (or linux) install.

k1wi

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#384330 25-Sep-2010 14:55

If you already have two independent back-up systems in place (that is USB and NAS storage) then I kinda suspect you're not going to gain much in the way of increased data-redundancy as a result of moving to a RAID configuration. IMHO the next option is offsite storage - you're out of luck if all your back up systems are in your house and the house burns down.

The main point of RAID1 was for Redundancy (Array of Independent Disks)- that is for systems where uptime is critical and any amount of downtime is unacceptable. If a drive fails, the system can keep running while you hotswap a new drive in & rebuild the mirror. You're looking for data protection then RAID1 isn't the magic bullet that you might think it is.

What I would recommend doing is configuring your computer so that it has an OS partition which ONLY contains your OS & applications, and a separate partition where you store all of your documents. I'd then create an image of the boot partition and store that in safe (multiple) place(s). I'd then have automatic back ups of the data partition that creates copies (including say the ten most recent versions of the document). That way if your drive is kaput, you can restore the disk image quickly and then recover your data from your backup locations.

Given your level of data concern, I'd also have some kind of off-site storage, for example keeping a couple of memory sticks or HDDs housing critical data at the office (and once a week bring one home to back up and then take to work the next day, alternating with the other drive the next week).

Athlonite

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#391102 12-Oct-2010 22:09

I have been running an 2x HDD raid0 array for the last seven years without problems there's only a couple of things you need to worry about

1: Make of HDD personally I use WesterDigital but samsung are good aswell

2: Heat build up if you keep them cool there shouldn't be any problems my HDD's never go over 35DegC
even when being heavily used

3: Drivers use the latest ones you can find

soft raid is ok but by no means as good as an dedicated card with it's own processor and ram cache

Ragnor

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#391140 13-Oct-2010 00:58

nakedmolerat: yeah, i already have NAS and external USB drive to backup files.

however, i think i should also have raid 1 just in case the other 2 failed. i wont be at peace until i have this setup and running. the hardware raid is definitely better?

RAID1 (or RAID5) is only usually used for servers that need to be running 24x7, ie: 1 disk dies the server keeps running with no downtime.

If you are not running your pc 24x7 I would just look at disk imaging (Macrium Reflect, Norton Ghost, Acronis True Image etc) set this up to do a full disk image however frequently you feel is you need and save to your NAS or USB.

In the event your disk dies, buy a new one restore from the disk image and good to go exactly as it was.

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Ragnor

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#391414 13-Oct-2010 17:07

However with that said... if you want to use software RAID1 in Windows 7 you must have the professional, ultimate or enterprise edition (Home doesn't have dynamic disks).

It's quite simple to setup:

1: Install the new drive ideally the same size and make/model.
2: Load windows
3: Backup your data/take a disk image in case anything goes wrong
4: Right click on my computer and go to manage
5: Expand the disk management console
6: Convert your existing drive and new drive to "dyanmic disks"
7: Right click your existing drive and go to "Add Mirror" select the new drive

In the background it will sync up all your data to the new drive.

If one drive dies you will be able to boot normally and work as usual.

nakedmolerat

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#458539 14-Apr-2011 08:10

Ragnor: However with that said... if you want to use software RAID1 in Windows 7 you must have the professional, ultimate or enterprise edition (Home doesn't have dynamic disks).

It's quite simple to setup:

1: Install the new drive ideally the same size and make/model.
2: Load windows
3: Backup your data/take a disk image in case anything goes wrong
4: Right click on my computer and go to manage
5: Expand the disk management console
6: Convert your existing drive and new drive to "dyanmic disks"
7: Right click your existing drive and go to "Add Mirror" select the new drive

In the background it will sync up all your data to the new drive.

If one drive dies you will be able to boot normally and work as usual.

thank you