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Thread ID: 120710	2011-09-22 00:33:00	Advice on hard drives suitable for RAID 5	dugimodo (138)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1232878	2011-09-22 00:33:00	As per the title. My media collection currently on 2 x 2TB WD green drives is getting fairly large and the Idea of trying to replace it or back it up is a little daunting. I had thought a 4TB RAID 5 array using 3 x 2TB drives would be a good option, giving me a bit more security. As I understand it if a drive fails in RAID 5 no data is lost and the array can be rebuilt so it seems Ideal and a little cheaper than simply mirroring (+ it uses less sata ports I'm running low). I understand WD green drives are not intended for a RAID array and can potentially cause issues dropping out of the array due to how the error recovery works. The RAID edition drives however are basically twice the price and buying 3 of them becomes pretty expensive. So, on to the questions; What affordable drives can you reccommend to use in a RAID array? Speed is not really an issue, this is just bulk storage. Also I want to use the motherboards onboard RAID controller, does anyone know if RAID mode affects the Trim support on my SSD? currently using AHCI. If it helps current setup is: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4-B3 MB with 6 onboard SATA ports (2x SATA 6GB, 4x 3GB) and 2 eSATA on seperate controller. Intel SSD 320 series 120GB system drive WD Black 1TB drive for programs and games - also have my swap file on it. Samsung F3 1TB back up drive - WIndows 7 is set to image the SSD and program drives onto this once a week. WD Green 2TB x 2 for storage ASUS Blu-ray drive As you can see all onboard SATA ports are used but not very efficiently, the storage drives are about 3/4 full and the SSD around 50%. The two 1TB drives are only at around 10% My plan is to combine the backup and storage drives into one large RAID5 volume. I had also considered the LAN-LI 3 or 5 bay external RAID enclosures (the USB3 model). I would consider combining all 4 drives (everything except the SSD) in a RAID array except then you have the problem of not being able to automatically backup the program drive as it would be the same drive as the backup target. I guess partitioning the Volume might solve this? Hit me with your suggestions & comments please, sorry the post ended up longer than intended.	dugimodo (138)
1232879	2011-09-22 00:57:00	Seagate SATA Enterprise Drives (sorry dont have model no's, they change all the time) designed/intended for servers cost more $$, probly not stocked at you local PC shop.	1101 (13337)
1232880	2011-09-22 02:20:00	One point to note, it it was why I broke apart my motherboard based raid 5 array with 4 drives. In the case of a mobo failure, you need to replace motherboard with a simple chipset, or the raids may not be compatible. It may be safer to use a dedicated raid card...or software raid....or an Raid enclosure.	psycik (12851)
1232881	2011-09-22 02:56:00	Good point about the motherboard, even upgrading would be difficult now that I think about it. Software RAID is an option, but I think windows 7 limits you to RAID 0&1 so no RAID 5 or RAID 10. I guess I could do 2 software RAID 1 arrays in lieu of proper backups but it means losing more space. I looked up the enterprise drives but the 2TB ones seem to be around $300 which makes the whole Idea ridiculous. I could just buy 2TB external drives and backup my media, not my preferred option however but better than $900 plus for a RAID 5 array I can't migrate to a new system. In fact for $900 I reckon I could build a cheapo Atom or Fusion based windows home server machine and chuck a couple of green 2TB drives in it with scheduled backups.	dugimodo (138)
1232882	2011-09-22 03:30:00	Im looking at one of the myself: www.computerlounge.co.nz	psycik (12851)
1232883	2011-09-22 04:06:00	We've got a RAID 5 here with 4 2TB WD Black drives (So 6TB in total). Technically the Black is the same as the Enterprise, but just not 'rated' for use in RAIDs. They work fine though. Same for the Blue & Green drives. Get yourself a standalone server, even some whorey old box you can put FreeNAS or OpenFiler on. We recently had a failure, it was a breeze to pull the drive out, put the new one in, and it rebuilt it just happily :)	Chilling_Silence (9)
1232884	2011-09-22 04:13:00	We've got a RAID 5 here with 4 2TB WD Black drives (So 6TB in total). Technically the Black is the same as the Enterprise, but just not 'rated' for use in RAIDs. They work fine though. Same for the Blue & Green drives. Get yourself a standalone server, even some whorey old box you can put FreeNAS or OpenFiler on. We recently had a failure, it was a breeze to pull the drive out, put the new one in, and it rebuilt it just happily :) Just got 4 x Western Digital RE4 Enterprise WD1003FBYX Hard Disk Drive for a ESX HOST Datastore...... Key Features • Dual processor - With double the processing power, WD RE4 boasts the highest performance of any drive in the WD RE family. • StableTrac - The motor shaft is secured at both ends to reduce system-induced vibration and stabilize platters for accurate tracking during read and write operations. • RAFF - Enhanced RAFF technology includes sophisticated electronics to monitor the drive and correct both linear and rotational vibration in real time. The result is a significant performance improvement in high vibration environments over the previous generation of drives. • IntelliSeek - Calculates optimum seek speeds to lower unnecessary power consumption, noise, and vibration. • Multi-axis shock sensor - Automatically detects the subtlest shock events and compensates to protect the data. • RAID-specific, time-limited error recovery (TLER) - Prevents drive fallout caused by the extended hard drive error-recovery processes common to desktop drives. • Third generation dynamic fly height - Each read-write head's fly height is adjusted in real time for optimum reliability. • Thermal extended burn-in test - Each drive is put through extended burn-in testing with thermal cycling to ensure reliable operation. • NoTouch ramp load technology - The recording head never touches the disk media ensuring significantly less wear to the recording head and media as well as better drive protection in transit. • Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR) - WD RE4 drives utilize PMR technology to achieve even greater areal density, reliability, and design margin. • Active Power Save - Delivers best-in-class power consumption through advanced WD firmware that conserves power in active seek modes without degrading performance. One thing with Raid 5, I wouldn't use less than 4 drives......and really in an enterprise environment you would have a hot spare on standby....	SolMiester (139)
1232885	2011-09-22 04:26:00	I've just been informed a PC I sold a few yeas ago has had a hard drive failure and might be available cheap so A NAS or home server could be on the cards. From memory it was an AMD 4200+ on a 939 motherboard. I have a copy of XP pro x64 and a couple of copies of Vista floating around too if I get lazy and just want to use windows file sharing. I've got conflicting information regarding using WD Green drives in RAID 5, seems like many people have had trouble with drives dropping out of the RAID array randomly. What I read however would seem to indicate that should only happen in case of a faulty sector or the like causing the drive to go into deep recovery mode which takes too long for many RAID controllers resulting in the drive being dropped. To me that should not happen often but it sounds like the droputs are quite frequent.	dugimodo (138)
1232886	2011-09-22 04:32:00	WD Green are NOT Raid compatible in any other configuration other than mirror...period. wdc.custhelp.com	SolMiester (139)
1232887	2011-09-22 05:07:00	Actually that link indicates both RAID 0 and RAID 1 is supported, which leads to the question what about RAID 10? which is a combination of the 2 4 x WD green in RAID 10 would = 4TB @ approx $550 (actually less, I would find a way to re-use my existing 2 somehow) 3 x WD RE in RAID 5 = 4TB @ approx $900 granted the RE drives are undoubtedly better but we are not talking about enterprise use with critical data here. Also the RAID10 has more redundancy built in to counter the cheaper drives. Psycik's comments about the motherboard have me rethinking any type of internal RAID array, a NAS, server, or external RAID enclosure seems smarter.	dugimodo (138)
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