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| Thread ID: 110056 | 2010-06-01 21:50:00 | Figuring a backup plan | Nomad (952) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1105888 | 2010-06-01 21:50:00 | Hi, I had a HDD that crashed. My 2nd in a year - same brand lol. So I thought about doing regular evening backup tasks. I also thought about a RAID 0. I know that if you delete a file it will be mirrored. But at least you have a working system if one falls over and also have a 3rd HDD separately for backup of certain folders. Plus a 4th externally for a further tier of protection (as I do now just need to get a enclosure for it). After a few crashes to me it appears an additional HDD might be $100 for a modest size one. Then you don't get the hassle (of the repair work) and the downtime. Your views :) |
Nomad (952) | ||
| 1105889 | 2010-06-01 22:35:00 | Correction that would be RAID 1 - not striping. I want a mirroring. Formerly I had 1 HDD for the system. 2nd HDD for my photography which was sync with a software to the C:. My impt files on C: was sync to the 2nd HDD. That was great except when the boot drive fails then what ...... :confused: hence maybe I like a RAID 1 now. |
Nomad (952) | ||
| 1105890 | 2010-06-02 00:11:00 | RAID1 is great to protect from hdd failure but that's it. It won't protect your data if you get a virus or whatever or file/s become corrupt or you delete something you shouldn't as these things will all be mirrored as well. It also won't save you if your machine gets stolen or burnt in a fire or damaged from a flood. You need an external backup that you can take offsite to protect against all of that. With the price of external HDDs these days everyone should have one. I am busy testing the free version of Genie Timeline (www.genie-soft.com) and so far looks pretty good. |
CYaBro (73) | ||
| 1105891 | 2010-06-02 00:15:00 | I've got 2 useless Seagates. I figured put that into a RAID 1. Have a 3rd HDD for my photography and sync it to the "RAID 1" and sync any important files from RAID 1 to the 3rd HDD. Have a external HD as well. At the mo, I have 3 HDD provided this one gets RMA'ed. I can add another for the 4th. Question: If one of the RAID HD bails out. In the future I may not be able to get the same/similar HD. Can RAID work with a different HD or do I need to buy another pair? |
Nomad (952) | ||
| 1105892 | 2010-06-02 00:30:00 | As has been said before on here, RAID 1 etc is NOT a form of backup; it's a continuity measure, and is certainly important where uptime is a consideration. IMHO your best bet is: - Separate drives in each PC for your O/S and data (or partitions if this isn't practical/possible) - A NAS box which runs in RAID 1 that all your devices can share to, backing up images of your O/S & system state, as well as all your data (you can skip the O/S bit if you have a very simple setup which is easy to restore) - A weekly/fortnightly/monthly backup to an external hard drive which is stored away from the house (keep it at school/work/uni/a mates house etc) in case of theft/fire etc Really depends on your budget, but with a bit of DIY and some help from the knowledgeable folks here you could do this for not much. |
nofam (9009) | ||
| 1105893 | 2010-06-02 00:50:00 | I think at the moment: Will add extra HD to the C: to make it RAID 1. D: at the moment will be sync'ed to RAID 1 in the spare room it has. Sync also any impt files from RAID 1 to the current D: # Add a external HD using a spare HD I have now. Get a case for it. Not sure if I would get a NAS box yet. I can still see the weakness of the above thou, if the RAID 1 gets a error of any sort that may get mirrored over. Unless I have a extra box or internally where I do regularly ghost images..... Can RAID 1 use diff size HDDs? If one fails and I cannot get that size anymore, do I need to buy 2 new ones? It should default to the smaller size right? |
Nomad (952) | ||
| 1105894 | 2010-06-02 02:10:00 | Hey, if you have 1 HDD with software on it ... and you wanna make it a RAID, can you just plug in a new HDD or do you have to redo Windows? Meaning "hardware RAID via the motherboard" not using Windows Dynamic Disk. |
Nomad (952) | ||
| 1105895 | 2010-06-02 02:11:00 | Can RAID 1 use diff size HDDs? If one fails and I cannot get that size anymore, do I need to buy 2 new ones? It should default to the smaller size right? My understanding is that you can configure RAID 1 with two different size drives BUT the Raid partition will be the max size of the smallest HDD. eg. 250GB and 500GB under Raid 1 might give you 250GB partition only, so you kinda loose the 250GB partition of the 500GB. So if the 500GB fails and you put in a 1TB drive than the Raid 1 will reconfigure the 1TB drive under Raid 1 BUT only use the 250GB since the original Raid 1 configuration is only 250GB. So you might loose the 750GB of the 1TB drive. LIKE I said, this is only my understanding so I may have to do some research to see if this is the case or I may be wrong. |
ronyville (10611) | ||
| 1105896 | 2010-06-02 02:52:00 | My two internal Seagate 200 Gb drives have been working here fine. I use various back up methods but the main one is to use Seagate Disk wizard and image one to the other. Haven't bothered about RAID arrays at all. |
Sweep (90) | ||
| 1105897 | 2010-06-02 03:13:00 | My home PC operating system and programs all run on a mirror for the reasons Nomad pointed out...They are only 80GB drives but thats enough..data is stored on separate drive and I back this up to external.... | SolMiester (139) | ||
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