To RAID or not to RAID

[Turkbear]

Hi,
I am in the process of replacing a dead hard drive that was part of my RAID0 setup ( so no dsta anywhere after the failure).

Is there any real advantage in a home setup to having that configuration ( And if so, what RAID mode - striped has hurt twice now when 1 disk fails)

Dell Studio 8100 XPS Win7 64bit will have 2 500GB drives SATA controller with bios RAID

BTW, when I put in the new drive, How can I tell which one is the bad one ( it is shown as SATA 1 with the good one as SATA 2)

Thanks..



To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[DrB0b]

Raid definitions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

Raid Size Calculator:

http://www.z-a-recovery.com/art-raid-estimator.htm

A Raid 0 setup is basically only for having one "continuous" drive, made of 2 separate drives but leaves no redundancy which is why you lost all of your data. A Raid 1 would be better suited for the above setup but you will only have 500GB of space as opposed to the 1TBish you would have in a Raid 0.

In a nut shell, Raid 0 for increased size with 2 drives and Raid 1 for redundancy so if a drive fails you are not SOL.

"You don't know what you got, till its gone..
80's hair band Cinderella or ode to data backups???

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
Thanks, 500Gb will be enough for now so I will try RAID 1.

Still need to know how to ID the bad drive when I go to replace it.





To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[DrB0b]

Any audible noises when both are powered on?(outside of normal sounds of course) Assuming that you had a software Raid controller, Im not aware of a good quick way to figure it out outside of manually testing each drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic boot disc.

"You don't know what you got, till its gone..
80's hair band Cinderella or ode to data backups???

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
There is what appears to be a head-seeking sound but both drives are close - after I open the case when the new drive arrives I should be able to tell better.

Thanks.





To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[DrB0b]

Unplug the power from one and power the PC on, then do the other one and see which is loudest. Not the most accurate test, but if one is making funky sounds, odds are it is the culprit.

"You don't know what you got, till its gone..
80's hair band Cinderella or ode to data backups???

 

[Turkbear]

Thanks all, I'll report back after it gets fixed...

The replies I received are indicative of the great asset this site is and why I have been a regular participant since 2002!!

(The old one, who speaks of floppy discs)





To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[rclarke250]

Just use the diagnostic utilities that come from the drive manufacturer to determine drive failure. They are agnostic, and could care less that it is in a raid setup. The only thing a raid 0 is good for is speed. But if you want speed, get a SSD. Raid 1 is a mirror setup, so if a drive fails then your data is still ok as both drives contain the same data. This is not a fail safe to be used in lieu of backup. But used in conjunction with backup, can make your data very safe. Remember raid 0 was first developed because of the high cost to MB of the first hard drives, and it was a way to make many smaller cheaper drives, seem like a larger more expensive drive.

 

[Turkbear]

Thanks..I do use an online backup service for critical files and I have checked on them to be sure they are recoverable (They Are)

For some added protection, I copy the most important fiels (mainly contacts and important documents) to 2 other networked PCs



To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."