Comments on: RAID On Home PC

By: jinteik

jinteik — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 12:32:20 +0000

Hi Guys,

Just an update, well got a 2 disk NAS 500gb after RAID 1.

I got another 2 hard disk that I used to also do backup on 2 computers. So in the end I have 3 copies of backup. Thanks guys for sharing your thoughts.

By: jinteik

jinteik — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 16:04:40 +0000

Thanks guys for answering. Well once I plan out my final thoughts on all you all have shared and once I have done the implementation, I will let you all know what I did.

Cheers guys

By: hlx

hlx — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 22:57:17 +0000

I would agree with other posters, skip the RAID and go with backup to external drive. If the external drive fails, you still have the original.

By: glob

glob — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 17:47:45 +0000

I have been using RAID in my home PC for years, but stopped last year. Like Mrdenny, I have found that it’s best to simply back up and restore if necessary. I have an identical drive in my PC which contains a backup, rather than RAIDing it. Another disadvantage is that if you contract a virus or data is intentionally deleted by someone else, RAID is not going to be as useful as a backup. RAID is not a backup!

By: kfaganjr

kfaganjr — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 19:40:20 +0000

You can purchase a two disk consumer level NAS device that is RAID ready for fairly cheap that will give you a lot of bang for your buck. Using RAID 1 will provide redundancy in case of a drive failure. Depending on the type of data and your network speed you will need to decide whether you access the data directly from the NAS or on your local drive using the NAS for backup storage. I personally use a combination, have backups run for data that I store on my local drive and store other information directly onto the network storage that I access from multiple computers or is part of a library of data I don’t access on a regular basis.

By: jinteik

jinteik — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 01:47:56 +0000

Thanks for replying everyone. Well what happen to me was the other day 1 of my HDD, suddenly lost its FAT and there goes my data inside it. So I was wondering when I get my next pc should I do a RAID or should I just get an external drive (which can fail too) unless like Spadasoe says, use NAS that comes with RAID.

At my country, even for home use computer items (CPU, HDD, NAS and etc) is really expensive if compared to prices in US. Budget is kind of a problem so I am trying to use the best and easy way for my backup.

By: mrdenny

mrdenny — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 19:29:17 +0000

I don’t bother with RAID at home. I’ve got all my data replicated to three different computers, one of which uploads the data to Carbonite for offsite storage. I don’t have much installed on my PCs, so rebuilding one only takes a little while.

About the only thing which isn’t backed up are the files which make up my virtual machines, but they don’t take long to rebuild either.

By: mortimer1

mortimer1 — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 17:28:23 +0000

I have RAID 1 configured for my OS/Application disk. The rest of the disks (the data disks) which I deliberately separate from the OS/Application disk I backup to DVD, external storage drives and online backup.