Re: 'RAID Controller'

On Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:18:50 -0800, "Don Schmidt" <Don
Engineer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Ken,

I think you misunderstood my comments.


Well, maybe, but I don't think so.


I didn't say the RAID ARRAY was a way of backing up,


No, you didn't say it directly, but to the great majority of home
users with RAID 1 (again, note that it's important to specify which
version of RAID you're talking about; RAID 0, for example, is
completely different), they think of it as a substitute for backup.
The purpose of my message was not to argue with you, but to point out
to others reading it here that it should *not* be thought of a
substitute for backup.


it's a way of ensuring no loss of data do to hard drive
failure.


Well, maybe. But if, for example, the cause of the drive failure is a
power surge caused by a nearby lightning strike, it could very easily
fry both drives in the array simultaneously.


Also provides a quick and easy method of restoring a failed drive.


True. But since having an image or clone backup provides the same
thing, I see no real value in RAID 1 for the great majority of home
users.


Also, I don't rely on the dual hard drives as a backup, I backup to an
alternate storage facility; network hard drive off location.


Great! Glad to hear it! But once again, the great majority of home
users with RAID 1 do rely on it as backup. The reason I posted what I
did was to dissuade anyone who has that point of view or might be
persuaded to take that point of view.


Loss of my data do to power outage or spikes is next to impossible, at least
improbable for I have an APC RS-1500 UPS.


Again, very good and glad to hear it. I recommend that everyone do
that sort of thing. But note that although that will protect you
against most normal power spikes, it won't protect you against the
enormous spike that a nearby lightning strike can cause.

And again, I didn't mean to make my point only to you, but to everyone
reading the thread; not everyone will have a UPS.


It also provides me with a 30
minute working window if the AC is lost.

And yes, my files warrant extreme safeguard measures.

I do fail in my protection plan if subjected to nuclear attack. If that
happens, I guess I'll have to start over from scratch. Damn, that's going
to be tough.

Take care,



Did you read the article at the link I posted (down below)? I think
it's very interesting.


"Ken Blake, MVP" <kblake@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:amuoi4tfptnhh7dmjv1ilvtp2p6ingkn6n@xxxxxxxxxx
On Tue, 25 Nov 2008 07:20:07 -0800, "Don Schmidt" <Don
Engineer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

You need to know some things about the hardware in your computer:
Do you know if the computer was configured with RAID ARRAY? Two duplicate
hard drives with drive/s C (and D etc) on both drives.


There are several different types of RAID. What you describe is not
RAID in general, but simply one of those several different types. It's
RAID 1, also called mirroring.


RAID Array is the way my ASUS motherboard is setup, two hard drives with
C &
D on both. What happens on one drive happens on the second drive. It is
a
guarantee to prevent loss of data.


It is no such guarantee at all. The purpose of RAID1 is redundancy.
It's used in situations where it's critical that the system stay up,
and any down time costs them a lot of money. So RAID1 achieves that by
keeping the system running if a drive fails without having any down
time.

Since home users hardly ever need that kind of redundancy, RAID1 is
almost always wrong for them. The reason that RAID1 should not be
considered a backup technique to protect your data is that it leaves
you vulnerable to all kinds of potential losses of your data: for
example, severe power problems, electrical storms, virus attacks, even
theft of the computer. Companies that use RAID1 almost invariably
*also* have a backup procedure in place. Almost all home users don't
need both and should have backup in place, not RAID1. And the backup
should be stored on *external* media, kept separate from the computer.
You can read more about why any version of RAID is inappropriate for
most home users at this web site:
http://www.pugetsystems.com/articles?&id=29


--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup


--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Western Digital "MyBook" as RAID?
    ... Now the docs say you can configure even this 1 HD version for RAID although that only creates two mirrors on the same disk. ... If you just like the idea of duplicate files why not get two Network attached HD and schedule a script to copy files from the "working" drive to the backup drive on a nightly/weekly basis? ... The nice thing about this WD LAN drive is that it allows a connection of one USB drives. ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: SBS 2003 Mirror OS Drive Question
    ... It'll even give you time to research inexpensive RAID cards and get them into a better solution. ... As far as having a backup goes, ... Again, basic Exchange knowledge there, and again not SBS specific. ... >>>> Shutdown and put one of your new drives in, ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: Is RAID worth it?
    ... as RAID0 (there are also two other HDD's for data/storage set as RAID1), then I read a thread from within this newsgroup in which Carey Frisch directed someone to read - Why RAID is a Terrible Idea http://www.pugetsystems.com/articles?&id=29 and that has made me re-think my plans. ... Is RAID really worth? ... Indeed my own experience of a previous PC with RAID1 showed that it was by no means an easy task to restore everything when one HDD did fail after just 4 months. ... The one think that RAID1 'was' in my mind always useful for was data protection so I'm thinking there must be a way whereby I can install all four drives so that only two are visible and the other two are a mirror image set so that at the end of the day, or maybe twice a day, some software would back up the main visible drives to the 'invisible' back-up drives. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.vista.installation_setup)
  • Re: What logs etc do I need to checkfrequently?
    ... not configuring RAID. ... or disk vs tape backups. ... than full backup or data was corrupted on the tape. ... drives, or to an alternate drive, as well. ...
    (freebsd-questions)
  • Re: questions on partitions for exchange
    ... If your backup is using the exchange backup API, ... build process that starts with a FAT partition and then converts it to NTFS. ... The second local RAID 1 with the SMTP is fine if this is not a cluster. ... Because of the limitation on the number of physical drives, ...
    (microsoft.public.exchange.setup)
Loading