Minimize RAID5 failure odds by buying from different stores?

[MasamuneXGP]

Greetings all. I've another question about the fileserver I'm building.

I'm going to be running this thing in RAID5. I've heard many people say that buying 4 drives at once can be dangerous, seeing as if one of the drives fails, the others may be right behind it since all 4 would be part of the same shipment. So I was wondering, would it be wise then to purchase my drives all from different stores to minimize this risk? Or is that being a bit too paranoid?

 

[imported_wired247]

It couldn't hurt...

I've heard the argument before.

Another option would be buying from different manufacturers and the same store.

See if your raid card supports capacity truncation, like if you have 2 HD's and one is 500GB and one is 497GB from different mfg's you could truncate both to 490GB exactly.

 

[Stan]

If your going RAID5 -- buy two drives from wherever, and a 3rd somewhere else -- if your going to be tinfoil hat about it.