My storage setup, does it make sense?

[Beace]

Current setup:

1x SSD 120GB (boot drive, and some other misc stuff)
1x Caviar Green 2TB (newly bought)
2x 500GB

During the last weeks I've tested the 2TB drive by doing full format, and copying a ton of data to it. I'm starting to somewhat trust it. The 2 smaller drives though. They are old, slow, and occasionally make sounds I don't like very much. So I'm thinking it might be time to completely replace them.

My current thought is to get a second Caviar Green 2TB and set it in a RAID1 with the first one. This RAID would be used as combined storage/backup. Then I get a new Caviar Black 1TB, which would replace the 2x 500GB ones, and serve as main drive for downloads, game installs, etc. So that'd leave me with:

1x SSD 120GB (boot drive, and some other misc stuff)
2x Caviar Green 2TB, in RAID1
1x Caviar Black 1TB


1) Does this make sense? Should I consider something else instead?

2) How safe will I be with the RAID1? Other than the computer physically burning up or exploding, is there anything that could cause me to lose data? (other than the 2 drives separately deciding to die on the same day)

3) Performance wise, it's my understanding I might see slightly increased reading speeds, while writing speed should stay the same. Is that correct? I'll be using the built-in RAID option on my motherboard (Asus P8P67 Pro).

Ultimately I don't actually gain any storage. What I do gain (I think) is a lot higher data security and piece of mind, for some 180€.

 

[yacoub]

I just picked up a 120GB SSD and a 2TB Green. I currently have a 40GB SSD and a 1TB Green.

Planning to make the 120GB SSD my boot drive, 2TB main data drive, and the 1TB will become a backup of the important stuff on the 2TB drive. the 40GB SSD will probably go to a laptop or something.

 

[Emulex]

yah don't use raid-1. that should increase your reliability.

 

[Beace]

yah don't use raid-1. that should increase your reliability.

Hmm? Could you explain that?

 

[Jovec]

Keep in mind that RAID 1 is not a true backup solution. If you need uptime, then RAID 1 is good. If you need backup, then use one 2TB drive for your storage and use the second 2TB drive as a proper backup drive with backup software. RAID 1 provides defense against mechanical failure, but not from human error.

Consider this. If you accidentally delete your only copy of some important picture or document, with RAID 1, it will immediately be deleted off of both drives. With a true backup drive, you can always extract a replacement copy.

Ideally you would have off-site backups too. You could also put that second 2TB in an external enclosure and store it off-site, though often it can be a pain to do this routinely. There are also online backup options too.

 

[Beace]

Thanks for your input, definitely gives me some things to think about.

I would like to note that when it comes to personal documents and similar that could never be replaced, I do have several different backup solutions. I also don't have anything so vital that I would consider storing it off-site. It's more in the lines of 800+ GB video archive that would be very painful to lose, but not impossible to rebuild with a fair amount of work.

 

[WildW]

If you go with a 2nd 2TB drive as a backup (rather than using RAID 1), you can easily set up a backup using a free tool like Microsoft Synctoy (that's the one I've used, there may be others but that does all I need). It will run a scan on a drive for new files and just copy/update new and changed files to the second drive, so it's quick and doesn't require any real thought.

 

[yottabit]

I was in a similiar situation to you but with 2x 1 TB drives. I decided to just use one drive as OS one drive for my video editing scratch, and then I store copies of my important files on both of them

 

[perdomot]

I prefer to use a 2TB hdd on a usb 3.0 dock. The reason for this is that by only turning on the drive when I need to back up, it saves wear on the drive and the usb 3.0 is fast enough for transfers.