RAID 1 or a Separtate HDD for backup?

[Geegle]

Hi,

My mainboard is Asus P8P67 Pro and I am using one Intel SSD for Windows 7 booting and one Seagate 750GB HDD for data storage. As the Seagate is getting older and its capacity is getting closer to full, I want to replace it with something bigger.

In addition to replacing the HDD, I want some backup plan for my data storage. As far as I know, RAID 1 array records exactly same data on two drives and provides some safty, but is it better than a backup on a separate HDD?

I am in between two options; making RAID 1 by buying two 2GB or buying one 2GB and leave the 750GB in my computer as a backup HDD and backup periodically using Acronis True Image or something like that? Which one's better option in terms of safety and to prevent from accidental data loss?

I could also buy an external HDD, but I don't like it as it's slow in speed.

Thanks for your input in advance.

 

[mv2devnull]

RAID is not backup.

Yes, every write on RAID-1 should go to two physical disks. Every write includes unintentional delete operations and viral infections. The forte of RAID-1 is the ability to replace a broken drive without having to restore everything from backups/install media. RAID-1 is nice.

Separate backup is important. It does retain one or more snapshots about how your files were at some point in time.

P8P67 Pro does have eSATA ports. There are eSATA external HDD. Just as fast as internal HDD.

 

[Geegle]

Thanks, mv2devbull.

If an HDD in RAID-1 array fails, can I just replace the broken drive with a new one? Does the new one have to be same manufacturer/same capacity/same buffer memory size or a is same size HDD from any manufacturer good enough? If the former is the case, what if I cannot get any of those in the future?

By the way, if an HDD in RAID-1 array fails, can I use the non-broken one as a stand-alone HDD right away or does it have to be still set up as RAID-1 with replacement drive?

Thanks.

 

[dac7nco]

Hi, Geegle, welcome to the forums.

SSD boot drive - perfect. Use the 750GB as your active "working" data drive (your user files, torrents, steam folder...). Get BOTH 2TB drives, both internal. External drives tend to be less reliable than the internals, and some of the externals come with "odd" internal specs. Use the first 2TB drive as something like "F: Media-Active", and use "G: Media-Backup" as a clone of F:. The Backup 2TB should only spin-up when you're actually backing-up the data on "F:"; 5400 RPM drives make great "Just-In-Case" drives, as their aerial density makes them quite fast transferring GBs of MKVs once-per week/month. I use "Karen's Replicator".

Keep in mind that RAID-1 spins both 2TB drives simultaneously... for you this is a definite no.

Daimon

Edit: No, you can use a broken RAID-1 array... you should always used discs of the same type in an array, if possible. This is another reason for you not to use any form of RAID. This isn't a knock against your possible learning abilities, but if you have to ask...(Insert curse word).

 

[Harvey]

At least once a week and before I install any new program, I do a full sweep for viruses, spyware, etc. and clone my main drive to another hard drive. In case you don't know what "cloning" a drive is, it not only copies all of your data, it creates a fully running copy (clone) of your drive. If your main drive fails, the clone drive runs without any further installation. If your drive is still functional but becomes irreparably infected or corrupted, you can try to rescue any recent files to a flash drive or other external storage and clone back from your backup drive to your main drive. Under worst case destruction, if you have to replace your motherboard with a different model, you will have to re-install Windows, but you'll still have all of your data on your backup drive.

For desktops, I use and recommend a separate hard drive mounted in a mobile rack mounted in the case like this one that allows you to unplug the drive from the system:

I power down, plug in the backup drive and clone the main drive. Then, I power down and unplug the backup drive. The whole process takes 20 - 40 minutes, depending on how much data you have, and you can be secure knowing that no virus, spyware or other malicious software can jump the air gap to an unplugged drive.

I advise my business clients that, if your hard drive dies in the middle of your business day, and you have clients standing around with money in hand, waiting to pay you for your good work, you never want to be more than 15 minutes and four phillips screws away from being back online.

You can also clone to an external USB drive, which may be necessary to back up a laptop, but it's much slower than using a moble rack connected directly to your SATA/PATA bus. An external firewire or e-SATA drive would be faster.

Web based solutions like Carbonite, etc. are useful, but if your drive gets wiped, you can't retrieve anything until you re-install at least the OS and the online backup software.

Acronis True Image will clone Windows 7 and XP. They usually sell it for $50. Right now, it's on sale for $30.

Seagate and Western Digital allow their users to download a free version of True Image in their disk tools. The only restriction on these versions is that at least one of the drives in the chain (source or target) must be from the manufacturer providing the software.

Seagate DiscWizard

Acronis True Image WD Edition

I have successfully cloned between drives mismatched for model and size, but some have reported occasional problems. You can avoid those problems by using matched drives.

 

[Geegle]

Hi, dac7nco.

Thanks for your input. Should I buy 5,400 RPM drive for a backup? Here where I live, currently Hitach 7K3000 2TB 7200 RPM drives w/ 5-year warranty are on sale for $90 each, and at that price there's no need to buy 5,400 RPM drives? Is there any reason for you to recommend 5,400 RPM drives?

Regarding the Karen's replicator, is it better than True Image or something like that? With True Image, 750 GB drive I have will do the back up job as it compresses data. Is the compress feature the one you don't like?

And, does Karen's replicator require same size drive to replicate? If not, I could just use the 750GB drive I have for backup with Karen's replicator as I won't have 2TB of valuable data in the HDD. Total size of those important files should not exceed few hundred GBs. Video/Movie files are not that important.

Thanks.

 

[dac7nco]

Hi, dac7nco.

Thanks for your input. Should I buy 5,400 RPM drive for a backup? Here where I live, currently Hitach 7K3000 2TB 7200 RPM drives w/ 5-year warranty are on sale for $90 each, and at that price there's no need to buy 5,400 RPM drives? Is there any reason for you to recommend 5,400 RPM drives?

Regarding the Karen's replicator, is it better than True Image or something like that? With True Image, 750 GB drive I have will do the back up job as it compresses data. Is the compress feature the one you don't like?

And, does Karen's replicator require same size drive to replicate? If not, I could just use the 750GB drive I have for backup with Karen's replicator as I won't have 2TB of valuable data in the HDD. Total size of those important files should not exceed few hundred GBs. Video/Movie files are not that important.

Thanks.

Geegle, the only reason I'd recommend 5400RPM drives is that they tend to power-down faster... two of those 7200RPM Hitachi drives would do perfectly. Karen's Replicator is free, takes-up virtually zero memory, and is customizable on when, where, and how you want folders duplicated. You can set it up like this: Move (750GB drive):Torrents *.MKV/MP3 to (2TB):Active/Whatever copy (Active) to (Backup) Monthly; Keep Dir Structure.

The Backup drive will only spin whenever it's neccessary, the Active drive will spin when you tell it to, and the 750GB drive will always be spinning.

Daimon

Edit: No, if you have TrueImage, the compress feature is fine... I live (literally) by Acronis products.

 

[Geegle]

Geegle, the only reason I'd recommend 5400RPM drives is that they tend to power-down faster... two of those 7200RPM Hitachi drives would do perfectly. Karen's Replicator is free, takes-up virtually zero memory, and is customizable on when, where, and how you want folders duplicated. You can set it up like this: Move (750GB drive):Torrents *.MKV/MP3 to (2TB):Active/Whatever copy (Active) to (Backup) Monthly; Keep Dir Structure.

The Backup drive will only spin whenever it's neccessary, the Active drive will spin when you tell it to, and the 750GB drive will always be spinning.

Daimon

Edit: No, if you have TrueImage, the compress feature is fine... I live (literally) by Acronis products.

dac7nco,

If True Image is just fine, why don't I just buy one 2TB and back up to 750GB HDD? I guess it's the best option for me for now. As I have True Image, $90 is all I need to spend. Isn't it?

Geegle

 

[Emulex]

intel matrix has a psuedo raid-1 it essentially is raid-1 but you add the second drive and sync it now and then. it's just a clone function . check it out. works great for laptops