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RAID 1 or Ghost and image from time to time?

MichaelD

MichaelD

Lifer
I'm building a server/FTP box for use in my home. Will also be used as a dedicated server for small LAN games of UT/Q3A, but mostly a file server 90% of the time.

The mobo (Abit KT7R) can do RAID 1.

I have two 7200 RPM HDs' a 40 and a 45-gigger. I was thinking about setting them up in RAID 1 and never having to worry about backing anything up again.

But then I'm thinking "kind of a waste of a HD...I could just partition one HD, and Ghost a backup image to it from time to time."

What're the pros & cons here? What would you do? Thanks. 🙂
 
Depends how critical the data is. I would only do Raid 1 (effectively losing 45gigs of space) if everything on the drive was crucial and was updated fairly frequently, which is unlikely. I would either partition or set aside a set amount of space on both drives for critical data and keep a copy on both drives in combination with occasional ghosting.
 
Originally posted by: ghetto buck
Depends how critical the data is. I would only do Raid 1 (effectively losing 45gigs of space) if everything on the drive was crucial and was updated fairly frequently, which is unlikely. I would either partition or set aside a set amount of space on both drives for critical data and keep a copy on both drives in combination with occasional ghosting.
Click to expand...


Good suggestion, Ghetto Buck. I will prolly partition the larger drive. 🙂 Thanks.
 
None of the above 😉

A mirror helps against a failing drive, but doesn't protect against virusses, user error, malicious software, hackers ect.

A ghost is better, but i prefer a backup method where the backups can be stored outside the computer, or even better, offsite. And having more than one generation of a backup can be very handy.

A tapedrive looks expensive, but look at your data, and calculate what it would cost to recreate (if it's possible) or collect it again.
 
ya, mirroring isn't good for backup. it's only good when uptime is critical. it is obviously very quick to get back up to speed. but it isn't good backup policy.
 
Your biggest enemy for data loss isn't hardware failure, it's user error. RAID 1 isn't going to stop user error. On my server, I use RAID 1 + a weekly backup to offsite storage.
 
The other issue with RAID 1 is installing software that screws things up, since both drives will be screwed up. Creating an image on a second drive before installing software has saved me a lot of work several times.
 
take a risk ... use Raid0 and a pair of 75GXPs ... i do 🙂

Raid1 is good if you are carefull to keep out virii and such. As long as nobody else is allowed to touch the PC and it is secure, raid1 is fine.

If other people will have write access to the pc, than the mirroring idea would be the best. you way want to do a weekly or biweekly mirror, and then shutdown and unplug the backup drive. This will prevent any malicious software (as well as a drive failure) from becomming a big problem.

Another thing to consider, when a hard drive starts dying, usually event logs alert you as to the bad sectors, and in many cases, yau can recover all data and then rma the drive.
 
Thanks, BurnItDwn. Good suggestion about unplugging the drive. I was supposed to start building this server last night, but I messed with NortonSystem Works and screwed up my main box. See the thread here.

Apparently, I deleted one .dll too many, now my gaming is screwed up. So, I won't be building the new box until my main rig is 100% perfect again. 🙁
 
Both! 🙂

Actually I considered doing a RAID 1 when I setup my system last, but alas it simply cost too much, especially because I'd want another backup anyway. It made more sense to get a second hard drive (external Firewire) to back up my critical data, which in my case included 30 GB of MP3s which weren't on the primary boot drive. Plus ghosting for me isn't a problem since my entire boot drive has less than < 2 GB files on it after compression (< 4 GB before compression). That's 3 CD-Rs or half a DVD-R (which can then be sequentially burned with two different ghost files on the same disc). (I'd use DVD-RAM, but I don't think DOS can see DVD-RAM.)

By the way, besides the ghost, I have two main backups now.

1) My external 60 GB hard drive, as mentioned above.
2) My DVD-RAM drive.

I backup my critical files to both.
 
A ghost is better, but i prefer a backup method where the backups can be stored outside the computer, or even better, offsite.
Click to expand...
You can Ghost to removable (rack mount) hard drives. It's fast, cheap and convenient.

Welcome to AT, btw. 🙂
 
Hmm. Lots of great suggestions here. I will prolly go w/a mixture of CDRs and a physically separate drive. Thanks much. 🙂
 
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