RAID5 vs Tape Backup

bluestrobe

Platinum Member
Aug 15, 2004
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A debate came up between a co-worker and me. I have a smaller network at home with 2 servers and about 1TB of data between both. My original intention in the future was to move all the data to one server running a SATA Raid5 array. The data is a mixed type in various sizes. My co-worker said I would be wasting my money and I should go with a tape backup system instead of RAID5. His logic is RAID5 is not guaranteed and a tape backup is cheaper in the long run and more versatile for future expansion.

I'm figuring tape hardware and software is a deal buster in itself (I'm not rich by any means). Plus tape technology is not as versatile as I think he does as it's a changing technology like all other hardware. Thoughts?
 

Rubycon

Madame President
Aug 10, 2005
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First, RAID is NOT backup and second tape is definitely NOT the way a home user should be backing up. Instead purchase an external HDD or two and use ntbackup if you're running Windows to back up your stuff. Switch the drives as often as you like and (preferably) take the dormant one to another physical location.

RAID is for availability ONLY in the event of a disk member malfunction. No matter what the level of RAID - an incident with malicious software, operator error (deleting files, etc.) WILL result in data loss and /or interruption of services.
 

bluestrobe

Platinum Member
Aug 15, 2004
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I left some stuff out that should have been added. My serious information is backed up to a separate drive already. I guess the OP is not for critical backup per say but more of a redundancy plan in case a drive goes out. The argument was presented in that manner to him and he still thought tape backups were the way to go.