to RAID or not to RAID?

[Tarzanalog]

Greetings,
I've been running two 8MB cache 80GB Maxtors in RAID0 for about a year. Works great, fast, no probs... so far. I just bought 2 more identical drives to add to the array. But, as I accumulate more files that I "can't live without" I'm wondering... should I just configure all four as normal IDE drives or create the four drive array and let one drive take everything down should it go bad?

(And yes, I've thought of mirroring my existing two drives, but I bought the new drives because I really needed the space.)

I guess I'd like opinions as to whether the speed gained by the RAID array is worth the risk.

Thanks,
T

BTW - Using embedded Promise chip on Gigabyte 8IEXP board

 

[DaveSimmons]

The odds of losing all data (from any one drive failing) increase as you add more drives, say (to guess a number) there is a 5% chance of failure of one drive in the next year. With a 2-drive array your chance of not losing data is (0.95)(0.95) = 90.25% (9.75% chance of loss). With a 4-drive array the chance of survival = (0.95)^4 = 81.45% (18.55% chance of loss).

With 4 separate, non-RAID drives you have the same chance of one dying, but you'll only lose the data on that one drive not all 4.

If you can spend the extra for a RAID-5 controller and 1 extra hard drive your odds of keeping all data go way up since there is no data loss unless two drives fail.

It might be cheaper though to use 2 RAID-1 pairs (80 GB x2, 160 GB x2 = 240 GB space) than to buy 2 80's and the controller for a 4-drive RAID-5 array.

(edit) or skip RAID and just use Windows Explorer to backup files between drives, or buy a DVD burner (though DVD-Rs can go bad too).

 

[ThatDumbGuy]

What do you use the system for?

 

[Tarzanalog]

I use the system mostly for storing my digitized CD collection (which I could always rip again, although 10,000+ songs takes forever to do), DivX movies (temp. storage at best), porn (jk), audio for my DAW (which I already backup to CD-RW), and for gaming.

I just moved everything to a YY-0221 cube server case, installed a Waterchill H2O cooling system, and wanted to make a decision on the RAID issue as well.

T

P.S. Thanks for the quick replies, BTW.

 

[ThatDumbGuy]

Well, you could just keep the existing array, but have everything that absolutely CANNOT be replaced on the newer 2 drives which aren't in the array. I think its just a matter of personal preference, I'd hate to tell you to keep the RAID and have a drive go down in a few months. I really don't like maxtors, and have heard alot of bad things about them, personally, so were I you, I would probably break the array.

 

[Sheriff]

If you're just storing files then there's no need to RAID0 IMO, BTA if you want to encode and have need for speed then RAID0 them and get a 320Gig HD to Ghost/Copy the RAID set-up. With that much Data and value, my primary concern would be backingup/keeping what I have before I moved on to more space.

 

[Tarzanalog]

Good advice. I think I'll break the array and set up the two new drives in swap trays so I can move my home studio audio around. Thanks!

 

[billyjak]

My raid array just went south. I'm going to invest in a raid 5 setup down the road.
Too much work to load everything and lose some files. Although I backup frquently, I still lost a few of them.

 

[jose]

FYI , you can check out 3WARE's line of ide raid adapters, you could do raid 5.

Regards,
Jose