backing of raid stripping

[Paintedeyes]

So a few months ago i made a computer with 2x 150 gig raptors. they're raided with stripping and i just realized how thats not safe, my fault on that. Is there a way i can make it safe, like adding a 3rd hard drive and mirror the raid stripping if thats possible? or should i just get a 3rd hard drive and just do back ups on it.

 

[John]

Originally posted by: Paintedeyes
get a 3rd hard drive and just do back ups on it.

 

[Paintedeyes]

so does that mean it's not possible to mirror the current raid i have?

 

[corkyg]

If you could do that, you could run the larger disk and forget the RAID. RAID 0 incurs a risk.

RAID 1 provides redundancy, but even thast needs a backup for real assurance.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Paintedeyes
so does that mean it's not possible to mirror the current raid i have?

It's generally not possible to do in-place conversion of a RAID0 array to another level of RAID, especially on cheap onboard RAID controllers.

You could back up all the data from the array somewhere (either to other internal or external hard drives, or to DVD/tape), delete and rebuild the array as something else, and then restore your earlier backup. If you switched to RAID1, though, you'd lose half your space (so if you have >150GB on the array now, you won't be able to fit everything.)

Frankly I think you're just better off doing backups instead of using RAID1, as it protects you from more things. If you have <150GB of data, you could just run the Raptors independently and use one to store backups. Or pick up a 300GB drive and use it externally to make backups of your current RAID0 array.

 

[V00D00]

i have a raid 5 with 4 300gb drives, and today one of them freaked out for a second because of some kind of power issue. the drive said it's damaged, and my raid status was "dead", not "degraded", as it normally does when one drive fails and you should replace it. I was frightened. The moral of the story here is that YOU SHOULD ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR DATA NO MATTER WHAT.

So if you actually notice a good performance increase, like if you play a lot of HD intensive games or do a lot of compiling stick with your RAID 0, just be sure to backup your data and you have nothing to worry about. You can make a RAID 5 if you have 3 drives, but that has SIGNIFICANTLY lower performance than a single drive, let alone your super fast RAID 0.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: V00D00
i have a raid 5 with 4 300gb drives, and today one of them freaked out for a second because of some kind of power issue. the drive said it's damaged, and my raid status was "dead", not "degraded", as it normally does when one drive fails and you should replace it. I was frightened. The moral of the story here is that YOU SHOULD ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR DATA NO MATTER WHAT.

So if you actually notice a good performance increase, like if you play a lot of HD intensive games or do a lot of compiling stick with your RAID 0, just be sure to backup your data and you have nothing to worry about. You can make a RAID 5 if you have 3 drives, but that has SIGNIFICANTLY lower performance than a single drive, let alone your super fast RAID 0.

That sucks. I had a RAID 5 array die on me (PSU issues), and the worst thing about it is that I lost tons of pictures. That is why my builds from that point on have good power supplies with extra power--never just the requirement. Also, backups are important. Also, I did have optical backups (DVD), and most of them were bad. :| So I will never use any optical media as my primary backup. I stick with hard drives now.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo So I will never use any optical media as my primary backup. I stick with hard drives now.

Agree fully - reserve or backup HDDs are faster and cheaper when you factor in the need to restore opticals and the personal time involved.

 

[Paintedeyes]

ok well there it is. i will get a 3rd hard drive and do back ups on it. thanks guys