Re: RAIDING different size drives

Rod Speed wrote:
David Brown wrote


I'm snipping this down to a couple of points (especially since you've labelled many comments "irrelevant") :

Of course, the idea of software RAID on windows to improve
reliability is an oxymoron.
Wrong.
And it isnt even an oxymoron either.

I surrender on this one - I exaggerated (knowingly). I should have added a smiley, or at least come clean on my last reply - it would have helped keep the thread informative rather than argumentative.

Any sort of RAID > RAID0, Windows software RAID included, is going to give /some/ protection against hardware failures. The extent to which your RAID offers protection depends on your failure recovery strategy. If the setup is a hardware RAID of the two drives, it's easy. But if the setup is based on Windows software RAID, then I don't know about recovery (having never used this setup), and it may be difficult if the OS disk is trashed.

As a minor point, if the machine in question is physically small then adding a second disk can raise the temperature of the other disk by blocking airflow (I've seen that in a tiny server). If you don't account for this such as by adding extra fans, the higher temperature will decrease the lifespan of the first disk.

I stand by my claim that adding a second drive to a windows machine and configuring it as RAID is not the best use of money when your aim is to protect your data files.

Of course, it's difficult to be accurate and specific without more details from the OP.


In short, RAID can improve speed and/or uptime, but it does not
noticeably improve data security,
Wrong.

Raid is for uptime, not for backup. To keep your data safe, you need a good backup solution - uptime is irrelevant. (Maybe the OP wants to improve his uptime too, but that's not what he asked.)


If you have two hard disks in a desktop machine and you want to
improve reliability for your data files, you format the second disk
as a separate partition labelled "backups". You take regular
copies of your data files from your working disks into separate
directories on the backup disk

There are much better ways to do backup than that.


I know - I was just trying to give a quick and easy-to-understand example.

(there are many ways to organise this, but that's a topic for
another thread).

Nope.


If the OP wants to know more about backups, let him ask. A thread discussing backup strategies could easily get very large and popular.


<reams of you trying to teach your granny to suck eggs flushed where
it belongs>


Without knowing any of the details, I'm guessing that you've got a lot more experience in this area than I do (IT administration is only a small part of my job). That means I'll listen with interest to your advice and suggestions, and try to learn from them, though I may not agree with everything you say.


.

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