Re: RAID array for home

Bitstring <1i57tte.1eghku3cxa0yeN%me@xxxxxxxxxxx>, from the wonderful person xmas <me@xxxxxxxxxxx> said
After a recent drive failure, I want to set up a RAID array at home both
for speed of data access and redundancy. Never set one up before, but
would like to do it in hardware rather than relying on Windows: any
recommendations?

'Don't' would probably be my first response.

Speed - you won't see much, if any, benefit unless you are routinely using huge files.

Redundancy - So you have the data replicated across 2 (or more) hard drives, but the whole thing still relies on one RAID controller, CPU, motherboard, PSU etc. In particular if the controller goes South you may be stuffed. If one disk fails (which is what you are guarding against) you MAY be able to rebuild the array (assuming you can source an identical disk), but several folks have discovered that isn't so easy either (you don't find out until it fails, of course).

If you really want speed, buy a Raptor (and ear plugs). If you really want redundancy, copy everything to a completely separate PC, or server, someplace else on the network (preferably in another building!).

Windows Home Server, or a NAS, look reasonable for backup, but I'd still keep everything on my own PC as well.

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