RAID 10 Question - Is it worth it?

[Moltke]

All -

Background - I had a catastrophic loss of data once and it sucked. I began using Carbonite to backup my system, but it runs very slow when updating. Considering I have about 1.5 TB of critical data, I am getting impatient.

I am currently thinking of a new build that will include a RAID 10 setup but have some questions.

1. I was told having a RAID 10 configured through a motherboard does NOTHING to protect your data if the motherboard fails or if you upgrade later to another motherboard since the RAID configuration data is tied to the specific motherboard. I was told I would be better off buying a true hardware RAID controller card opposed to using the motherboard as this would allow me to move the configuration should I ever upgrade. Thoughts on this?

2. I was also told that setting up a 4x disk RAID 10 would eventually fail since all the drives would be the same age, running the same amount of time (24/7), and likely begin to fail at the same time? Any mathmeticians have statistical odds on this?? Joking on that last part.

3. Is there another viable backup option other than the obvious buy external hard drives? I understand that option, but what software is out there that can run in the background and write/update the external drives as my main system is updated with data?

4. Any other ideas???

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[hmmblah]

Would this be your only storage location? If so, raid at any level is not a backup. It is for boosting performance and protecting from hard drive failure. You would still want a backup solution. Also, with raid 10 you lose the capacity of half your drives. In a 4 drive array of 4 1TB drives, you would only have a capacity of 2 TB. In a home setup you'd want to go Raid 5. That will protect against 1 hard drive failure and give you 3TB of usable space in the example above. Again, you still need to back this up. I use an external eSata drive. Cheap and fast.

 

[andrewmchugh]

Im guess that you're in windows looking at nested raid 1+0.

1. Yes you are correct. As long as you use the same controller then the array would be readable on another system. I would grab a raid card for that set-up.

2. If you lose the wrong 2 drives you're screwed.

3. There will be but I don't use windows for stuff like that. I'm guessing that you are?

Do you need to access the data faster?

 

[hmmblah]

As to your number 3, you don't want that. When a backup is completed you disconnect the backup drive and shut it off. What were to happen if you got a virus that deleted everything or a script that did the same? It would erase your backup drive as well.

 

[Goldskis45]

I would recommend the raid 5 if you really think you need it... But just having a complete backup is the best way to go...