Raid 6, "What If"

[Funny.Fuka]

ok folks im new to raid but considering the amount of data ive got on hard drives here i think i might build a storage server in the near future, i guess im like every1 else that doesnt know much about it, and afraid of all my data getting corrupted or losing all my data.id have about 8tbs worth of data and growing.my question is,if i use an adaptec 5805 raid card and some day the raid card happens to fail, will i lose my data.i know this question might sound dumb to you guys that know all about this.toms videos of haleys server is really helping me to understand abit about raid

 

[hmmblah]

RAID isn't a backup. If you only have your data on a RAID array, you are asking to lose your data. RAID is only there to protect you from hard drive failure. RAID does not protect your data from a software glitch or a virus either. An additional backup is essential. In the case of RAID 6, you can lose two drives without losing data. If your RAID card were to die, your data wouldn't be lost, but you would need another exactly the same RAID card. If you are planning a storage server, you should also be planning someway to reliably back it up. My server only has a TB of mirrored storage and I only use a fraction of it now. I have an external eSATA drive as backup.

 

[Funny.Fuka]

thanks for the great explanation m8, i was sort of thinking id need backup up of a raid 6 array, i was hoping it was kinda bomb proof, if i set up a raid 5 or 6 array and tranfer all my data to the raid array it will be backed up, the data will still be on the hard drives it came of.thanks again m8, all this helps me to understand it better.id just hate to lose a few years worth of data