To raid or not to raid

[nothappy]

I got m self a hard choice and I hope I don't bore any of you.

I have the opportunity to get either :
- two 1TB seagates second handed (a year old veteran and a 6 month old youngster)
- one 2TB Seagate brand spanking new.

The price is the same, difference is the raid 1 I will make (I'm going to use my Z77 extreme 6 by asrock). The second hand items passed HD tune and other tests, to ease me by zilch. What do you guys think? To RAID or not to RAID?

 

[Xenturion]

Well, how badly do you need redundancy? RAID 1 is great if you're worried about downtime. If one drive dies, you simply replace the drive and rebuild the array or disable the array and keep going on the remaining drive. RAID 1 doesn't really provide any protection against viruses or software related mistakes. Anything that happens on one drive is replicated on the other, assuming all is working as intended. There will always be a case for making backups to provide a safeguard should you get a little over-zealous on a 'private browsing' session and wind up with some scareware.

Personally, I'd get the 2TB. Actually, I'd probably get the 2 1TB's and go RAID 0, but that's just because I haven't been burnt by it yet. Think of the sequential reads.....

 

[drdeathx]

If you need back up yes

 

[nothappy]

The only scare I get is usually on my torrents due to some games I download. And I do it on my offices internet using my laptop using trend micro officescan to protect me.

I am also leaning on the 2 TB buy for warranty cause lets face it, no device is guaranteed to work flawless (shit might happen). I havent thought of sequential read performance till you brought it up, most likely due to my main priority is reliability.

I thank god that I have not been burnt bad due to bad sectors or others. But since my line of work (net engineer) I've been working with HP Switches (tough sons of b**ches) and a gateway device called Inngate (frail, personal oppinion).

I got more than enough RAM to use the slow WDC Green (5K something RPM) and I do need lots of space.

Just want a reliable rig, that gives me a warning before something bad came up, what do you think?

 

[Xenturion]

The sequential read comment was more of a joke. It's pretty much all that RAID0 HDDs are good for. Any random reads or writes tend to get dished out at single HDD speed. RAID0 Solid State Drives are another story, though.

I think you're better off with the larger drive now that you've explained your usage a little more. I always recommend people install the Intel Rapid Storage Technology software for their motherboard. (Available at ASRock's site I'm sure) It gives you an icon in the notification tray, and while it's far from completely accurate, it can alert you if it detects a problem or imminent failure of the drive.

 

[trickson]

I would not raid complete waste of time.
You are better of using as many HDD's as you can it is far better and more secure IMHO. I am done with raid completely.

 

[Aquinus]

I would not raid complete waste of time.
You are better of using as many HDD's as you can it is far better and more secure IMHO. I am done with raid completely.

Just because you had a bad experience with it, doesn't mean that it is a bad technology. RAID-5 has worked for me plenty fine and I'm about to replace a failing drive an add another.

 

[trickson]

Just because you had a bad experience with it, doesn't mean that it is a bad technology. RAID-5 has worked for me plenty fine and I'm about to replace a failing drive an add another.

Dude I have BEEN using RAID for years never seen one single thing better than the way I have it now. I am glad you like it and that it "works plenty fine" Really RAID 5 is the WORST! OMG talk about a complete WASTE of time and space! My GOD all it did is make things even more complicated and even MORE space was taken and LOST. Thing is find what works for you. I have. Now just because I have had nothing but trouble with raid for 5 years some how you think I have NO right to speak my mind about it? Blow me! Never come on and say this to any one, "Just because you had a bad experience with it, doesn't mean that it is a bad technology." Because that statement is just so full of crap I can't even begin to tell you how bad it stinks! No Because I have had trouble for over 5 years with RAID gives ME even MORE credibility to my statement as the OP wants to KNOW the GOOD and the BAD! From experienced people I am one of them! If you want MY opinion? Then I say just don't do it. How many RAID setups you find popping out of Costco or Best Buy? Yeah NONE! Now here is the COOL part, Since I have stopped using RAID I have had much more flexibility and my system is just as fast and I have ALL my HDD's Full capacity's as they all very And since RAID HATES any deviation in sizes and always USES the ONE with the LESS space and KILLS all the space of the other HDD's if they are bigger than the other smaller drive? oh hell yeah RAID is fing great!

 

[nothappy]

As I said above nothing is guaranteed to work flawless. And I dont know much about CostCo but I am sure all system builders worth their salt will buy a SERVER with at least 3 drives going RAID 5.

I am not trying to start a flame under anybodies a*s, I started this thread to make a decision and all of your 2cents are giving me a morale boost. So a big round of applause and a thank you note for everyone who participate.

As for now I know for sure to take the large 2TB for my rig, and to sell my aging 500GB. But as we are in a global financial turmoil I need to double check on my spending. I guess having an airsoft 1911 blowback handgun for my birth day will be enough for now, the new drive will be for next month.

I gotta save to buy an apartment, my aunt is going crazy setting me up with her relatives and I do plan to get married within 3 years. Make your peace and if any one care to share their RAID experience, drop your posts here, it serves as learning tool for the next generation of Noobs.

 

[Aquinus]

Dude I have BEEN using RAID for years never seen one single thing better than the way I have it now. I am glad you like it and that it "works plenty fine" Really RAID 5 is the WORST! OMG talk about a complete WASTE of time and space! My GOD all it did is make things even more complicated and even MORE space was taken and LOST. Thing is find what works for you. I have. Now just because I have had nothing but trouble with raid for 5 years some how you think I have NO right to speak my mind about it? Blow me! Never come on and say this to any one, "Just because you had a bad experience with it, doesn't mean that it is a bad technology." Because that statement is just so full of crap I can't even begin to tell you how bad it stinks! No Because I have had trouble for over 5 years with RAID gives ME even MORE credibility to my statement as the OP wants to KNOW the GOOD and the BAD! From experienced people I am one of them! If you want MY opinion? Then I say just don't do it. How many RAID setups you find popping out of Costco or Best Buy? Yeah NONE! Now here is the COOL part, Since I have stopped using RAID I have had much more flexibility and my system is just as fast and I have ALL my HDD's Full capacity's as they all very And since RAID HATES any deviation in sizes and always USES the ONE with the LESS space and KILLS all the space of the other HDD's if they are bigger than the other smaller drive? oh hell yeah RAID is fing great!

I've been running RAID-5 for 5 years and it has worked admirably ever since I started using it. So I'm sorry to get your panties in a bunch, but the simple fact is that your own ignorance is the reason why RAID sucks because you don't know what you're doing. I've already read your thread about your experience with RAID and I started laughing the moment I saw that you where using different sized drives together.

Hate to say it trickson, but your credibility is pretty bad. RAID works perfectly well for someone who does it right from the beginning and figures out the right way to do it from the get go. Throwing some drives together to "do RAID" isn't the right way to do it. Your problems are with the way you implemented it, not with RAID in general.

 

[Fizban]

How many RAID setups you find popping out of Costco or Best Buy? Yeah NONE!!

Lol.

The PCs they sell rarely have SSDs, or discrete video cards either. Please don't use budget stores that sell pcs to people that know dick about computers as examples of how to properly build a pc.

Might as well have stated that if Walmart doesn't sell PC's with something you shouldn't want it in your PC either.

You seem to have rather deep-rooted anger issues appearing in your response. There's no need for caps to try and make your points more important, we're all capable of reading just fine.

Aquinus was right, you having negative experiences with RAID doesn't make RAID useless.

The following is also not rude or "full of crap".

"Just because you had a bad experience with it, doesn't mean that it is a bad technology."

He also didn't tell you that you had no right to speak, you actually seem to be the one portraying that message because you blew up on him for having an opinion contrary to your own.

Though, for the record, you don't have the "right" to speak your mind. It's a privilege. It'd only be a right if you hosted and owned techpowerup.

 

[NdMk2o1o]

Bestbuy and costco huh? yea ok

RAID HATES any deviation in sizes and always USES the ONE with the LESS space and KILLS all the space of the other HDD's if they are bigger than the other smaller drive?

So you are better off using the same size and model drives for RAID?

 

[newtekie1]

To RAID or not to RAID?

I'd go with the new 2TB drive and not bother with RAID. The redundancy of RAID-1 is nice, but you loose half your space, and the speed of RAID-0 is nice but the risk of data loss isn't worth it IMO.

Dude I have BEEN using RAID for years never seen one single thing better than the way I have it now. I am glad you like it and that it "works plenty fine" Really RAID 5 is the WORST! OMG talk about a complete WASTE of time and space! My GOD all it did is make things even more complicated and even MORE space was taken and LOST. Thing is find what works for you. I have. Now just because I have had nothing but trouble with raid for 5 years some how you think I have NO right to speak my mind about it? Blow me! Never come on and say this to any one, "Just because you had a bad experience with it, doesn't mean that it is a bad technology." Because that statement is just so full of crap I can't even begin to tell you how bad it stinks! No Because I have had trouble for over 5 years with RAID gives ME even MORE credibility to my statement as the OP wants to KNOW the GOOD and the BAD! From experienced people I am one of them! If you want MY opinion? Then I say just don't do it. How many RAID setups you find popping out of Costco or Best Buy? Yeah NONE! Now here is the COOL part, Since I have stopped using RAID I have had much more flexibility and my system is just as fast and I have ALL my HDD's Full capacity's as they all very And since RAID HATES any deviation in sizes and always USES the ONE with the LESS space and KILLS all the space of the other HDD's if they are bigger than the other smaller drive? oh hell yeah RAID is fing great!

You had problems with RAID because you had no idea how it worked or how to set it up properly. Traditional RAID setups are something you plan from the beginning, like the OP is doing, not something you just throw a bunch of mis-matched drives at and hope it works, like you tried to do.

And JBOD would allow you to use the full capacity of all your drives, by the way. So no, not all RAID trypes hate deviation, and not all RAID types will always use the one with the least space and kill all the extra space on the other HDDs. You just didn't bother to research and learn that.