question regarding BBUs for raid gurus

[stainremover]

im running my raid write caching enabled without a BBU right now. i have it on a UPS that can power my system for at least 20 minutes, plenty of time for me to shutdown safely. is it still a good idea to spend the extra $120 or so and get a battery?

also, if my computer locks and i have to hold down the power button to shut it off, is that bad for the raid without a BBU? or is that totally unrelated to batteries?

[houkouonchi]

For a home system I don't think it is super duper important you get it but it does help for things a UPS wont like if your system crashes. Most home systems are not constantly writing so I don't think its a big deal but its definitely important on a server regardless of how reliable the power its on is.

I decided it was worth the $100 and opted for the BBU on my system.

[Adakos]

I hear that certain Raid cards use a more aggressive writing and caching method if a BBU is connected, rather than a "my raid might crash at any minute, write a bit, hang on, have we crashed yet? nope.. okay, well let's write another bit..." when a BBU is not attached.

It's your data, though. Is it worth the extra bucks?

[serbiaNem]

It could be a potentially dangerous situation should your system hard lock and you push the reset switch. You don't want to risk losing that one important file you can't get back over 120 bucks.

[stainremover]

so hard resets ARE bad for the raid?

[arnemetis]

Well, yeah, though it's not like it means it will definetly destroy your array. If you're in the middle of moving a file, and the system hard locks or reboots, and the bbu wasn't there, that data would vanish. I decided if I can spend the money on an actual raid card, I can spend the money on the bbu. Just ask yourself this - is your data worth more than $120? It was a simple decision for me.