NEWB to RAID setup little help please

[scgt1]

So I've never setup a RAID before and have a second WD 8TB Easystore coming for my media server. How do I go about setting up Raid for it? Does it matter that the drive I currently have is populated with files? What are the differences in RAID choices IE: Raid0, Raid1, etc?

The main positive in a RAID is if one drive dies the data is still intact on the other correct? Does the setup just show as one drive on your system in file manager so if I copy a file from drive d: to e: it populates on both drives or would I have to manually duplicate said copy?

Anything else I should know? Remember total NEWB here.

 

[dvsman]

Start here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels

RAIDs are nice but not really a replacement for backups. If you have 2 drives (say 2x 8tb) then your only choice really is RAID 1. RAID 0 is for "performance" with no backup or redundancy whatsoever. RAID 1 puts one copy of a file on each drive, so if only one drive goes out, you still have the 2nd. If both go out (since they're right next to each other in the same box), say from electrical issues or fire or earthquake or other calamity, you're still SOL.

 

[scgt1]

Start here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels

RAIDs are nice but not really a replacement for backups. If you have 2 drives (say 2x 8tb) then your only choice really is RAID 1. RAID 0 is for "performance" with no backup or redundancy whatsoever. RAID 1 puts one copy of a file on each drive, so if only one drive goes out, you still have the 2nd. If both go out (since they're right next to each other in the same box), say from electrical issues or fire or earthquake or other calamity, you're still SOL.

So basically in my case Raid is just pretty useless and I should just use the drive in it's enclosure when it gets here. LOL. Once I copy a file over I should do the same to the external. In turn once something is watched if I don't want it anymore remove it from each. Oh well it is what it is I guess. LOL

 

[LazN]

I would recommend leaving it in it's external enclosure and scheduling a backup job to periodically (at your comfort level) backup the data to the drive. (that way it doesn't require you remembering to do it).

RAID is not backup, it is not for data retention (it sometimes accomplishes this as a side effect, but that is not it's primary purpose) RAID is for up time (so servers do not crash if a drive fails)

Backup is for data retention. If you are worried about keeping your data in the event of losing it from the primary source for any reason, Backup is what you want.

 

[scgt1]

I would recommend leaving it in it's external enclosure and scheduling a backup job to periodically (at your comfort level) backup the data to the drive. (that way it doesn't require you remembering to do it).

RAID is not backup, it is not for data retention (it sometimes accomplishes this as a side effect, but that is not it's primary purpose) RAID is for up time (so servers do not crash if a drive fails)

Backup is for data retention. If you are worried about keeping your data in the event of losing it from the primary source for any reason, Backup is what you want.

Gotcha.

Now with setting up a backup does it only add the extra files that are new to the external? Never ran a backup drive either. Fact is I've only lost one drive since I've had computers since early 90s. lol So I guess I'm pretty lucky in this respect but with now having 4K content and a movie and show collection I may never finish lol I would like to have it safe should I loose the storage drive to save me from trying to remember what all I had let alone getting all of it again.

 

[Meeho]

I would recommend leaving it in it's external enclosure and scheduling a backup job to periodically (at your comfort level) backup the data to the drive. (that way it doesn't require you remembering to do it).

RAID is not backup, it is not for data retention (it sometimes accomplishes this as a side effect, but that is not it's primary purpose) RAID is for up time (so servers do not crash if a drive fails)

Backup is for data retention. If you are worried about keeping your data in the event of losing it from the primary source for any reason, Backup is what you want.

This.

 

[LazN]

Gotcha.

Now with setting up a backup does it only add the extra files that are new to the external? Never ran a backup drive either. Fact is I've only lost one drive since I've had computers since early 90s. lol So I guess I'm pretty lucky in this respect but with now having 4K content and a movie and show collection I may never finish lol I would like to have it safe should I loose the storage drive to save me from trying to remember what all I had let alone getting all of it again.

Incremental backups only add what has changed since the last backup, full backups would be a full copy each time.

 

[scgt1]

Incremental backups only add what has changed since the last backup, full backups would be a full copy each time.

Now on the other side of that when it's time to run a backup will it remove things on the backup drive that are no longer on the drive it's backing up? IE I watch a couple shows then delete them off the main drive. When it runs a scheduled backup and adds the missing items that I've added to the external backup drive will it also remove the items that no longer exist on the main drive from the backup drive or will I manually have to remove the dup copies from the external myself when I remove them from the main drive that gets backup up?

 

[dvsman]

That would depend on the backup software you're using - whether it removes files no longer present. Also if may depend on how many copies of the backup set you have. Say you have were doing one set per month - from January, one from February, etc. it may not go back and change / remove files from your older backups but will do so moving forward July, August and so on. Why is this? If you accidentally delete a file, you can always go back one set / month and pull it out of an old backup. You don't want accidental (or malicious) deletes to be passed back into ALL of your backup sets.

 

[scgt1]

That would depend on the backup software you're using - whether it removes files no longer present. Also if may depend on how many copies of the backup set you have. Say you have were doing one set per month - from January, one from February, etc. it may not go back and change / remove files from your older backups but will do so moving forward July, August and so on. Why is this? If you accidentally delete a file, you can always go back one set / month and pull it out of an old backup. You don't want accidental (or malicious) deletes to be passed back into ALL of your backup sets.

Using the default WD Backup software that came with the drive. Running daily backups at 1am.

 

[LazN]

I really doubt it would delete files out of backup that you deleted, that kind of negates the purpose of backup.

 

[Wingman_ice]

The only reason a backup software would delete files is if you have the data protection set to expire after a certain length of time. Even then, most software won't necessarily remove the data but the catalogue that keeps track of it will have entries removed that point to the data. Many do an "over-write" instead when a new backup occurs after a backup's protection has expired. This is not always the case but in general is true, mainly due to tape heritage. Many newer backups run "incremental forever" schemes.