HDD question for esata raid build

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commissioneranthony

[H]ard|Gawd
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I posted this in the general hardware section as well, sorry for the repeat

I am planning on building an esata external Raid array for personal backups.
I am going to use raid 1, so it will mirror the HDD's I use. I plan on using 2 HDD's
This is the controller I plan on using:
http://www.addonics.com/products/ad5hpmrxa-e.php

apparently this controller supports hardware raid for up to 5 drives

I plan on throwing the controller, the HDD's and PSU into an apple II c era 5.25in floppy drive case, like I did here:
http://salvagedcircuitry.com/AppleIIHDD.html

What I really need is some advice on which HDD's to get. I have heard some hard drives dont like being in an array and tend to break from the array at random (I believe the WD caviar Green's)

I was looking at getting either WD or hitachi for the HDD, cause I want at least a 3 year warranty
I specifically want a 1tb drive or larger, so (2) identical 1tb or higher drives, 7200rpm.

I am between these 3 drives:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ..._mmc=EMC-GD071112-_-index-_-Item-_-22-145-304

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136798

Any idea on which one is best to use in an array?
Should I look at getting a WD caviar red?
http://www.storagereview.com/western_digital_red_nas_hard_drive_review_wd30efrx

Thanks guys, I really appreciate your help.
 
well, I want to have a redundant copy of my data, so I'm going to go with raid 1 for my external HDD. unless you're trying to tell me Raid is unreliable?
 
RAID isn't a backup but you can store backups on a RAID. It's just like a CDR, tape drive, USB disk. None of those things are "backups" but you can store backups on them. Maybe the OP plans to connect his external storage, save backups to it, disconnect it, and stick it in the closet until next backup time. In that use case it is a perfectly valid backup.
 
Old Hippie, maybe you should read that again, as you seemed to fail to understand it. Using raid as your primary datastore, is not a backup. Using raid in a backup plan, increases the likely hood of the backup being usable. But raid isn't needed for the backup plan, it's just in additional too.

commissionerathony, any of those drives would be good. I have had very good results with my 1tb RE3 drives, so I would expect them to do good for you also, if you went that route (20 of them and 0 failures in the last 2 years of 24/7 usage).
 
Maybe the OP plans to connect his external storage, save backups to it, disconnect it, and stick it in the closet until next backup time. In that use case it is a perfectly valid backup.
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Yep you're right....but I doubt that's what he had in mind as you well know. :)

This is a typical novice with typical novice thinking.
 
Old Hippie, maybe you should read that again, as you seemed to fail to understand it. Using raid as your primary datastore, is not a backup. Using raid in a backup plan, increases the likely hood of the backup being usable. But raid isn't needed for the backup plan, it's just in additional too.
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OK, whatever you say.

I'm afraid I can't read his mind today.

Maybe my Tinfoil hat isn't working but I thought this pretty well explained his motives...
I am planning on building an esata external Raid array for personal backups.
Click to expand...
 
Sorry guys for not making myself clear, but I have not used RAID before, as I have never had exact duplicates of any HDD (model number)
I was planning on actually using a raid 1 array with (2) 1tb drives, so they serve as a clone, and plug it in for weekly or bi weekly backups, then unplugging it and putting it in a closet. I have no intention of using this as a NAS drive which is always on.

I was considering hardware raid 1 because it should essentially do the same thing as making an image of a drive with the data you want on it. Raid 1 is not data striping, so if one drive fails, the other should be a mirrored clone.
Unless you really think that raid 1 is not a reliable solution for imaging your data onto a drive, then let me know, and I'll just straight up continue using clonezilla to clone my drives
I just figured RAID 1 would be more efficnent and less of a haggle.

thanks guys
 
To add, I will also have another single HDD with my data, acting as another backup, which is updated on a monthly basis, and sits in the closet for the remainder of the time.

Like everyone else, I need to manage my picts, music and docs, so I have a configuration where I place all my reference data on my secondary physical HDD, a 320gb 2.5in laptop drive, and all my current data I need on my 128gb SSD

I then take both HDD's in my laptop and back them up onto my primary external HDD
I then backup the primary HDD onto a 2ndary HDD on a monthly basis

As of right now, both primary and 2ndary drives are 500 gb drives, and are running low on space and are almost 7-8 years old, so I need to replace them

I was looking at replacing the primary drive with the aforementioned raid array and then have a single 2ndary backup

Hope that clarifies things.
 
and plug it in for weekly or bi weekly backups, then unplugging it and putting it in a closet.
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I'm glad you cleared the confusion.

Sounds like a great plan to diminish the possibility that one drive would die before the other. I dunno if I would by 2 matching drives from the same manfg or drives from different manfgs. As long as the drives are the same size it won't matter.

I was looking at replacing the primary drive with the aforementioned raid array and then have a single 2ndary backup
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You could do this but I wouldn't recommend it. RAID1 for a primary "C" drive is a little "goofy" :). Any "cootie"/problem is going to be replicated in both drives.

Just use your weekly back-up for a restore operation.

A back-up should not be connected to the main computer unless it's being updated.

Good Luck!
 
Thanks for the info. I guess I should just replace the HDD in my primary drive and just keep on imaging with clonezilla. thanks.
 
commissioneranthony said:
Thanks for the info. I guess I should just replace the HDD in my primary drive and just keep on imaging with clonezilla. thanks.
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That's your best, simplest, and most economical solution.

As far as specific drive recommendations I'm pretty much out of the loop for today's favorite flavor. I use anything that's on sale in my server and moved to SSDs 4 yrs. ago for my "C" drive configurations.

Good Luck!
 
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