question about setting up a RAID

[yeahthatsme]

k, so i have 2 500gb storage drives now(samsung's, if it matters) and have been thinking about putting them into a raid configuration, however i have some reservations.

1. will i lose the data on the drives?
2. if yes, what is the best back up method?(i would assume some sort of hard-drive image software?)
3. will my motherboards on-board raid configuration(using an evga 680i) be sufficient or should i buy a card?

thanks!

 

[sabregen]

I assume you're thinking of RAID0 configuration, from the sound of your question. If that's the case:

1.) Yes, any drive failure will result in total data loss. You will also have to create the RAID array, which will wipe both drives when the array is created.
2.) You can do backups with something like Symantec Ghost, which is fine to MAKE the backup....I have yet to see Ghost successfully restore a RAID 0 stripe on recovery. Despite the fact that it will ask you for RAID drivers, to read the array, my recovery attempts on a eVGA 680i A1 were fruitless. To do a recovery, you have to reload the OS, give it the RAID drivers during the installation, then install the application into Windows, and recover from the image. Yes, you'll have to load the OS and RAID drivers, and get into Windows to recover. Maybe another disk imaging program is better at this, but to my knowledge, they all have issues with imaging and restoring RAID arrays.
3.) Onboard RAID is sufficient, although true speed in RAID always comes with a standalone controller. This is because a typical standalone controller has battery backed ECC cache, and scrubs bit errors before they get stored, which helps when you're rebuilding or re-synching your array. The other thing this buys you is the ability to move the RAID set to a new/upgraded machine when you do your upgrades. Using onboard RAID, when you change the motherboard, chances are, that the new board won't be able to read the array...and you have to start from square #1.

 

[yeahthatsme]

hmmm, sounds like i should just save that for my next build then. thanks for the answers!