Quick question about RAID...

[Jitsu]

I enjoy how if something goes wrong with my computer, I can quickly whipe my C:/ drive and loose hardly any data, because I save all of it on another HDD.

I understand that if this were to happen, and my main media HDDs were set up in RAID 0, then all of the data on both of those disks would be lost. Is this not true? This is what keeps me away from using Raid 0.

I want to continue to use one system drive, for windows, and then get another HDD and set it up in RAID 1, to mirror my current media drive. If something goes wrong with my computer, say mobo failure, could I pull these HDD's out of the system, which have previsouly been running in RAID 1, mirroring each other, and then pop them into another system.. and the data would read fine? Could I also resume RAID 1 with two disks that currently have sensitive data on them, with no corruption to the data?

 

[DisrupTer911]

You could run a raid 0+1 but that requires 4 drives.

that owuld give you the speed of raid 0 and the reliability of raid 1.

In the new CPU mobo review edition, there is a talk about MATRIX RAID which allows for RAID 0/1 on just 2 sets of drives that are partitioned but i don't think thats out yet.

I say, do the RAID 0+1 if u can afford the extra hdd.

but no, you can't just swap them into a new mobo if u get a failure unless u replace the mobo w/ the exact same one.

 

[Jitsu]

You could run a raid 0+1 but that requires 4 drives.

that owuld give you the speed of raid 0 and the reliability of raid 1.

In the new CPU mobo review edition, there is a talk about MATRIX RAID which allows for RAID 0/1 on just 2 sets of drives that are partitioned but i don't think thats out yet.

I say, do the RAID 0+1 if u can afford the extra hdd.

but no, you can't just swap them into a new mobo if u get a failure unless u replace the mobo w/ the exact same one.

If I get mobo failure, will two hdds that were set up in RAID 1 display data like a single HDD, that was not in any type of RAID, on a different system?

 

[Daynja]

but no, you can't just swap them into a new mobo if u get a failure unless u replace the mobo w/ the exact same one.

This is very true. It is very rare that a RAID array will work between two different controllers or motherboards. This is why it's best to get a controller card. The good thing is if you are just planning on using 2 drives in RAID 1, you can get a cheap ($50) controller card.

And just to reinforce what you already know, do not do RAID 0 for anything you do not wish to lose.

RAID 1 is a good, cheap way to backup your data, but do not expect better performance. RAID 1 is very similar to a single drive in performance. I have seen expensive RAID controller cards perform better in RAID 1 than a single drive though.

 

[The_Mage18]

If I get mobo failure, will two hdds that were set up in RAID 1 display data like a single HDD, that was not in any type of RAID, on a different system?

Depends on the RAID card. If it's a Promise then yes, you can run one of the drives per normal. Highpoints tend to alter the boot record slightly so it may error on you if not connected to the controller.

From experiance, Intel's chipset RAID will not, the drives will appear blank. I can't say for Nvidia's or Via's though.

 

[Jitsu]

Depends on the RAID card. If it's a Promise then yes, you can run one of the drives per normal. Highpoints tend to alter the boot record slightly so it may error on you if not connected to the controller.

From experiance, Intel's chipset RAID will not, the drives will appear blank. I can't say for Nvidia's or Via's though.

Thanks.

I just want to be able to have the data that's written to the disk "written to the disk". I want to be able to do whatever I want with that disk (put it in and out of raid 1, with another similar sized disk, or run it as a single drive), without the fear of loosing it if hardware failure occurs.