Raid Noob Questions.

[Ocean]

ive ordered two samsung f4 2TB.

i would like to use raid 1 Data Mirror. i have less than 1.5TB of data, and my only concern is drive failure. i dont know where to begin to do the install. im also curious about filling up a single 2TB then adding the other 2TB drive to complete the raid. or in several years, eventually taking one drive out of the RAID and add it to the other 2TB for 4TB total (non-raid) after the drives have lasted a year or so.

or since i will only be using the drives for storage only and never deleting anything. should i just ignore raid 1 and make a "backup" when i want to?

 

[sub.mesa]

As i understand, the only thing you want is a backup for data security. You don't need availability (the fact that RAID1 keeps you up and running after a single disk failure). So RAID1 might not be the best option. Why? Well it also adds insecurity; and you still have just one filesystem. One mistake and both drives will be affected. RAID1 should be used *after* you already have a backup.

So in your case, you may want to put the second 2TB disk in another computer system on the local network. And then configure that system for backups. You can download programs to make these backups easier. And you should have much better protection than just RAID1.

 

[john4200]

Another alternative to doing a network backup would be having the second drive as an external drive (eSATA if possible) attached to your main computer. If your data changes regularly, then for the best data security, have two or more external drives, and rotate the backups, keeping at least one drive offsite or in a water and fireproof safe.