RAID problematic?

[JamesL]

I know where SLI and Crossfire can cause problems -
Even dual-monitors have their share of problems every once in a while ..

Asides from noise issues, does having a RAID setup ever cause problems?

I'm thinking about keeping my 250gb drive, and getting two 500gb in raid1 to store my media.
Will it be easier just to back it up to a second drive every once in a while?
If I add do a RAID 1, I'd like it to be a "set and forget" kind of thing - if possible.

 

[stevember]

I would recommend just copying into the second hard drive every now and then, or getting a utility that will do it automatically.

The reason of this is because in a raid configuration if you make any changes on the first hard drive that is immediately duplicated on the second hard drive. Meaning, if you delete anything it will be deleted of the second hard drive.

It is the ideal solution if you don't ever make a mistake, if you never get any kind of corrupted files and primarily in a server configuration but for the home user I would not recommend it.

At least doing it the second way you do not need to worry about drivers, about taking the hard drive to another machine.

Better still get an external hard drive.

 

[xxEIEIOxx]

RAID 1 is really only effective in the case of a hardware failure of a hard drive. It will allow you to continue running as you were, without losing any data. It does nothing to protect you from a virus, user error, etc. It is not really a "backup" solution. If you know that going into it, and this is what you want, then yes, it is pretty much a set it and forget it type of thing. I would still advise a regular backup, in case you hose your data in some other way, not mechanically related to the drives.