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Some HDD setup question

P

Python14

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 29, 2004
Messages
191
Alright, I'm building a computer for a friend and he's looking for a good, secure method of storing data. I've been analyzing RAID information and think setting up a pair of Raptors in RAID 1 may be the best choice for him.

However, I am still a little confused. He needs alot of storage space. The computer he's coming from has 250 gb of storage, and he will be moving some of it over. He wants a good fast setup with good reliablity as well, like I said. So how can I set up the two raptors and two 250 gb HDDs for security? Set the two raptors as Drive: C on a RAID 1 and set the two 250s as Drive: E on a RAID 1 for redundency? How hard is this to set up? Thanks.
 
Very easy to set up. You should have no problems with that type of setup.
 
of course you might point out to him the advantages of other strategies
such as taking the money youd spend on the 2nd Raptor and putting it and a bit more towards a larger parity RAID array, its simple enough to image the Raptor to the RAID for backup yet in a parity RAID array your efficiency increases to the additive of the number of drives minus one (4 x 250GB = 750GB, 6 x 250GB = 1.25TB)

there is a write penalty with a parity array, but storage rarely needs to be performance space
and you have the raptor for that
 
heh.. i was gonna chime in with a 6 disk raid 5 array, with a hot swap spare, and be done with it.. but iceczar beat me to it... performance and integreity all in one shot
 
Python14 said:
If my mobo only has 2 SATA ports, how do I put 4 HDDs on it?
Click to expand...

You didnt say you lacked the physical headers :D

You will need a PCI controller card, once you have the physical headers, the rest is cake.
 
and the advantage of a PCI Card is migrating the array to different computers

of course any RAID array isnt a substitute for hard media backup
there are a great number of senerios where its possible to loose it all
starting with user error, filesystem corruption, infection, power events ect
 
Ice Czar said:
of course you might point out to him the advantages of other strategies
such as taking the money youd spend on the 2nd Raptor and putting it and a bit more towards a larger parity RAID array, its simple enough to image the Raptor to the RAID for backup yet in a parity RAID array your efficiency increases to the additive of the number of drives minus one (4 x 250GB = 750GB, 6 x 250GB = 1.25TB)

there is a write penalty with a parity array, but storage rarely needs to be performance space
and you have the raptor for that
Click to expand...


Could you rephase that assuming I am stupid? :p
 
RAID1 is a simple mirror
meaning you have a 50% storage efficiency
RAID5 or 3 is a parity array
where data describing the data on the other drives is distributed throughout the array
in the event you loose a drive, you can rebuild the array from the drives remaining
(assuming the loss of only a single drive, loose two drives before the array is rebuilt and its gone)
even with the loss of a single drive the data is still accessible (but during the rebuild it likely wouldnt be)
the efficiency of a parity array is all the drives in the array minus one
(all the drives should be matched)
you need at least three drives to build the array, the more drives you have the greater the storage efficiency
3x100=200
4x100=300
5x100=400
6x100=500
12x100=1100

since calculations need to be made to write the parity information it doesnt have the same performance of just a single HDD, but that generally isnt an issue in most desktops

employing a PCI card allows you to migrate such an array, Ive had mine in 5 different computers, and its a rerlatively good strategy for storage, but not a replacement for real backup, in any array there is the potential for data loss, lets say a RAM stick goes bad and corrupts the filesystem, well in a mirror RAID1 that happens on both drives, in a parity arrray its spread across the whole array
(the OS see the array as a single physical disk, which you can partition like any other)

the primary reason to adopt a RAID array to to forstall data loss from HDD failure
(barring the performance levels RAID0 and RAID 0+1)
but there are a number of pitfalls that can effect all the drives at the same time
so backup to Tape, CD or DVD is important

your "performance space" would be the Raptor, to back it up to the RAID array the simple thing would be Ghost and image to it
automated and differential backups could also be used
(a Full backup + a differential, which is just the changes since the last backup)

since you mentioned this guy employs alot of storage space, having a higher efficiency might make sense to him, and its unlikely the performance hit would be noticable for day top day single user use.

the one caveate, you cant dynamically add drives to most arrays
and would need to rebuild it from scratch if you went from a 3 drive array to a 6 drive array
(more accurately no affordable RAID controllers allow you to dynamically add drives)

a "hotspare" is a drive attached to the array that can be employed automatically for the rebuild in the event one of the drives fails, I dont bother with that, simply pulling a drive in need and replacing it manually, taking advantage of the extra channel on the card for greater efficiency

review
http://www.storagereview.com/guide2000/ref/hdd/perf/raid/index.html
http://www.lostcircuits.com/hdd/hdd7/
http://www.lostcircuits.com/hdd/hdd9/

For the past four years Ive been running an IDE (PATA) six channel Promise Technology SX6000
with its own 128MB PC133 cache, XOR RISC Processor and 6 x 40GB Western Digital HDDs
and with the exception of loosing the array from user error once
(made the mistake of reading the manual and believing it) Ive lost no data from it
 
Alright, I'm still a bit of a newb here on this. I'm thinking what I'm gonna do is this. I'm going to setup his raptors on a RAID 1 array for redundancy to keep his programs safe. Then I will setup the two 300 gb seagates or whatever I go with on RAID 0 for capacity and speed.

He doesn't have entirely that much to spend, and he wants the most storage he can get. For backup on his Big 'uns, he's gonna use DVDs and a couple of portable HDDs he has. How does this sound?

Btw, what's a good 2 port controller card for RAID1/0? I really don't know much about 3/5 so I'm gonna stick with something a I'm a little more knowledgeable on.
 
well my point was you dont need performance for storage
if your going that route youd be far better off just having the 300GBs as single drives
in the event one fails at least it wouldnt take the data on other HDD

as far as backing up his OS\aps goes
again imaging a single Raptor after everything is installed and tweaked is a far better strategy
it would take a half hour to restore it from the other array\single drive
unless there is a compleling reason to get more performance, then youd use a RAID0 on the two Raptors, but the aps that would truely benefit would be real time video editing

you use RAID1 to nearline backup data that is constantly changing
(same with any of the other redundant levels)

most any dual channel RAID Controller will offer both RAID0 and 1
Highpoint and Promise controllers are reliable and affordable
 
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