Will a Raid array help?

[mrwill]

I have a computer that I use primarily for video editing that I would like to upgrade. The two things I have in mind is an updated video card and to go from regular hard drives to a Raid setup. I have some questions about going to the raid setup. I currently have 4 hard drives and would like to use 2 or 3 for the Raid array. I use Acronis True Image to back up one of my hard drives to an external hard drive.

1) If I switch to the Raid array, will I be able to back it up using Acronis and also to restore?

2) I test many video editing softwares and as such, re-format my hard drive 2 or 3 times per year. When I do that, I start the process on one of the other four hard drives, while continuing to use the current main hard drive. When the newly formatted hard drive has all the things on it I need, I then just make an image file and copy it to the current main drive. Will that be possible if the main drive is a Raid array?

3) Which Raid array will work best for video editing? I have heard Raid 0 and I have heard Raid 3 is best. BTW, I have 3 750GB drives and one 1TB drive, so I thought I could use either 2 or 3 of the 750GB drives and keep the 1TB drive as the backup drive (in addition to the 1TB external drive). I also have switches for each drive so I can turn off and on whichever drive or drives I need.

The Raid package I would probably use is part of my motherboard - an Asus P6T Dlx V2.

 

[djstarfox]

3. Ideal raid config:
----------------------------
1 x 1tb = boot drive / OS (non-raid)
3 x 0.75tb = raid 0 editing/data array, 256K stripe size

1. If we're talking about the video files/array, yes. Otherwise, it depends.

2. After creating and getting your primary OS running, make a ghost image of it before installing the video software. Then, when you start over, you can just restore the image and save the time.

Or, I think you should consider using virtual machines (e.g., virtualbox) and keep your primary OS as clean as possible. Put the .vdi (VM disk) files on the 1tb and have the VM access the raid 0 as a second disk (or network share). This is a bit tricky to setup but slick.