Windows Server Software Raid... Any good?

[AMD_RULES]

I don't have a ton of data, but I'd like to setup a Raid 1 system in my Server. I was looking to grab two 500GB hard drives and put them in Raid 1 with the built-in raid. If one of the drives fail, can I simply replace the drive or will I still lose all my data?

 

[valve1138]

It's fine mostly.

 

[adi]

If you lose a drive, you won't lose any data because you have a separate backup of your data, since RAID is not a backup.

 

[danman]

Thanks for stating the obvious.

 

[mwroobel]

It works fine, it is just a basic mirror.

 

[xDezor]

Should be more than adequate for a RAID-1 array.

 

[Aesma]

Thanks for stating the obvious.

Well, you talk about "losing your data". RAID1 is about uptime.

 

[JRS]

To the op - Windows software raid gets a bad rap unfairly imho. Especially for Raid0 and Raid1 (stripped and mirrored), where I think for almost all home uses there is no point to hardware raid. Also, there have been folks who have posted surprising results with Intel software Raid5 although I have yet to attempt to reproduce these results.

If your primary concern really is about losing data, then I highly recommend instead of creating a Raid1 array with a second drive you instead use the second drive as a destination for regular backups. Raid1 will protect your data against a single hard drive failure, but that is about it. Backups to a second drive protect you against losses due to user error (far more common than drive failures), damage by viruses, and other hardware errors as it is not a given you can move your Raid1 array to another PC if your motherboard dies.

For backup, do backups. For availability, use Raid1.

And my apologies to anyone who thinks I am stating the obvious. If I am, go read a thread with less obvious info in it.