I am thinking of building a new computer and right now on my current setup I just have all my documents (photos and stuff I dont want to lose) on my C drive along with everything else. I just run a backup of those files every couple days to an external hard drive. On the new setup, I was thinking of just having 2 internal drives (maybe do an external later if i want to take stuff with me) and running the backup to the 2nd drive. Or am I better off just having a RAID 1 setup then not having to worry about backing up since it will mirror itself?
RAID or just backup to extra drive?
- Thread starter dm76
- Start date
It depends on what you are 'backing up.' A RAID1 isn't really a back up but if all you are worried about is a potential drive failure then it's a good option.
If you just want to copy certain files/directories (ie you only care about My Documents or something) you don't need a RAID, you could make something simple like a batch file that copies the directory to the 2nd drive and schedule it to run nightly.
If you just want to copy certain files/directories (ie you only care about My Documents or something) you don't need a RAID, you could make something simple like a batch file that copies the directory to the 2nd drive and schedule it to run nightly.
That are some wise words. A backup is something that protects you from accidental deletes, virus, fire etc. A realtime mirrored harddware doesn't protect you from that.
Yeah good point, I didn't think of RAID as not being a backup. I guess if I did accidently delete something it would delete it on the other drive. I think I will just go with a second internal drive for backups. I am mainly concerned about backing up photos. That should be cheaper and more reliable than an external drive, as there won't be any overheating issues with it. I know my external drive case is very hot when it is on, that is why I shut it off when I am not using it. I am sure there are better enclosures, but I would think it would stll be better inside the big case.