4tb HDD (2) in Raid 1... should I?

[frldyz]

Almost done buying all the components for my 1st build.
I have an Samsung 850 pro (512gb) SSD. I will run my operating system ( Win. 7) and programs from here.

The HDD are for storing files. We take a ton of photos and HD videos of our kids. In 1 year I went from 0-500gb on files. So now I am going big. I would love to run RAID 1 as a back-up. I will have an external HD. But I would feel more comfortable with some more security as a backup if something were to happen.

If I run a RAID1 on 2 4tb HDD, this is kind of a safety net if something were to happen to 1 of the drives, correct?

Is there any negative to running 2 4tb HDD in RAID1?
Can Wndows 7 functional with 2 4tb HDD in RAID1? I thought I read somewhere Windows 7 limits you to 2.7tb?

Thanks everyone.

 

[beers]

Yes, since the data is mirrored you have a 1:1 copy of all of the data between drives.

There is no limitation other than you have to use a GPT partition instead of MBR which is limited to 2T. Then you will see a 'drive' containing the RAID pair with an aggregate capacity of around ~3.7 TiB.

 

[Geoff]

Just to be clear, RAID is not a replacement for a traditional backup. You should be backing up your data to at a minimum, an external drive if the data is important (you mentioned an external drive, so you may plan on doing this already). As you mentioned hardware failures, RAID 1 will protect your data from a single hard drive failure, however if you delete data accidentally RAID will not help you.

Windows 7 can function fine with a 4TB RAID 1 array, the only downside is performance suffers a bit as you are writing the same file to two drives. You likely won't notice this.

 

[frldyz]

Geoff thanks for the reply.
Ok so RAID is not a backup. Got it. RAID1 will not protect files from getting corrupt or damaged etc... Got it.

The benefit of RAID1 is if 1 of the HDD drives fails. I still have everything on the 2nd HDD? Correct?

It is still my responsibility to back-up my files on another source.

 

[Geoff]

Geoff thanks for the reply.
Ok so RAID is not a backup. Got it. RAID1 will not protect files from getting corrupt or damaged etc... Got it.

The benefit of RAID1 is if 1 of the HDD drives fails. I still have everything on the 2nd HDD? Correct?

It is still my responsibility to back-up my files on another source.

That is correct. If 1 drive fails, you would replace that drive with a drive of the same size preferably, go into the RAID utility, and have it rebuild the array. You would then have a fully functioning RAID 1 array again with all of your data intact.