RAID in consumer desktop computers is garbage?

W

WeApOn

New Member
A coworker of mine told me that any motherboards available for consumer use in DESKTOP computers will be garbage when attempting to run RAID with them.

I believe he said this because the motherboards in desktop computers rely on SOFTWARE RAID? And that if the software fails, your RAID is destroyed?


All I'm looking to do is have two drives in a RAID1 so I have an exact replica of my main drive.

If it makes any difference, the motherboard I have is a GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD2.


What is my best option, and is what he said true? On a side note, is it good to install one drive and then introduce another drive later? I'm worried that if I buy two of the same drives, they will both have the same lifetime and die at the same moment.
 
In raid 1 if one drive fails, you can still boot to the other one. However, in raid 0 in one drive fails you lose all your data. Raid 1 is used for data integrity, as long as both drives don't fail at the same time, one drive will still be working. Raid 0 is used for fast read/write access but has no fault tolerance, if one drive fails all your data is gone. If running raid 1 and one drive fails all you do is get a new drive and put it in your machine and the raid array automatically rebuilds itself. If running raid 0 and one drive fails then you lose your data you will have to reinstall windows all over again.

I used to run raid 1 and it saved me a few times, however the speed can slow down because of the read/write to both drives at the same time. Now I run raid 0 to try to see if the speed of the computer is any better. If you are worried about your important data, you can use raid 1 but then also back up your data to a different drive or media for safe keeping.

Most people use disk imaging software such as norton ghost or the more popular acronis true image. What this software does is creates an image of the drive so that if windows or the hard drive does crash that you can use the image to be back up and running within 30 minutes and your system is just like it was right before the crash as long as you made a recent image of your system. You can make incremental backups daily or weekly depending on how often you use your system and change the data.
 
I believe he said this because the motherboards in desktop computers rely on SOFTWARE RAID?
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Usually there is a hardware controller (ie ICH10R vs ICH10 - the R adds a RAID controller) on desktop motherboards. I wouldn't say trying to run a RAID on them is garbage but for the average user I would say not to run a raid at home.
 
Thanks guys. I am very familiar with Ghost, but I haven't heard of True Image.. I'll definitely give that a look. Crome, why would you say not to run raid at home? For home user backups do you think creating an image is better?

My biggest concern is that if I backup my data, or even create an image, to another drive that is not in use -- if that drive is not spinning often it could get corrupted.

To me I thought the best bet would be to have a backup on another disk that is always spinning. I do use a laptop frequently along with my desktop. Maybe I can image both of them and put the image of one of the opposite computer.
 
I say it's not for most home users because of the complexity of setting it up as well as the real gains. RAID1 is not a backup solution, anything that happens on one drive happens on the other (with the exception of drive failure).
 
Isn't that technically the goal of a backup though? Instantaneously replicating any changes to another drive?

Ah, of course unless that change is a mistake that results in a deletion or alteration of data that you did not want to happen. Then both drives have that and you're screwed. Good point if that's what you were getting at.
 
Ah, of course unless that change is a mistake that results in a deletion or alteration of data that you did not want to happen. Then both drives have that and you're screwed. Good point if that's what you were getting at
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Yes, that's what I meant. People hear that it's good for backups then assume if they accidently delete a file or something else happens that they are ok because they have a backup.
 
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