SSDs in RAID 1?

HeTiCu13

New Member
Hello.

Earlier this year I had a NVMe M.2 go end-of-life on one of my computers, and the process of replacing it pretty much necessitated a complete OS reinstall. Since this was not my main computer, I was content with buying the new SSD card and spending the time to make the upgrade, new OS install included.

However, my main gaming computer uses SSD drives like the WDS500. If that drive suddenly goes bad (I monitor it with WD Dashboard) then I would most likely lose ALL of my games (and there are a lot) which I would then have to redownload (through clients like steam and bigfish) after replacing the drive.

I got to thinking today: What if I could go ahead and buy a second SSD drive, same size and all, and configure it to be a duplicate of drive 0, using RAID 1? And what if it was easy to set up and easy to replace a failed drive like in a NAS, which has 2 hot-swap-able HDDs?

So the mission would be to keep a redundant copy of my OS (including games) so if/when one SSD fails, I could easily buy a new one and swap it out. Is this a feasible thing? Would my MB have to manage that, and if so, how do I find out whether my MB can manage that? Somewhere in the BIOS settings?

Or is there a 3rd party software that one installs to manage this type of scenario?

Thanks for any info! Or for any tutorial links that have already laid all this out!
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
As long as your motherboard supports raid 1 via M.2 ports, its actually pretty easy. I would use the exact same drive for both if you could though. If one drive does fail, its as simple as removing it and installing the new and then the array will rebuild itself automatically. You might need to install the raid driver during install though.
 

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
Regular backup images to an external HDD might be easier and more cost effective.
 

HeTiCu13

New Member
Regular backup images to an external HDD might be easier and more cost effective.

Ahh, yes. I had forgotten about that option. I used EaseUs Todo Backup software several years ago on a regular basis for all my computers. But then one day l actually had a HDD failure (before the days of SSDs) and it seemed better to just reinstall the OS than to restore the OS snapshot which would most likely be filled with years of bloat and hiccups. So I discontinued the OS backups.

Of course, that was before I retired, got into gaming big time, and still had broadband internet at Gb speeds (before I sold my house), where-as now I live in my RV full time, have only 3-bar cellular internet through phone hotspot, and it would take an eternity to download all my games again; on metered data speeds. And then there is the down time (from gaming) while I go online, order a new SSD, receive and install it, then restore the OS backup.

So I have to decide which is more effective for me: Install a secondary SSD drive with RAID 1 which pretty much provides instant recovery from a SSD failure, or save the $$ and just take a few days break from gaming. :)

As long as your motherboard supports raid 1 via M.2 ports, its actually pretty easy. I would use the exact same drive for both if you could though. If one drive does fail, its as simple as removing it and installing the new and then the array will rebuild itself automatically. You might need to install the raid driver during install though.

Thanks for this. My main gaming computer is not M.2, but I assume from your statement that I should be able to go into the BIOS and see some options to install RAID 1 between two detected SSDs. I'll have to dig out my manual and research this. This may be a more time efficient option for my situation.

Thanks guys!
 

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
I mean a cloned SSD is going to be absolutely no different in terms of bloat than an image would be. You also have the ability to pick from multiple images if your install gets screwed up via Virus or other means.

Restoring an SSD from an image should take a matter of a couple hours, certainly not more than a day. RAID would be faster though.
 

HeTiCu13

New Member
I mean a cloned SSD is going to be absolutely no different in terms of bloat than an image would be. You also have the ability to pick from multiple images if your install gets screwed up via Virus or other means.

Restoring an SSD from an image should take a matter of a couple hours, certainly not more than a day. RAID would be faster though.

Yes, I do understand what you're saying. But I think you missed a tiny point that I made earlier: It's a hardware failure that I'm trying to stay ahead of, not an OS failure. I don't keep a supply of SSDs fresh in their boxes, ready when needed, for me to install and restore the OS to in a matter of hours. The whole point of investigating the RAID 1 concept is to eliminate days of down time while waiting for an SSD replacement to be ordered, shipped, received and installed. I live in my RV full time, in the boonies, in the Redwoods, CA. Shipping for many items, even from Amazon, takes several days, sometimes a week or more.

None of this is a huge deal. I'm retired, and continue to learn patience in many aspects of my life. But, my OP explained that I am exploring the feasibility of using RAID 1 to save me days of downtime. Since my main computer is just over 3 years old, and there's a good chance that it supports RAID 1 for SSDs, I could get ahead of an SSD failure and have one already installed and ready to take over if/when the first one fails.

Of course, if I find out that my MB does not support RAID 1 between SSDs, then this discussion becomes moot. :)
 
Last edited:

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
Yes, I do understand what you're saying. But I think you missed a tiny point that I made earlier: It's a hardware failure that I'm trying to stay ahead of, not an OS failure. I don't keep a supply of SSDs fresh in their boxes, ready when needed, for me to install and restore the OS to in a matter of hours. The whole point of investigating the RAID 1 concept is to eliminate days of down time while waiting for an SSD replacement to be ordered, shipped, received and installed. I live in my RV full time, in the boonies, in the Redwoods, CA. Shipping for many items, even from Amazon, takes several days, sometimes a week or more.

None of this is a huge deal. I'm retired, and continue to learn patience in many aspects of my life. But, my OP explained that I am exploring the feasibility of using RAID 1 to save me days of downtime. Since my main computer is just over 3 years old, and there's a good chance that it supports RAID 1 for SSDs, I could get ahead of an SSD failure and have one already installed and ready to take over if/when the first one fails.

Of course, if I find out that my MB does not support RAID 1 between SSDs, then this discussion becomes moot. :)
Oh yeah I totally missed the part of actually getting a replacement drive. Seems like you know what you need really, just a matter of preference. :)
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
That sounds like a reasonable solution although surprised the module died so soon. What model was it?

But yeah as per others it's an approach or simply back up the data that is important to you periodically. I do all of my non-shenanigan work in a VM so it's just copypasta-ing it to another storage mechanism, super easy to unpack and power it up on whatever installation.

nvme RAID 0 has been pretty solid so far though :p
 
Top