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Not backing up will cost you!

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worstje:
I'm glad I didn't go through that. :)

I must say though.. I have a similar experience which caused me to drop RAID as a whole.

RAID is meant to to improve reliability, at least in the variety you mentioned as well as the variety I used. But in practice, one drivers/controllers RAID is a totally different beast from the next. So once stuff reaches something that can't be automatically handled (which is surprisingly often the case), you're up shits creek.

Why does it happen so often? Because you tend to set up an array using the same hard drives. Often, if you order them at the same time, it is the same batch. So once one drive breaks, the other one isn't far away. That is what happened to me.

Simply using non-RAID, and setting up a proper backup plan has proven to be a far more resilient course of action for me. Yes, once one drive breaks, I am stuck a few hours as I fix my situation up to get stuff back out of my backups. But my backup drives do not spin 24/7 like my main drives do, and drives failing is still supposed to be a very infrequent happening. So, once shit does happen to hit the fan, I find that I am in a far more comfortable situation regarding fixing stuff myself.

Seriously, do the math: buy a few more harddrives, which costs, say, $200. Or end up going your route, and shell out $4000 once stuff really goes wrong. And with my method, I have the flexibility to have my backups go to an external site (less chance of theft/fire/etc beating my backups through conventional means).

And that is why, for me, RAID is an expensive concept consumers tend to not really need.

Edit: seems someone else beat me to the 'other accidents' point of view. :)

JavaJones:
Yep, you are exactly on target. And even though I got a refurbished 4big unit back after this (since DriveSavers can work with Lacie support for in-warranty issues), I think I am ultimately going to migrate away from it. It's just too problematic (for example I have a hard time getting this unit to work reliably with eSATA, and with USB 2.0 it's slower than an internal single drive so not much point).

- Oshyan

Renegade:
Patiently awaiting part 2. :)

I had a server at LayeredTech with Raid 1 mirrored drives and when 1 drive died, they managed to lose the data on the other... Morons... Nothing to be done about it. Thankfully we had backups.

I've been meaning to get an automated backup solution going for important data, so I'm eager to hear what you've got to say on the topic.

superboyac:
I'm revising my backup system next year, 2011.  I need some help in the best way a home user can add several disks.  I currently have 6 hard drives all connected to my desktop in various ways.  I want to have a more commercial type of solution.  I want to build a server, possible a Windows Home Server, that will house 10 drives or more.  I need some kind of rack or special tower that can hold around 10 disks (give or take).  I'd like to be able to slide disks in and out easily.  I don't know what is out there that can do that.  It's not something easily found in the consumer stores, and I'm not familiar enough with servers and such to have an idea about the good brands, models, or exactly what the words are for the technical terms.  But I want a separate piece of hardware that can house about 10 disk drives and I'd like to connect it through esata or lan to a server computer, I have no idea how to do that connection.  I'm guessing it's esata or an ethernet cable, but I don't know.  I am NOT looking for a NAS, as in one that is self-sustaining and has it's own OS on it and everything.  I just want the thing that holds the drives.  So please teach me about all of this if you know.  Thanks.

4wd:
I just want the thing that holds the drives.-superboyac (December 25, 2010, 01:13 AM)
--- End quote ---

Addonics

RAID Tower IX - 15 hot-pluggable SATA drives, connect via eSATA, USB3, USB2 or Multilane*  $729->$779 depending on whether you want Multilane or not
RAID Rack - 20 hot-pluggable SATA drives, connect via eSATA, USB3, USB2 or Multilane  $1219->$1619 depending on whether you want redundant PSU or not.

They use hardware RAID controllers, the RAID mode is easily set by turning a switch at the back to the mode you want.  You can also keep them as individual drives but if connecting by eSATA your motherboard chipset needs to support Port Multipliers, IIRC, any Intel chipset ICH10 or later.

I'd love to buy some of their stuff but it's so ridiculously expensive over here.

* Multilane is 4 SATA channels configured into one Infiniband connector to provide maximum throughput, ie. 4 x 3Gb/s SATA channels instead of a single 3Gb/s eSATA channel.

Addendum: Otherwise for something a little cheaper to start with and more portable, there's their RAID Tower IV or their Mini Storage Towers.

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