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Backup Strategy: "The Threes"

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Deozaan:
And I would see RAID-1 as logical because when one drive fails, you go out and buy a new drive and then just re-duplicate the data and move on (no restoration process, fastest system possible). Makes drive failure as convenient as possible.-wreckedcarzz (June 13, 2011, 10:46 PM)
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The main reason RAID is so attractive as a backup solution is that it is 100% automatic after it's set up.-mouser (June 13, 2011, 10:47 PM)
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So in a mirror RAID setup, if one drive failed and you replaced it with a new one, does it automatically restore the mirror or do you have to configure stuff with the new drive first?

And does it continue to work while one drive is out of order so you can still use your PC for those few days it takes to ship a new drive?

wreckedcarzz:
Depends on the RAID controller, I believe. Some might have built-in tools to rebuild the array, and sometimes they require you to destroy the array and sometimes even wipe the drives and restart again (I don't think that applies to RAID-1 though, just 0).

For RAID-1, you might have to use something like Easeus Disk Copy to copy the data, then re-configure the array. I've never dealt with RAID as far as maintenance/fixing one, so what I know is few and far between. And running with just one drive in the array also depends on the controller, AFAIK (you might have to destroy the array and rebuild it later to continue using the machine). Maybe someone who knows can chime in and confirm?

Stoic Joker:
Quick-N-Dirty explanation:

RAID 0 (Striped) - One drive dies = RAID self destruct/all data is gone (e.g. it not actually redundant).

RAID 1 (mirrored) - One drive dies = You have and can run on second copy just fine until replacement (which you should order immediately) arrives. Low-end controllers you have to tell to rebuild/re-sync the mirrors. Commercial ones will usually start the process automatically (especially if you have a "hot spare").

RAID 5 (striping with parody (my favorite)) - One drive dies = Same as RAID 1. Main difference being it's faster that RAID 1.

tomos:
I found this explanation helpful too - similar to your description sj, but not quite so quick-n-dirty ;-)

http://www.pugetsystems.com/forums/members/4082-PCC-Builder-Dan?s=d40583c032c36d81786c39ae88b945d1
RAID for dummies?

    The point of RAID is to either make your data access faster, make your data more failure-proof, or both.

    The entire point of RAID 1 is data redundancy. While yes, RAID 1 does effectively give you half the storage space of the drives used, if one drive dies, your data is still intact on the second drive. Thus, if you have a hard drive die, it's not so big of a deal. You can just replace the dead drive, and go on with whatever you were doing.

    If, however, you're willing to run the risk of a dying hard drive, there are other RAID options with more storage space. RAID 0, for instance, chops all the files you store on the array into little bits, and puts every other bit in each hard drive. Thus, you get the full capacity of both drives, and a speed increase, because you're writing two files to two hard drives, and each file is half the size of the one big one you saved. However, should a hard drive in a RAID 0 array fail, all the data in the array is lost. There's really nothing that can be done.

    There are also more complex RAID options, to give both more speed and redundancy. My personal favorite is RAID 5, which uses one drive for redundancy, so out of a three-disk array, you get the storage space of two of the three disks.
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superboyac:
Most of the backup solutions mentioned here will work fine.  nice and easy.  There are many ways to go about it, and they will all be robust enough.  Here's where the problem starts:

Amount of data.  When you're data exceeds 2TB (or 3TB now), now it gets complicated.  because now we're talking spanning data across drives.  Then we start talking about imaging, multiple redundancy, versioning...the hardest part in all this is running out of room on the drive.  That's why I've been having a hard time adapting my backup strategy to the amount of data I have now, which is exceeding 2TB, and is going to grow pretty rapidly.

It's at this point that you start scrambling.  You start changing your backup strategy, you start cleaning things out.  you start deleting things that you don't need.  you burn things on dvd that you feel you need, but it's ok if you lose.  So most people would just buy an external hard drive, or another spare drive.  but that gets weird too, especially if you already have a lot of drives connected to your pc.  Then what?  Then you need to re-configure your backup software to work with the additional drives.  it becomes very complicated when your data exceeds 2-3 TB.

Which is why I am now going to get a legit server setup.  I'll have a RAID-5 array setup for the "working" data.  Then I may have another RAID-5 array to backup the working set.  Then, I may also have a couple of non-Raid hard drives there that also have copies of the data.  The purpose of those is that I can pull it out and use it anywhere, without having to worry about RAID setup and everything...i.e. I can just stick it in a USB external enclosure if necessary.

This setup is beyond a normal desktop, so I'm getting a server for it.  it's overkill to some, but I'm sick of my shoehorned backup solution.  I want to be liberated from my lack of space and do it right.  Once it's setup and I have plenty of space, then I can do all the backups I want: RAID, images, file syncing, versioning...the works.

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