Storage Solutions Need advice on reliable raid 1 setup for Windows 7 desktop

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chiru

chiru

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Everytime my hard disk fails abruptly, i am forced to watch helplessly lose all the data. I have decided to put an end to this problem once and for all. What i am looking/not looking for is listed below. Please help me choose the right way to do it
  • A 1 TB raid 1 setup on two WD blue sata drives (software or hardware raid?)
  • Win 7 x64 will be run from a regular ide drive so even if os crashes for any reason, my raid should not fail (i don't know this, just hoping for it)
  • If one of the drives in the raid fails, i should be able to revive the raid without losing any data on the other healthy drive (Do i need to backup this data to a third drive in order to rebuild data after adding a replacement drive? If yes, this just defeats the whole purpose of using raid in the first place)
  • I don't use ups, random power failures are imminent. Will this fail my raid?
  • My mobo is a Gigabyte 78LMT-S2PT. Do i need a third party raid controller to achieve all this?
  • I am not looking for a NAS solution, just a raid setup (not necessarily out of the box) that actually does what it says.
My Seagate 1 tb external is failing so I need a solution asap
 
Ah well. Sorry for hijacking your thread but I am facing exactly the same issue and am planning to do exactly what you have put above. So will be watching this space.

Any reason you choose the WD Blue? Arent the Black more reliable?
 
saneguy said:
Ah well. Sorry for hijacking your thread but I am facing exactly the same issue and am planning to do exactly what you have put above. So will be watching this space.

Any reason you choose the WD Blue? Arent the Black more reliable?
Click to expand...
I have been a seagate customer all this time and the transition to WD blue fit my budget. Quickly i realized i had to invest in a ups to keep the software raid from failing, so got one APC 800VA ~480W
 
AFAIK, you can use the chipset based fakeraid to do RAID-1. You would need to format the discs though. It would be easier to mention HDDs and complete config, along with what you need, in specifics, if any.
 
vivek.krishnan said:
AFAIK, you can use the chipset based fakeraid to do RAID-1. You would need to format the discs though. It would be easier to mention HDDs and complete config, along with what you need, in specifics, if any.
Click to expand...
I created an array from within windows 7 following this tutorial and its working fine
 
6pack said:
Raid is not a solution for backup. What if both the hdds fail at same time due to psu or mobo problem? Where will you get your data back from?
You should read this backup guide on anandtech.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8030/backup-guide
Click to expand...

Yes i know raid is not a backup solution, its only a simple setup to access data in case one of the drive fails. Both the drives failing at the same time is a distant probability and i know i am taking chance here.
Backup solutions cost a lot of money. Just for this fake raid, i had to shell close to 12k (2x1tb @ 3650 each + 1 ups @ 4360) towards hardware. For my budget this is the redundancy i can afford
 
Backup solutions can be got free too. I wrote a guide on getting good backups with just freeware used.
I'm not telling you to switch methods now, but if its possible ( like you end up installing windows) I would recommended that method.

Ups is mandatory for PC's. Helps save lots of pc components from possible failure due to rogue power conditions.
 
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