Raid 1

[m3trj]

Now I'm a fan of backups, but I've always made backups of all my data just by copying and pasting to a different hard drive. However I thought that maybe using RAID 1 would be a better idea. I have a 250GB drive at the moment, and I was thinking of getting a second and running the two in RAID 1, so the disks are mirrored.

I don't have a RAID controller on my motherboard, so I'd have to get a PCI RAID controller also.

1. Is RAID 1 a good backup strategy, or a waste of money, should I stick to the old copy and paste method?

2. Is it possible to run a seperate 120GB drive for my OS (Windows XP) and software, and have the RAID running as well for my data?

3. Are PCI RAID controllers any good? I'm not about to go and buy a new motherboard just for this.

I'm really intrigued because not many people seem to run RAID in their PC's, it's mainly for datacentres, there must be a reason for this, and I don't want to just waste my money for the novelty of running RAID.

Note that as this is only for data, performance is not an issue.

Thanks in advance.

 

[gaara]

RAID 1 is not a popular drive configuration because it is expensive

RAID 1 is a good back-up strategy IMO, however I advise you pair it with a surge protector and make sure you have a decent PSU running on it...despite how reliable RAID 1 or any RAID for that matter may look, all it takes is a small voltage spike and ALL of your drives are toast

It is possible to run multiple other drives along with an existing RAID configuration, and most PCI controllers are fairly decent at doing their jobs