RAID 1 question

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acidic

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Hi,

I'm planning on getting a PCI to ATA RAID card so I can run a pair of WD 250GB drives in a RAID 1 configuration (mirrored). These drives will be for file storage only. My OS (Win2K) and applications will be on a separate drive connected to the mobo's onboard IDE (Primary Master).

When the mirrored WD drives are full, I plan to replace them with a fresh pair of drives. So my question: can I install just one of the full WD drives in an external firewire case for read access? Or will the drives need to be paired in the RAID 1 configuration for readability?

Thanks in advance!
 
im not 100% sure but it it should work.It would be the same as having an external drive .I havent looked at cases lately do they offer Firewire ports ?
 
if your using them for storage only... raid 1) the second drive is esentialy a copy of the first drive for backup purposess.

then why swap them both when the 250gb is full? once u take the drive out of the comp and its not running, its MTF(mean time between failure) is esentually paused. so the drive cannot die unless u throw it outa window or smash it with a hammer or something.

just swap the first full 250gb with a new one, and use the current Disk as a backup as it was for the first drive.
 
just swap the first full 250gb with a new one, and use the current Disk as a backup as it was for the first drive.

When my first two disks fill up, I'd like to store one off-site as a backup, and keep the other around for read-only purposes (preferably in an external drive enclosure). I'd replace those drives with fresh ones in the same RAID 1 configuration for new data.

Let me explain in a (hopefully) clearer way. Let's say I have drive A and B, which are installed internally in a RAID 1 configuration. Drive A and B fill up, so I replace them with drive C and D in the same RAID 1 configuration. Drive A will be stored off-site (in case of fire, flood, theft, etc), while drive B will be installed in an external drive enclosure for read access.

So my question is, will there be any problems moving drive B from an internal RAID 1 configuration to an external non-RAID configuration?

I've never used RAID before, so I'm just wondering if there will be any issues or problems with my plan.

Thanks for the responses.
 
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