Using a 2TB Hardrive for RAID 0 backup

[MooseMan1]

Hey guys I got a couple questions about the backup options for my 1.74TB RAID setup.

I've currently got 3x 640GB WD Caviar Blacks in a RAID 0 setup, and I want to be able to backup my RAID on a large drive so in the event a drive fails I wont have to reinstall everything and likely loose files.

My idea is to get a 2TB drive and setup a RAID 0+1 so that the 2TB drive is backing up the entire 1.74TB RAID 0 partition. I want to see if anyone has experience with raid 0+1 and/or 2TB drives because I want to make sure this works, and also, I am not sure how much usable space a 2TB drive yields. Finally, would a WD Caviar Green be a good drive to use as the backup drives?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: This is the hardrive I was looking at: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136514

 

[Indigo]

As long as the backup drive is larger than the source drive, I don't foresee a problem. Just beware that the WD Green drives have had prior problems in RAID setups by dropping off of the host controller due to the power management algorithms. I haven't heard of any cases recently, so it may have been an initial firmware issue.

I run two Raptor 150-X's in RAID 0 on my main desktop, but I use a Windows Home Server system and BluRay discs for my backup solution (WHS is short term, BluRay long term).

But what you're asking about is what RAID 0+1 is mainly about, so as long as you watch what you're doing when you modify the array, it should be fine.

 

[MooseMan1]

Awesome thanks for your input. I'll do some searching to see if there have been recent issues with the WD Green drives in RAIDs. Do you use a RAID controller off your mobo? I am using the mobo's RAID controller and i'm not sure if it does 0+1 so I might have to look into a RAID controller as well.

 

[jackasspenguin]

I just bought 2 1TB WD Green EARS drives. I was considering getting a Raid enclosure for them. I snatched up something I thought would be cool for an external storage but turned out it was just a JBOD 2 drive enclosure. But it was Advertised as RAID array. RAID and JBOD have no business being on the same device. I don't know why in hell someone would want to keep 1 volume on several hard drives. If one goes, all the data on all the drives is gone. Why would anyone want that? Then, I thought I'd use the 2 front bays on my Gateway Case for a RAID 1 array. What a piece of crap. The HDs don't even fit in the caddy's. The screw holes don't align. So, from looking around a descent enclosure is far too spendy to make it feasible. i guess I'm back to using usb to sata enclusures- I'll just manually keep the same data on each drive. I have a nice rack mount computer case I'd like to put this Gateway computer in. I didn't want a tower computer with the pop open media drawers but I got a descent deal on the system. But, that's going to be another head ache all on it's own And, it's the only functioning desktop I have right now.