Hard Drive Backups/RAID

[jnmohsenin]

Hey all-

So i've ordered all the parts (i7-860/4GB G.Skill/GTX260/etc) including the hard drive, a Spinpoint F3 1TB. I have a couple questions regarding backing up data in general.


So, first and formost, I don't need a 'traditional' backup setup. I never need to go back and grab something I accidently deleted, I'm quite diligent about that. What I do need is protection against hardware failure. There's a couple of options that I see, and was wondering what the smart people around here might think.

1) Use my 1TB spinpoint, with an external 1TB USB harddrive. What I currently do with my macbook pro.

2) Buy a second 1TB Spinpoint, and set them up in a RAID 1 array (mirroring).

So what's the best option? Obviously, buying another spinpoint would probably be cheaper than another external drive, but I'm not sure. If I use another kind of hardrive that's cheaper effect performance? I'm doing some HD video editing, and would a RAID 0 setup effect performance? I'm also curious to what ya'll are running out there.

Thanks for the help!

 

[jimx86]

1) Use my 1TB spinpoint, with an external 1TB USB harddrive. What I currently do with my macbook pro.

2) Buy a second 1TB Spinpoint, and set them up in a RAID 1 array (mirroring).

So what's the best option? Obviously, buying another spinpoint would probably be cheaper than another external drive, but I'm not sure. If I use another kind of hardrive that's cheaper effect performance? I'm doing some HD video editing, and would a RAID 0 setup effect performance? I'm also curious to what ya'll are running out there.

Thanks for the help!

Hey jnmohsenin, actually both of your options are pretty good, and it really just boils down to what you prefer.

Do RAID if you don't mind the hardware doing everything, but do the external hard drive if you don't trust hardware too much (like me) to take care of your data safety.

I would actually prefer the external hard drive, since you probably don't want an exact replica of everything on your drive, just the important things, right? Just get like 500GB, I doubt you'll have 1TB of "important" files.

 

[humph]

For "important" files, I'd recommend having at least two backup HDs.

And definitely two (one external) if you were going RAID1 for the "online" backup.

And preferably one to be off-site updated weekly or monthly so you really have to think about getting it and plugging it in (as well as in case of fire, theft etc)

 

[jimx86]

For "important" files, I'd recommend having at least two backup HDs.

And definitely two (one external) if you were going RAID1 for the "online" backup.

And preferably one to be off-site updated weekly or monthly so you really have to think about getting it and plugging it in (as well as in case of fire, theft etc)

I think that may be a little overdoing it.. but if you're the president's secretary I guess that's too little. It's just your perspective. I've lived a life where my 15 year old hard drive (yes, it's from 1995!) is still working like a charm, so I never felt a need for more than 1 copy of any "important" file.

 

[humph]

Jim,

Well, I've only ever had one drive die on me due to dropping it , and I know a couple of people who have also had crashes. (But this was all on laptops).
Given the relatively low cost of drives these days, just seems like cheap insurance against an unlikely but potentially devastating situation.

But indeed, each individual will have own perspective.

Guess there's a 2x2 matrix of risk tolerance and propensity to hack.
> Low Risk + Mad Hacking = Need Lot's of Backups!!

 

[jimx86]

Guess there's a 2x2 matrix of risk tolerance and propensity to hack.
> Low Risk + Mad Hacking = Need Lot's of Backups!!

You're right there, but usually I don't trust technology with safety/security features, as I prefer to do them myself. A saying by Corsair (which I love) is that the best things are done yourself
They used it in their advertisement for the Corsair dream PC.