RAID VS single hard drive?

RAID is one of those things I've been looking for an answer for a long time. It
is one technology I have yet to hear even a single logical reason for on a
consumer-grade computer given today's HDD capacities and prices. What if it
lets you tie three 500GB HDDs together? The best price I can find on three of
those is $180. I can buy a 1.5TB HDD for $50 less.

Please share with me where you buya 1.5TB drive for $50 or less.

On 07 Feb 2009 15:14:51 GMT, Fred wrote:

| RAID is one of those things I've been looking for an answer for a long time. It
| is one technology I have yet to hear even a single logical reason for on a
| consumer-grade computer given today's HDD capacities and prices. What if it
| lets you tie three 500GB HDDs together? The best price I can find on three of
| those is $180. I can buy a 1.5TB HDD for $50 less.
|
| Please share with me where you buya 1.5TB drive for $50 or less.

Reread what I said: "The best price I can find on three of those is $180. I can
buy a 1.5TB HDD for $50 less."

$50 less than $180 is $130.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148337

Larc

RAID is one of those things I've been looking for an answer for a long time. It
is one technology I have yet to hear even a single logical reason for on a
consumer-grade computer given today's HDD capacities and prices. What if it
lets you tie three 500GB HDDs together? The best price I can find on three of
those is $180. I can buy a 1.5TB HDD for $50 less.

Please share with me where you buya 1.5TB drive for $50 or less.

Reread what I said: "The best price I can find on three of those is $180. I can
buy a 1.5TB HDD for $50 less."

$50 less than $180 is $130.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148337

Larc

Yeah, it does help to read it correctly.

Fred

On Feb 7, 11:23*am, Larc wrote:
On 07 Feb 2009 15:14:51 GMT, Fred wrote:

| RAID is one of those things I've been looking for an answer for a long time. *It
| is one technology I have yet to hear even a single logical reason for on a
| consumer-grade computer given today's HDD capacities and prices. *What if it
| lets you tie three 500GB HDDs together? *The best price I can find on three of
| those is $180. *I can buy a 1.5TB HDD for $50 less.
|
| Please share with me where you buya 1.5TB drive for $50 or less.

Reread what I said: "The best price I can find on three of those is $180. *I can
buy a 1.5TB HDD for $50 less."

$50 less than $180 is $130.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148337

Larc

Redundancy my friend. If you have 3 500GB hard drives 1 acts as the
mirror and the other 2 are for storage, if one of those drives fails
then the other takes over, when you replace the failed drive it will
rebuild itself.

You can also gain some speed by using Raid 0 with 2 drives.

On Wed, 18 Feb 2009 10:06:56 -0800 (PST), wrote:

| On Feb 7, 11:23*am, Larc wrote:
| On 07 Feb 2009 15:14:51 GMT, Fred wrote:
|
| | RAID is one of those things I've been looking for an answer for a long time. *It
| | is one technology I have yet to hear even a single logical reason for on a
| | consumer-grade computer given today's HDD capacities and prices. *What if it
| | lets you tie three 500GB HDDs together? *The best price I can find on three of
| | those is $180. *I can buy a 1.5TB HDD for $50 less.
| |
| | Please share with me where you buya 1.5TB drive for $50 or less.
|
| Reread what I said: "The best price I can find on three of those is $180. *I can
| buy a 1.5TB HDD for $50 less."
|
| $50 less than $180 is $130.
|
| http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148337
|
| Larc
|
| Redundancy my friend. If you have 3 500GB hard drives 1 acts as the
| mirror and the other 2 are for storage, if one of those drives fails
| then the other takes over, when you replace the failed drive it will
| rebuild itself.

Is there any benefit beyond not having to back up? My understanding is RAID
mirrors everything, but I can back up selectively and not have to use nearly as
much HDD real estate.

| You can also gain some speed by using Raid 0 with 2 drives.

But is it enough to really matter? Just asking because I honestly don't know
the answer.

Larc

"larc" == larc writes:

larc Is there any benefit beyond not having to back up? My
larc understanding is RAID mirrors everything, but I can back up
larc selectively and not have to use nearly as much HDD real
larc estate.

There are different types of RAID which do quite different
things. RAID 1, 5, and some variants offer redundancy. RAID 0, 5, and
some variants offer speed increase.

larc But is it enough to really matter? Just asking because I
larc honestly don't know the answer.

I have a 3-disk RAID 0 and it is measurably much faster than a single
identical disk. I run backups most nights with a Wake on Lan.
--
I scrambled to the top of the precipice where Nick was
waiting. "That was fun," I said. "You bet it was," said
Nick. "Let's climb higher." "No," I said. "I think we should be
heading back now." "We have time," Nick insisted. I said we
didn't, and Nick said we did. We argued back and forth like that
for about 20 minutes, then finally decided to head back. I didn't
say it was an interesting story.
- Jack Handey

In article 92c2a4cb-cbaa-486f-a17b-35936fa1c908
@v42g2000yqj.googlegroups.com, says...
On Feb 7, 11:23*am, Larc wrote:
On 07 Feb 2009 15:14:51 GMT, Fred wrote:

| RAID is one of those things I've been looking for an answer for a long time. *It
| is one technology I have yet to hear even a single logical reason for on a
| consumer-grade computer given today's HDD capacities and prices. *What if it
| lets you tie three 500GB HDDs together? *The best price I can find on three of
| those is $180. *I can buy a 1.5TB HDD for $50 less.
|
| Please share with me where you buya 1.5TB drive for $50 or less.

Reread what I said: "The best price I can find on three of those is $180. *I can
buy a 1.5TB HDD for $50 less."

$50 less than $180 is $130.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148337

Larc

Redundancy my friend. If you have 3 500GB hard drives 1 acts as the
mirror and the other 2 are for storage, if one of those drives fails
then the other takes over, when you replace the failed drive it will
rebuild itself.

You can also gain some speed by using Raid 0 with 2 drives.

And when one of those two drives dies... you lose everything...

In message Larc
was claimed to have wrote:

Is there any benefit beyond not having to back up?

You still need to backup, there are any number of other things that can
go wrong including multiple drive failures, and user error.

RAID fills in some gaps that most backup strategies leave open.

Uptime is the big one. I can go pull a drive out of my file server
right now (simulated failure) and users using the machine won't even
notice.

High availability is both important and fun to me, so I can go a step
further and fail an entire server without users noticing, which means I
can survive multiple drive and/or multiple controller failures. I
realize I am not a typical small business owner in this respect, but how
am I to claim experience in these matters if I can't manage to run my
own network?

Even in a home situation downtime-until-recovery can be important too,
I'm not sure your kids' teachers would like "My hard drive died so I
couldn't do my homework" any more then my parents' teachers liked "My
dog ate my homework"

I know I wouldn't have my consulting gigs for very long if I called in
with a broken hard drive.

Lastly, backups are point-in-time, everything stored between the time of
the most recent backup and current failure is irrevocably lost and must
be replaced or recreated. RAID functions in real time, so you're
isolated from data loss in the event of a single failure.

My understanding is RAID
mirrors everything, but I can back up selectively and not have to use nearly as
much HDD real estate.

What percentage of your drive do you backup? We're using RAID-5 here,
primarily in 3-disc or 4-disc arrays, so we're looking at only 25%-33%
lost to redundancy.