SnapperOne 0 Posted September 26, 2003 Found a "Raid or not to Raid" post, but it didn't seem to answer my question. So, here it is. My wife runs a home-based business using a simple 2-PC peer-to-peer LAN via a LinkSys Router and Win2000Pro. Her data storage and program needs are relatively simple, as can be seen by the fact that she uses only 10GB on each of the 40GB HD in her PCs. Does it make any sense to use a RAID-type HD setup vs. simply backing up her primary drive (PC #1) using an external USB2 HD? She's got the itch to move up to a faster PC (P4 vs. her current P3), and the guy she buys her equipment from is talking to her about setting up the new PC as RAID. Help! I think that's a bit of an overkill for her needs. Share this post Link to post
sapiens74 0 Posted September 26, 2003 USB2 is fine. I run raid and there is no need for it as long as you can backup and not have too much downtime with whatever solution you use. Share this post Link to post
jmmijo 1 Posted September 26, 2003 I agree with sapiens on this one, you have to ask your wife how much downtime is acceptable, if any If a 24/7 uptime is required then you'll need to go to a RAID 5 config, preferably with a hotspare and/or hot swap cages. Share this post Link to post
TrueBavarian 0 Posted September 26, 2003 Quote: Found a "Raid or not to Raid" post, but it didn't seem to answer my question. So, here it is. <cut> She's got the itch to move up to a faster PC (P4 vs. her current P3), and the guy she buys her equipment from is talking to her about setting up the new PC as RAID. Help! I think that's a bit of an overkill for her needs. Snapper, this will depend on what kind of data casualty you expect to fix. An accidentally deleted file is gone no matter what RAID set you employ. My suggestion with regards to current hardware prices would be to go for a RAID 1 with rather small hard drives (2). That way even if a drive breaks you can work at that PC and no data is lost, RAID hardware is most likely on the board of that new P4 anyway so it's only the cost for an additional hard drive. In addition, I'd get a USB memory stick drive. Save to it all the frequently changed files, there are some freeware programs which will copy files you select to it on a regular intervals. The cost for this is highly dependable on how much data is frequently saved. With that solution the business of your wife should be able to be up 24x7 and no valuable file should go missing. Share this post Link to post
duhmez 0 Posted September 27, 2003 the best method is just to use both. Raid won't help for file deletion, but the USB will. Raid 1 however will keep the system runing in case of failure/backup in one. For the price of hard drives now and mobo with raid builin, I would suggest anybody using their machine for any type of production use raid 1 and or 5. Share this post Link to post
sapiens74 0 Posted September 27, 2003 Quote: the best method is just to use both. Raid won't help for file deletion, but the USB will. Raid 1 however will keep the system runing in case of failure/backup in one. For the price of hard drives now and mobo with raid builin, I would suggest anybody using their machine for any type of production use raid 1 and or 5. Raid can be pretty costly, and depending on the data which you are trying to protect, such as payroll for 100 employees, then you want to spend the money. BUt for a small business it may be overkill. Then Again I run raid just to get a few extra FPS out of RTCW ET Share this post Link to post
duhmez 0 Posted September 27, 2003 Raid pretty costly? Mobo with raid support, 100-150$ hard drive, 30-40 gig, 50$ each. Cheap. Share this post Link to post
