Re: Raid question

You are correct, you can't "un-RAID" a RAID-0.

Also, I'd like to debunk the suggestion that a RAID-0 is no more risky than a
single drive.

With a single drive, if the disc fails you lose all your data. With a RAID-0, if
either drive fails, you lose your data. The probability of data loss doubles.

Think of it like a game of Russian roulette where each drive is a bullet. The
chance of getting shot doubles when when you put two bullets in the revolver,
the probability of getting shot doubles.

RAID-0 is purely for improving performance by spreading reads and writes over
two spindles. RAID-10 or 50 stripes two arrays so it is resistant to a single
drive failure in either or both RAID-1 or RAID-5 arrays while compensating for
the slower performance of the RAID-1/5. The RAID is not for disaster prevention
but minimizing unscheduled downtime. It's not a substitute for backups.

For a home use machine, you're better off with a single disc and some form of
backup (a removable drive, tape, Internet backup, DVDs, whatever).

As an acid test, if you can't justify spending money on a big UPS and/or a
generator, then RAID is probably not necessary for your use case.
Received on Sun Jun 29 19:46:05 2008