Backing up a RAID

[Venturi]

Hello,

I have a RAID 0 setup on my computer (trying it out for the first time) and all is going well. Though I know RAID 0's are risky because if a drive goes bad I lose all of my data.

So the question is if I buy just 1 hard drive of the same size as the RAID 0 (2TB) I should be able to back it up with no issues correct? Speed and all that shouldn't matter as long as I setup the RAID to write to the drive at this time every so many days and what not.

I've never played with RAIDs before and just want to make sure all my ducks are in a row before I buy another drive. Also I now a RAID 10 is better but I am using an M.2 SSD boot drive and that leaves me with only 1 SATA plug left (thus the reason for no RAID 10).

Thanks in advance.

 

[USAFRet]

What you want to backup is just the data. Not necessarily the data + RAID configuration.

But yes, that would work. And you always want a good backup routine with a RAID 0.

What drives are these, and what do you use this system for?

 

[geofelt]

What do you hope to gain from raid-0?
Performance should not be one of those expectations.
Raid-0 has been over hyped as a performance enhancer.
Sequential benchmarks do look wonderful, but the real world does not seem to deliver the indicated performance benefits for most
desktop users. The reason is, that sequential benchmarks are coded for maximum overlapped I/O rates.
It depends on reading a stripe of data simultaneously from each raid-0 member, and that is rarely what we do.
The OS does mostly small random reads and writes, so raid-0 is of little use there.
In fact, if your block of data were to be spanned on two drives, random times would be greater.
There are some apps that will benefit. They are characterized by reading large files in a sequential overlapped manner.

Here is a older study using ssd devices in raid-0.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485.html
Spoiler... no benefit at all.

If you are worried about backup(and you should) plan on external backup.

 

[Venturi]

What you want to backup is just the data. Not necessarily the data + RAID configuration.

But yes, that would work. And you always want a good backup routine with a RAID 0.

What drives are these, and what do you use this system for?

It is just home PC, it is used for everything from taxes to gaming. The RAID 0 if anything is used for load times in the games, here are the drives in use:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236625

As for geofelt... idk what help you were trying to offer but I don't care about SSD in RAID...

 

[geofelt]

My point was that raid 0, even with a fast drive does not improve performance.

If you do not have a SSD, that is THE way to improve performance.
Once you use one, you will never again go back.
A ssd will make everything you do quicker.
Files open instantly, browsing is faster, thumbnails open instantly.
For games, levels will load faster textures will load faster, checkpoints will take less time.
A 240gb ssd will hold windows and a fair number of games. Use the HDD for large sequential files.
Samsung evo would be my choice.

How much of your 1tb drive is actually used?

 

[Venturi]

My point was that raid 0, even with a fast drive does not improve performance.

If you do not have a SSD, that is THE way to improve performance.
Once you use one, you will never again go back.
A ssd will make everything you do quicker.
Files open instantly, browsing is faster, thumbnails open instantly.
For games, levels will load faster textures will load faster, checkpoints will take less time.
A 240gb ssd will hold windows and a fair number of games. Use the HDD for large sequential files.
Samsung evo would be my choice.

How much of your 1tb drive is actually used?

I think you are missing the point.... the RAID I have already exists and I just want to make sure backing it up works the way I think it does like answered above.

Fun fact though that is the SSD I am using as a boot drive but I don't store my games on it, I have more the 240g worth.