Can I run a RAID 1 array with two differently-sized hard drives?

[guymarshall]

I have a 7200 RPM 1TB HDD and a 7200 RPM 2TB HDD, and I was wondering if I could run RAID 1 on them to make my data less susceptible to errors or data loss.

 

[Emerald]

in theory you can but you will have only 1TB of storage since the RAID1 will base the size on the smaller of the two drives.

 

[middlemarkal]

yes but you will end up with 1 terra total at the end.

new hd are pretty reliable, no need for the house.

you see raid 1 on server for the OS and raid 5 for the data

 

[USAFRet]

1TB + 2TB + RAID 1 = 1TB RAID 1 array. You're throwing away 1/2 your 2TB drive.

And RAID 1 does not make your data less susceptible to errors, etc. It just means that any errors or deletions are duplicated on two drives.

 

[guymarshall]

yes but you will end up with 1 terra total at the end.

new hd are pretty reliable, no need for the house.

you see raid 1 on server for the OS and raid 5 for the data

So if 1TB is enabled for RAID, what can I do with the other 1TB on the 2TB drive? Is it free to edit or is it unavailable?

 

[guymarshall]

1TB + 2TB + RAID 1 = 1TB RAID 1 array. You're throwing away 1/2 your 2TB drive.

And RAID 1 does not make your data less susceptible to errors, etc. It just means that any errors or deletions are duplicated on two drives.

I didn't say what I meant to say correctly haha. What I meant was that if one hard drive failed, my data is still fine.

 

[USAFRet]

1TB + 2TB + RAID 1 = 1TB RAID 1 array. You're throwing away 1/2 your 2TB drive.

And RAID 1 does not make your data less susceptible to errors, etc. It just means that any errors or deletions are duplicated on two drives.

I didn't say what I meant to say correctly haha. What I meant was that if one hard drive failed, my data is still fine.

Well...drives are pretty darn reliable these days. A much better way of doing this would be an image, updated once in a while.
Macrium Reflect and Casper both have functionality to create incremental drive images, on a schedule. So if anything weird happens, you can go back to before it happened, and reconstruct as needed.

A RAID 1 is useful if you absolutely need 24/7 uninterrupted operation. Like if you were running a webserver for a store. Downtime = lost sales. And any business that runs their system on a RAID 1, also has an actual backup, to do what the backup is for.
RAID 1 is not a backup.

 

[guymarshall]

1TB + 2TB + RAID 1 = 1TB RAID 1 array. You're throwing away 1/2 your 2TB drive.

And RAID 1 does not make your data less susceptible to errors, etc. It just means that any errors or deletions are duplicated on two drives.

I didn't say what I meant to say correctly haha. What I meant was that if one hard drive failed, my data is still fine.

Well...drives are pretty darn reliable these days. A much better way of doing this would be an image, updated once in a while.
Macrium Reflect and Casper both have functionality to create incremental drive images, on a schedule. So if anything weird happens, you can go back to before it happened, and reconstruct as needed.

A RAID 1 is useful if you absolutely need 24/7 uninterrupted operation. Like if you were running a webserver for a store. Downtime = lost sales. And any business that runs their system on a RAID 1, also has an actual backup, to do what the backup is for.
RAID 1 is not a backup.

I am getting an SSD for booting into windows and starting programs, and the 2 hdds are for storage, so I thought why not run RAID 1.

 

[USAFRet]

1TB + 2TB + RAID 1 = 1TB RAID 1 array. You're throwing away 1/2 your 2TB drive.

And RAID 1 does not make your data less susceptible to errors, etc. It just means that any errors or deletions are duplicated on two drives.

I didn't say what I meant to say correctly haha. What I meant was that if one hard drive failed, my data is still fine.

Well...drives are pretty darn reliable these days. A much better way of doing this would be an image, updated once in a while.
Macrium Reflect and Casper both have functionality to create incremental drive images, on a schedule. So if anything weird happens, you can go back to before it happened, and reconstruct as needed.

A RAID 1 is useful if you absolutely need 24/7 uninterrupted operation. Like if you were running a webserver for a store. Downtime = lost sales. And any business that runs their system on a RAID 1, also has an actual backup, to do what the backup is for.
RAID 1 is not a backup.

I am getting an SSD for booting into windows and starting programs, and the 2 hdds are for storage, so I thought why not run RAID 1.

Well, you can, taking into account the size thing mentioned above.
But it's not really doing what you think it should do.

 

[guymarshall]

1TB + 2TB + RAID 1 = 1TB RAID 1 array. You're throwing away 1/2 your 2TB drive.

And RAID 1 does not make your data less susceptible to errors, etc. It just means that any errors or deletions are duplicated on two drives.

I didn't say what I meant to say correctly haha. What I meant was that if one hard drive failed, my data is still fine.

Well...drives are pretty darn reliable these days. A much better way of doing this would be an image, updated once in a while.
Macrium Reflect and Casper both have functionality to create incremental drive images, on a schedule. So if anything weird happens, you can go back to before it happened, and reconstruct as needed.

A RAID 1 is useful if you absolutely need 24/7 uninterrupted operation. Like if you were running a webserver for a store. Downtime = lost sales. And any business that runs their system on a RAID 1, also has an actual backup, to do what the backup is for.
RAID 1 is not a backup.

I am getting an SSD for booting into windows and starting programs, and the 2 hdds are for storage, so I thought why not run RAID 1.

Well, you can, taking into account the size thing mentioned above.
But it's not really doing what you think it should do.

Do I need a PCI RAID card or can I just do it via the motherboard?