[SOLVED] My RAID card was “stolen”. Should I buy a new one?

echolane

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I took my dual boot Win 7/ Win 10 desktop tower into our local repair shop because it was so slow to boot. After it took about 4-5 minutes to boot, The tech opened it up and looked around and asked me what my hard drives were for.
1 SSD - Win 7 OS
1 SSD - Win 10 OS
2 WD HDs - RAID 1 array

Whereupon the following conversation went something like this:
There is no RAID.
WHAT? There should be a RAID card inside.
Nope, no RAID card inside.
WHAT??

I had brought it into the same shop 10 days ago for the same problem, just got around to starting it up yesterday and had found no improvement in the boot issue, so I was returning with it. I never looked to see if my RAID was intact.

But now I do have another problem, which is deciding whether to buy another RAID card. I’ve been moving RAID cards up as I’ve rebuilt my computers over the years and go way back, starting with MS DOS, and migrating to Windows 3.1, NT, 2000, XP, 7 and 10. I bought my first RAID card so long ago, maybe as far back as NT, but certainly for my Windows 2000 build which would have been March 2000. My RAID array has rescued me twice when one hard drive failed so I’ve been quite committed to them.

But it’s been more than a decade since I bought a newer RAID card and I can’t remember the brand. Has anything changed? Should I instead resort to the MB’s RAID capabilities? I have the Intel DZ87KLT-75K motherboard. I was told way back that it was better to have a card because you can’t transfer your RAID data to a new motherboard. Is that still true?

If so, I’m looking for recommendations for a reliable card to buy. I don’t need it to do anything but RAID 1. I don’t want to have to reload my OS’s.
 
Solution
Why RAID?
Not wanting to reload the OS does not require RAID of any type.

A good backup routine is easier, more stable, and better for data security.
A RAID 1 is only for the physical drive, not the data.

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Why RAID?
Not wanting to reload the OS does not require RAID of any type.

A good backup routine is easier, more stable, and better for data security.
A RAID 1 is only for the physical drive, not the data.

 
Solution
Most mainboards since the year 1998 or so support rudimentary RAID 0/1/5 options, if having a second mirrored disk helps any. I'm not sure if you are saying a RAID card was truly missing/stolen, or, if the tech simply assumed /informed that you'd have need a RAID card to have had a RAID, which is, by the way, simply absurd.

Data should be backed up in 2 places, IMO, and an internal mirror does not count as a backup, as most ransomware victims quickly discover... One of the backed up locations should likely be air gapped/disconnected given the nature of ransomware seeking out all drives/network locations these days.

Anything important can be also backed up in two separate free cloud accounts.... (Encrypt it first)
 
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echolane

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I “hear” the message, that backups are necessary anyway, but the best backup system should include the cloud and the cloud costs money. Currently, I backup to portable passport style drives and don’t use the cloud. Regardless, I feel ever so much more comfortable backed up by RAID too.

Some cards I’ve looked at require reloading the OS. Since I have two OS’s....that’s not very appealing.
 

popatim

Titan
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Cloud is certainly not needed for a good backup system. All 'The Cloud' is is someone else's computer & storage.
Make backups, the more copies you have then the safer your data is.
Keep one offsite in case something really bad happens at your place.
 

echolane

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You're raid was most likely motherboard raid or possibly even Raid thru Windows Storage spaces.

You don't need to go raid card shopping.
My RAID was not motherboard RAID. It was a separate PCI card (not PCIe]. In fact it was the reason I bought a mb that still had two slots for PCI. Regardless, it is now moot as I plan to abandon RAID and develop a good backup routine. I would never chose to use mb RAID because it is not portable to another build. But a RAID card is.
 

echolane

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yes a good backup is much more useful!
Still, I was pretty happy to have RAID when one of those two hard drives failed. it has twice happened to me and I was rescued by RAID.
But I have relied on RAID for years, no decades actually, and as a result I have been careless about backups. I will have to reform my ways!
 

popatim

Titan
Moderator
You can still use motherboard raid 1. If you upgrade your system to an incompatible new system, like going from intel to AMD (amd to amd / intel to intel usually works) it would be trivial to reload your backup. U use raid 1 on my main data drive and R0 on my other arrays.
 
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