RAID drives, Setting up and WD Blue VS Black (& Red)

[RomanBlue]

Hello,
I am looking of upgrading my PC build from a good ol' WD Blue 1TB HDD and 500GB SSD, to a RAID 5 setup. Now I figured I would get a second WD Blue 1TB along with a 2-4TB drive. The second 1TB will be for splitting data between the two 1TB drives and the 2-4TB drive will be for the copying part of the RAID.
However, my question is, how do I go about doing this switch to RAID and how do I choose which type of HDD?
I now that you are supposed to have the same type/speed drives for the RAID to work smoothly, so I figured I could get another WD Blue 1TB HDD. But I kind of wanted to at least talk about the strength of the Black HDD since I use the PC for gaming and I know that the Black is supposed to be very kosher for all that. Would it be better for me to get the Black for the larger TB drive?
Also what is the whole deal with the WD Red drives? I heard they are specific for RAID but I have only heard limited info on them...
Thank you guys SO SO much! I know it is a lot to unpack and explain to a noob but please be patient!

PS: I underlined my questions to make it easier for the skim reader!

 

[faalin]

what are you trying to use this for, I'm rather confused with what drives your trying to use.

You have a 1TB blue and a 500GB SSD.

You want to add another 1TB blue along with 2 4TB drives.

None of that would really work in raid 5. Raid 5 needs a minimum of 3 drives to work, and its preferred to use the same size/spec'd drives.

If your trying to use the SSD with 2 1TB drives the SSD will run at the speed of the platter drives, and each 1TB will only be able to use 500GB of the drive loosing the other 500GB as raids wont allow you to use the unallocted space on the drives.

You would be better off running the OS on the SSD any data on the 1 or 4TB drive and keep good backups on another 4TB drive.

 

[RomanBlue]

what are you trying to use this for, I'm rather confused with what drives your trying to use.

You have a 1TB blue and a 500GB SSD.

You want to add another 1TB blue along with 2 4TB drives.

None of that would really work in raid 5. Raid 5 needs a minimum of 3 drives to work, and its preferred to use the same size/spec'd drives.

If your trying to use the SSD with 2 1TB drives the SSD will run at the speed of the platter drives, and each 1TB will only be able to use 500GB of the drive loosing the other 500GB as raids wont allow you to use the unallocted space on the drives.

You would be better off running the OS on the SSD any data on the 1 or 4TB drive and keep good backups on another 4TB drive.

I think what I want to do is add another 1TB Blue and then a single 4TB (or 2Tb or 3TB) drive to make the three required for RAID 5. The question I wanted to know is, should that 4TB drive be anything other than a WB Blue?

Also because I use my PC mainly for gaming, should I have a WB Black HDD?

Edit: The SSD has nothing to do with the RAID setup. Also, if I do get the WB Black, is it possible to move everything over from my current 1TB Blue to that new WB Black??

 

[mdd1963]

get an SSD for your OS (equivalent of 3 drives in RAID 0 for speed), and abandon MB supported or WIndows software RAID....

 

[RomanBlue]

get an SSD for your OS (equivalent of 3 drives in RAID 0 for speed), and abandon MB supported or WIndows software RAID....

I have an SSD. I am not sure what MB supported is.

 

[USAFRet]

what are you trying to use this for, I'm rather confused with what drives your trying to use.

You have a 1TB blue and a 500GB SSD.

You want to add another 1TB blue along with 2 4TB drives.

None of that would really work in raid 5. Raid 5 needs a minimum of 3 drives to work, and its preferred to use the same size/spec'd drives.

If your trying to use the SSD with 2 1TB drives the SSD will run at the speed of the platter drives, and each 1TB will only be able to use 500GB of the drive loosing the other 500GB as raids wont allow you to use the unallocted space on the drives.

You would be better off running the OS on the SSD any data on the 1 or 4TB drive and keep good backups on another 4TB drive.

I think what I want to do is add another 1TB Blue and then a single 4TB (or 2Tb or 3TB) drive to make the three required for RAID 5. The question I wanted to know is, should that 4TB drive be anything other than a WB Blue?

Also because I use my PC mainly for gaming, should I have a WB Black HDD?

Edit: The SSD has nothing to do with the RAID setup. Also, if I do get the WB Black, is it possible to move everything over from my current 1TB Blue to that new WB Black??

1. A RAID 5 needs 3 (or more) similar size drives.
1TB + 1TB + 2 or 4TB + RAID 5 = 2TB RAID 5 array.

2. Generally, RAID is absolutely not necessary in any consumer usage. Especially a gaming PC.

3. Motherboard based RAID is even worse.


What are you trying to protect against with this RAID array?

 

[RomanBlue]

what are you trying to use this for, I'm rather confused with what drives your trying to use.

You have a 1TB blue and a 500GB SSD.

You want to add another 1TB blue along with 2 4TB drives.

None of that would really work in raid 5. Raid 5 needs a minimum of 3 drives to work, and its preferred to use the same size/spec'd drives.

If your trying to use the SSD with 2 1TB drives the SSD will run at the speed of the platter drives, and each 1TB will only be able to use 500GB of the drive loosing the other 500GB as raids wont allow you to use the unallocted space on the drives.

You would be better off running the OS on the SSD any data on the 1 or 4TB drive and keep good backups on another 4TB drive.

I think what I want to do is add another 1TB Blue and then a single 4TB (or 2Tb or 3TB) drive to make the three required for RAID 5. The question I wanted to know is, should that 4TB drive be anything other than a WB Blue?

Also because I use my PC mainly for gaming, should I have a WB Black HDD?

Edit: The SSD has nothing to do with the RAID setup. Also, if I do get the WB Black, is it possible to move everything over from my current 1TB Blue to that new WB Black??

1. A RAID 5 needs 3 (or more) similar size drives.
1TB + 1TB + 2 or 4TB + RAID 5 = 2TB RAID 5 array.

2. Generally, RAID is absolutely not necessary in any consumer usage. Especially a gaming PC.

3. Motherboard based RAID is even worse.


What are you trying to protect against with this RAID array?

Honestly, I had originally wanted to get an external hard drive to keep data safe for backups and the like but I had heard that RAID was great for data safekeeping and keeping your PC fast. I don't really know much else about the topic to be honest.

I did also want to just in general expand the amount of HDD space on my PC (which I think is how i got on the topic of using RAID in the very first place). Should I just pick up a HDD and not bother with RAID at all?

 

[USAFRet]

Honestly, I had originally wanted to get an external hard drive to keep data safe for backups and the like but I had heard that RAID was great for data safekeeping and keeping your PC fast. I don't really know much else about the topic to be honest.

I did also want to just in general expand the amount of HDD space on my PC (which I think is how i got on the topic of using RAID in the very first place). Should I just pick up a HDD and not bother with RAID at all?

RAID is actually NOT for safekeeping of your data.
It only protects against a physical drive fail.

All the other, far more common forms of data loss...a RAID array does nothing for that.
Virus, accidental deletion, corruption, ransomware, etc, etc...nope.

Don't bother with the RAID at all.
A couple of extra drives, some free backup/imaging software...done.

Read here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3383768/backup-situation-home.html

While my personal solution does include a RAID 5, that is in dedicated hardware and software, in a Qnal NAS box.

That can easily be scaled down to a couple of external drives.

 

[RomanBlue]

RAID is actually NOT for safekeeping of your data.
It only protects against a physical drive fail.

All the other, far more common forms of data loss...a RAID array does nothing for that.
Virus, accidental deletion, corruption, ransomware, etc, etc...nope.

Don't bother with the RAID at all.
A couple of extra drives, some free backup/imaging software...done.

Read here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3383768/backup-situation-home.html

While my personal solution does include a RAID 5, that is in dedicated hardware and software, in a Qnal NAS box.

That can easily be scaled down to a couple of external drives.

Okay, thank you so much for the help. I will definitely continue looking into permanent backup systems!