Build Advice Raid or not? Hardware or software?

[mikejs78]

In building my new desktop, I currently have a 1TB NVMe for the OS, a 2 TB NVMe for games and apps, and an 8 TB HDD for data (mostly photos/videos/movies). I'm wondering if it's worth mirroring the OS drive? The other drives I'm comfortable with just backup, as that is easy enough, but I've had some bad experiences recently with OS drive problems... Is it worth doing? Do you use Raid on your own machines, if so, for what?

 

[USAFRet]

In the consumer space, RAID is almost never the answer.

A good automated backup routine should be all you need.

My main system runs an Incremental backup, every night. All drives individually.
So it is never more than 24 hours out of date.

And yes, I have had to use that to recover from a dead drive, and nasty virus infection.

 

[Lafong]

RAID is quite rare around here for home systems.

What do you hope to accomplish with it that can't be done with traditional backup methods?

Do you make money with the PC?

Is uptime EXTREMELY important?

 

[DSzymborski]

In building my new desktop, I currently have a 1TB NVMe for the OS, a 2 TB NVMe for games and apps, and an 8 TB HDD for data (mostly photos/videos/movies). I'm wondering if it's worth mirroring the OS drive? The other drives I'm comfortable with just backup, as that is easy enough, but I've had some bad experiences recently with OS drive problems... Is it worth doing? Do you use Raid on your own machines, if so, for what?

From what you've said, zero of the conditions in which a consumer using RAID are in effect. If you want to back up your OS drive, set up an automatic timed clone to the other drive rather than a janky RAID.

 

[Bob.B]

In building my new desktop, I currently have a 1TB NVMe for the OS, a 2 TB NVMe for games and apps, and an 8 TB HDD for data (mostly photos/videos/movies). I'm wondering if it's worth mirroring the OS drive? The other drives I'm comfortable with just backup, as that is easy enough, but I've had some bad experiences recently with OS drive problems... Is it worth doing? Do you use Raid on your own machines, if so, for what?

For joe user run the pc in k.i.s.s. mode leave that raid stuff for the weenies.

 

[mikejs78]

So it sounds like Raid is not useful - what is a good backup software for imaging the OS drive and copying the other drives on a schedule, with incremental and support for multiple destinations (NAS, cloud)?

 

[Lafong]

Do you want free only?

If paid, how much will you pay?

 

[USAFRet]

So it sounds like Raid is not useful - what is a good backup software for imaging the OS drive and copying the other drives on a schedule, with incremental and support for multiple destinations (NAS, cloud)?

I use Macrium Reflect.
Unfortunately, they've gone to a full paid model.

$80 onetime payment.
But for me, it is that good. I bought a license for my main system years ago, free on all the others.

Acronis TrueImage might be an option, but I'm not really familiar with it.

 

[mikejs78]

Do you want free only?

If paid, how much will you pay?

Free if it can do the job, but I don't mind paid if it's a better solution - also worth noting that I have about 5 devices that need backup - my new desktop, the Plex server, and 3 laptops (mine, wife's, and son's). Don't think I need support for phone/tablet backup as that stuff is pretty recoverable...

As far as cost, hard to say.... $50-100? If subscription, probably no more than $10-15 month total. I don't need additional cloud storage as I have plenty already.

I also don't mind if the solution is complex/not as user friendly if that's a consideration. I am a Software Engineer by profession so am used to that kind of thing..

 

[USAFRet]

Free if it can do the job, but I don't mind paid if it's a better solution - also worth noting that I have about 5 devices that need backup - my new desktop, the Plex server, and 3 laptops (mine, wife's, and son's). Don't think I need support for phone/tablet backup as that stuff is pretty recoverable...

As far as cost, hard to say.... $50-100? If subscription, probably no more than $10-15 month total. I don't need additional cloud storage as I have plenty already.

I also don't mind if the solution is complex/not as user friendly if that's a consideration. I am a Software Engineer by profession so am used to that kind of thing..

Macrium Reflect Home | The complete backup solution for personal use.

The complete backup solution for personal use. Protect documents, data and operating systems using our upgraded Reflect X technology.

www.macrium.com

Macrium costs:
1PC:
$80 one time
$25/year

4PC:
$240 one time
$50/year


Macrium is my absolute go to tool for this. Even with the $$.

 

[Lafong]

Free if it can do the job, but I don't mind paid if it's a better solution - also worth noting that I have about 5 devices that need backup - my new desktop, the Plex server, and 3 laptops (mine, wife's, and son's). Don't think I need support for phone/tablet backup as that stuff is pretty recoverable...

As far as cost, hard to say.... $50-100? If subscription, probably no more than $10-15 month total. I don't need additional cloud storage as I have plenty already.

I also don't mind if the solution is complex/not as user friendly if that's a consideration. I am a Software Engineer by profession so am used to that kind of thing..

Aomei Backupper might be the best free solution since Macrium is moving away from free.

I'm not sure of Aomei's possible limitations, but it might be worth a try if you'd rather not pay 80 for Macrium.

 

[hotaru.hino]

So it sounds like Raid is not useful - what is a good backup software for imaging the OS drive and copying the other drives on a schedule, with incremental and support for multiple destinations (NAS, cloud)?

If you want someone else's backup workflow:

• I have a 2-bay NAS, but the drives aren't in RAID1
• I don't have a complete copy of my data on my main machine because I don't find that a good use of its drive space.
• One of the NAS drives is the main, staging drive, where I push all the updates to
• Every week:
  • I use FreeFileSync to push data from my main computer up to the NAS
  • The NAS updates the other drive with new data from the staging drive
  • The NAS then pushes updates from the staging drive to my cloud storage provider
  • These happen about 24 hours apart from each other, since I don't expect updates to take that long.
• I have another external drive that I plug into the NAS once in a while to make a backup of it.

In this way, I have at least three copies of my data, two of them are on physically separate storage devices, and one of them is off-site (i.e., the cloud).

I don't make system images because I've distilled my OS install workflow to the point where I can get back on my feet within an hour from a fresh install. I just know where the configuration data for apps that I know are a pain in the butt to configure are and simply copying and pasting them back works.