[SOLVED] Use RAID1 as backup??

[traxxmy]

Hello. I know a RAID is not a proper backup solution but is it safe to do RAID1 for backup. My Window on SDD. My 6 year old HDD have 3 partition and not sure what happen early this year one my partition somehow become RAW. Luckily that partition only have small 9GB data and i have backup in cloud. My other partition have almost 700GB data so cloud definitely out of question. Is it recommmended to use RAID 1 or just install second HDD and manually copy to second HDD if got changes, The latter i worry is if i forgot to manually copy then back up is like no back up. The former i afraid if the partition become RAW again then the second HDD also get mirrored RAW.

 

[traxxmy]

By the way NAS to expensive for me

 

[nofanneeded]

RAID 1 is not a backup , because it is mirroring .. wont keep old stuff if lost or deleted.

 

[SkyNetRising]

i afraid if the partition become RAW again then the second HDD also get mirrored RAW.

Yes. That's exactly, how raid 1 works.

 

[jojesa]

Hello. I know a RAID is not a proper backup solution but is it safe to do RAID1 for backup. My Window on SDD. My 6 year old HDD have 3 partition and not sure what happen early this year one my partition somehow become RAW. Luckily that partition only have small 9GB data and i have backup in cloud. My other partition have almost 700GB data so cloud definitely out of question. Is it recommmended to use RAID 1 or just install second HDD and manually copy to second HDD if got changes, The latter i worry is if i forgot to manually copy then back up is like no back up. The former i afraid if the partition become RAW again then the second HDD also get mirrored RAW.

Yes, you could use RAID1 as a backup, since is mirrors data and if one of the disk fails, data can still be recovered because it is also on the second disk.

You could also use a larger disk and manually copy data.

Having any of those two solutions is a lot better than having no backup at all.

 

[traxxmy]

Yes, you could use RAID1 as a backup, since is mirrors data and if one of the disk fails, data can still be recovered because it is also on the second disk.

You could also use a larger disk and manually copy data.

Having any of those two solutions is a lot better than having no backup at all.

HDD failed straight away then still fine but my situation, one of my partition become RAW. Had to reformat back only then can use back the partition but then format also remove data and only one partition affected but this enough to give me chills as i never know when it will happen again

 

[nofanneeded]

@USAFRet

This guy needs help

 

[USAFRet]

RAID 1 presents one "copy" of the data to the user and OS.
Deleted, corrupted, ransomed....it is gone. RAID 1 only means that happens on 2 physical drives at the same time.


RAID 1 is good for uptime in the case of a physical drive death. That's about all.

 

[nofanneeded]

RAID 1 presents one "copy" of the data to the user and OS.
Deleted, corrupted, ransomed....it is gone. RAID 1 only means that happens on 2 physical drives at the same time.


RAID 1 is good for uptime in the case of a physical drive death. That's about all.

tell him about your backup solution ... automated one !

 

[jojesa]

HDD failed straight away then still fine but my situation, one of my partition become RAW. Had to reformat back only then can use back the partition but then format also remove data and only one partition affected but this enough to give me chills as i never know when it will happen again

The same could happen if you have data on single HDD and it happens to fail.
I think the best and safest backup solution, is to have data in two separate locations...if one fails you still have another.
I have practiced that for more than 25 years and have not lose a single file just yet.

 

[USAFRet]

What is your backup situation at home?

What is your backup situation at home? And if you don't do that, why not? Every single day, I read multiple threads here of "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" Be it a dead drive, dropped phone, virus, accidental deletion, formatting the wrong...

forums.tomshardware.com

That speaks to my NAS. But could easily be boiled down to a couple of external drives.

 

[geofelt]

The value of raid-1 and it's variants like raid-5 is that you can recover from a drive failure quickly. It is for servers that can not tolerate any interruption.
Modern hard drives have a advertised mean time to failure on the order of 500,000+ hours. SSD devices are similar, if not better. That is something like 50 years. SSD's are similar.
With raid-1 you are protecting yourself from specifically a hard drive failure. Not from other failures such as viruses, operator error,
malware, raid controller failure fire, theft, etc.
For that, you need external backup. If you have external backup, and can tolerate some recovery time, you do not need raid-1

 

[traxxmy]

The value of raid-1 and it's variants like raid-5 is that you can recover from a drive failure quickly. It is for servers that can not tolerate any interruption.
Modern hard drives have a advertised mean time to failure on the order of 500,000+ hours. SSD devices are similar, if not better. That is something like 50 years. SSD's are similar.
With raid-1 you are protecting yourself from specifically a hard drive failure. Not from other failures such as viruses, operator error,
malware, raid controller failure fire, theft, etc.
For that, you need external backup. If you have external backup, and can tolerate some recovery time, you do not need raid-1

I do consider install second hdd and just copy paste but the failure point would be me if i forgot to do manual sync. RAID1 under my plan because any change i do automatically mirror to second HDD,

 

[traxxmy]

What is your backup situation at home?

What is your backup situation at home? And if you don't do that, why not? Every single day, I read multiple threads here of "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" Be it a dead drive, dropped phone, virus, accidental deletion, formatting the wrong...

forums.tomshardware.com

That speaks to my NAS. But could easily be boiled down to a couple of external drives.

🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

 

[USAFRet]

I do consider install second hdd and just copy paste but the failure point would be me if i forgot to do manual sync. RAID1 under my plan because any change i do automatically mirror to second HDD,

No need to do this manually. That is what software is for.

My nightly Backup routine, across multiple house systems, and a dozen or so individual drives, takes exactly 0% of my time.

And yes, I've tested the recovery in controlled conditions, to verify it actually works.
And yes, I've actually had to use it after the sudden death of an SSD.

 

[Flayed]

Raid 1 is good so you can keep working while the replacement HDD is being delivered. Otherwise you have to wait for it to be delivered then restore your data from the backup before you can continue working.

 

[USAFRet]

Raid 1 is good so you can keep working while the replacement HDD is being delivered. Otherwise you have to wait for it to be delivered then restore your data from the backup before you can continue working.

Exactly. Uptime only.
And any RAID 1 also needs a true backup.

 

[traxxmy]

No need to do this manually. That is what software is for.

My nightly Backup routine, across multiple house systems, and a dozen or so individual drives, takes exactly 0% of my time.

And yes, I've tested the recovery in controlled conditions, to verify it actually works.
And yes, I've actually had to use it after the sudden death of an SSD.

Thanks and i have proper plan now and will abandon the RAID setup. I Install second HDD. Use macrium reflect to create auto backup since now i currently already use macrium to weekly backup my SSD C drive as systemimage to current HDD.

Just last question. Do you use free macrium version or paid version??

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks and i have proper plan now and will abandon the RAID setup. I Install second HDD. Use macrium reflect to create auto backup since now i currently already use macrium to weekly backup my SSD C drive as systemimage to current HDD.

Just last question. Do you use free macrium version or paid version??

Paid on my main system, Free on all the others.