WD Black +raid

[Ryan Ziolkowski]

Hello!

i recently gave my dad my old computer that i built. he ended up snagging a wd caviar black 1tb HDD and he wants to set it up as a raid one. so i was wondering if this drive will be able to use raid and what the best second drive is going to be for it and if that second drive should be any bigger than the first, thanks!

 

[popatim]

the best second drive would be the exact same model that he has which also answers your other question.

And please remind him that raid 1 is not a substitute for making backups of his important data

 

[smitbret]

I'm assuming this is a software RAID 1? If it is, there isn't much harm in just running another 1TB of any make or model as the mirrored drive. Would another Black be best? Yes. Will it make any difference for your Dad? Probably not. If this is a hardware RAID then get used to data loss and downtime since a WD Black should be nowhere near a hardware RAID setup.

 

[Ryan Ziolkowski]

alright thanks a lot so sounds like he should be getting a replica of his current drive. and yes it would be a raid 1. and no worries he still plans to back up on an external drive. And i don't know if this is like a really stupid question that is really obvious and im missing, but what is software raid vs hardware raid?

 

[smitbret]

Hardware RAID is where you are running the disks on a separate HDD controller card. It offloads the parity/redundancy calculations from the CPU to the controller card. You would be set up the RAID in a secondary BIOS screen. If you set it up in Windows or are using any kind of drive management software, it's a software RAID. Odds are that if you have to ask, then it's not hardware since hardware RAID controller cards aren't cheap.

 

[Ryan Ziolkowski]

i was searching around through the bios and it lists the drive and how you want to set it up and one of the options is raid. is that what i need to do when i get the second drive?

 

[smitbret]

That's the first step. You'll enable the motherboard's RAID through the BIOS, then during the boot-up process you should get to something that says to press <CTRL-F> (or something similar) to enter RAID BIOS. There you'll actually set up the RAID 1. Keep in mind that you'll erase both drives when you set it up so if there's any data on the original drive then you'll want to move it to a different drive, at least temporarily.

It's software RAID, BTW.

 

[Hawkeye22]

I don't know if WD blacks still have some issues with RAID since they made it so you can't turn TLER (Time Limited Error Recovery) on anymore. The WD Red's are made for NAS's, but I think they would work in RAID.

 

[popatim]

usually raid 1 isn't a problem like raid 5 could be. If the drive times-out he'll just loose raid1 and keep running unlike raid5 where you could loose the array.

 

[Hawkeye22]

usually raid 1 isn't a problem like raid 5 could be. If the drive times-out he'll just loose raid1 and keep running unlike raid5 where you could loose the array.

Yes, but depending on how much data there is, the rebuild times may be unacceptable. Sure, you can use your computer during a rebuild, but performance suffers. I've had WD blacks in RAID 1 before. Some go for months on end before dropping out. Others would drop out a couple times a week.

 

[smitbret]

Will it matter with his motherboard's software RAID 1? I thought that since he's not on a hardware RAID controller, TLER shouldn't be a factor.

 

[Hawkeye22]

Will it matter with his motherboard's software RAID 1? I thought that since he's not on a hardware RAID controller, TLER shouldn't be a factor.

I was using the Intel ICH10R controller on my Gigabyte EP45-U3DR motherboard.

 

[smitbret]

Will it matter with his motherboard's software RAID 1? I thought that since he's not on a hardware RAID controller, TLER shouldn't be a factor.

I was using the Intel ICH10R controller on my Gigabyte EP45-U3DR motherboard.

Which is still a software RAID. I'm confused about what you are telling me.

 

[Hawkeye22]

Will it matter with his motherboard's software RAID 1? I thought that since he's not on a hardware RAID controller, TLER shouldn't be a factor.

I was using the Intel ICH10R controller on my Gigabyte EP45-U3DR motherboard.

Which is still a software RAID. I'm confused about what you are telling me.

No TLER may be a problem.

 

[Ryan Ziolkowski]

Wow thanks for all the replies everyone!

so my first question is that is it possible to match a WD red with a black?

and my second questions then is "is it bad to not have a raid controller like hawkeye has"?

and third, if the second drive "times out" it will automatically rebuild itself and you can still use the computer but it goes slow?
/
and finally when you set up a raid your main drive looses everything so you have to back it up? does it loose the OS ?

thanks a lot everyone i never knew raid could be this complicated and im glad i didnt jump into it lol!

 

[Hawkeye22]

1. It's possible to mix drives (red & black), but not recommended. It's always recommended to use identical drives.

2. My RAID controller is nothing special. It's built into the motherboard. Many older intel chipset boards use the ICH10R controller.

3. If a drive drops out it possible the controller won't allow you to reuse the drive since the controller marked it bad. Most times you can use diskpart's clean command on the dropped out drive then you should be able to reuse it in RAID. You can still use the computer with one drive dropped out, but performance may be less until the array is rebuilt.

4. If you didn't do RAID during your initial PC build, then yes, all data on the drive will be destroyed. A backup is highly recommended.

 

[Ryan Ziolkowski]

okay so get the same drive and the controller is built in.

So how high are the chances of it dropping out on me and is it a huge pain to fix it or is it just hitting a few buttons and waiting a long time?

okay so a reinstall of the OS will be necessary then but otherwise save everything on a backup drive. got it.

thanks!

 

[popatim]

If the raid fails enough where you need to reinstall then all your precious data is solely on the backup drive. This is a situation you want to avoid. You always want your precious data in more than 1 location. I suggest at least burning a few dvd's. Just for an example of what I mean what if the raid fails during your backup then windows hangs when you try to eject the B/U drive. You are thinking you have your backup but in reality its corrupt and then you go reinstalling windows only to find all your data is now in need some form of recovery service. I've seen something like this happen too many times. DVD's are cheap. or maybe a second external drive.

As fr dropping out, i run 3 raid0's (much riskier) in my rig at all times, been running raid 0's since about 97. never lost an array yet. Monitor your drives health and you'll know when trouble is coming. Backups make trouble a non-issue, it just becomes an expense/hassle of buying new drive or rma'ing the old ones.

 

[Ryan Ziolkowski]

alright that sounds like a good plan! so crashing never seemed to be a problem for you but running disk cleanups can really minimize the chances of failing and that you need to set up the raid before you install windows?