Should I have 2 NVME SSD's, one for the OS and one as a mirrored backup?

[Roy.Z]

Hi friends,

 

I'm choosing parts for a new build, I really want to get my files saved and backed up right once and for all..

 

so I'm getting two Seagate 3TB Hard drives, one will have all the files I have (work, pics, music.. my whole life) and the second one will be a mirror of the first one for backup in case the first one will fail.  

 

For the operating system, I'd like to run an NVME PCIe SSD drive and I actually have 2 NVME slots on the motherboard I'll be getting, one slot is running x4 and the other one is running x2 (1000MB/s max),

but that's ok as NVME SSD's cost about the same as the ordinary SSD's.. so I was thinking to do the same as the 3TB hard drives, mirroring the main NVME drive to the second one,

so in any case of a hardware failure or a virus, I'll just open the case, swap them and keep working.   so my questions are:

 

1. I know a RAID 1 array will get both drives bad if there was an issue with the file system or a virus etc', So I'm looking into a solution which is not RAID 1 and also want it to be scheduled, 

like a daily mirror to the other drive or something like that, so if one dies I'll just back up the second one and replace the two of them. does that makes sense? are there good solutions for that purpose? maybe a mirroring software that would also mirror the boot files?

 

2. The other thing is that I've heard that if the drives are from the same brand/model/batch, they might die in the same time.. that doesn't seem reasonable to me really, someone else said they better be the same model.. I don't remember why, is there anything to it? does it make sense doing this with NVME drives? 

 

I'll also mention I'm not looking for extra speed like 2 NVME drives in a RAID setup. just a reliable and super fast solution in case any drive fails. swap drives and keep working, in the worst case scenario loosing a day's work or less, from the time that last backup was done.

 

I'll appreciate any advice, Thank you very much!

 

Roy.

 

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Since your doing backups, just backup the boot drive to a hdd, no reason to get anouther ssd here.

 

Lots of backup programs can do this, I like veeam, and its free

 

Also make sure to have offsite backups, something can happen to destroy all your drives, like your house burning down.

 

 

[Roy.Z]

3 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Since your doing backups, just backup the boot drive to a hdd, no reason to get another ssd here.

 

Lots of backup programs can do this, I like veeam, and its free

Thank you, I'll look into veeam, but if I'm backing up a 512GB SSD to a 3TB HD, could I boot the system from the HD in case the SSD fails to boot?

 

6 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Also make sure to have offsite backups, something can happen to destroy all your drives, like your house burning down.

Thanks, I'll try to have a solution for that too somehow  

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Roy.Z said:

Thank you, I'll look into veeam, but if I'm backing up a 512GB SSD to a 3TB HD, could I boot the system from the HD in case the SSD fails to boot?

No you can't, but normally Id suggest against that, and just do a restore from a bootable media if needed.

 

 

[Roy.Z]

9 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

No you can't, but normally Id suggest against that, and just do a restore from a bootable media if needed.

Never done that actually.. is it reliable? will it always work no matter what?  Thanks.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Roy.Z said:

Never done that actually.. is it reliable? will it always work no matter what?  Thanks.

Yea its pretty likely to work, but test it first.

 

For me at least, ssds don't fail that often, so having a mirrored boot drive doesn't get you that much.

[Roy.Z]

46 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Yea its pretty likely to work, but test it first.

 

For me at least, ssds don't fail that often, so having a mirrored boot drive doesn't get you that much.

Thanks. Actually.. thinking about it, any HD/SSD could fail mechanically/electrically.. 

so a bootable media won't even be able to rescue it.. right?

[Roy.Z]

sorry posted this by mistake

[Electronics Wizardy]

44 minutes ago, Roy.Z said:

Thanks. Actually.. thinking about it, any HD/SSD could fail mechanically/electrically.. 

so a bootable media won't even be able to rescue it.. right?

well if your boot drive fails, your backup is probably fine, then you can easily do a restore and it should be back to full operation in a hour or two.

 

If both fail, then get the offsite backup. If your offsite backup also dies, your really unlucky.