Backing up using RAID? Please help!

[Hold-Ma-Beer]

Hello,

My pc has 2 storage drives. A 1TB WD Blue and a 500GB Seagate drive [Salvaged from a laptop]. The laptop drive is not very old and I use it as a backup of my personal family pictures and stuff (as backup of a partition of 1TB drive). I wanted a backup system which automatically updates any changes I make into the 1TB drive's partition to the 500GB drive. I've heard about servers using multiples drives in RAID to prevent loss of backup. Can I use it? And how? Please explain, I'm a totally new to this T-T

Thank you!

[Draelren]

RAID is NOT a backup! Do NOT use it for a backup solution. 

 

RAID can be useful for data redundancy, but it is not a proper solution for storing data that you need backed up. 

 

RAID doesn't stop malware / crytolockers. It doesn't mitigate on-site disasters. It can't prevent file corruption. It has limitations.

 

A good back up of your data is a software like backblaze, storagecraft, etc etc.

 

If you want changes made to one drive, affect another - possibly a cloud storage solution, like dropbox?

[Hold-Ma-Beer]

Just now, Draelren said:

RAID is NOT a backup! Do NOT use it for a backup solution. 

 

RAID can be useful for data redundancy

I know it is not a backup solution. I backup my files on an external drive, but I wanted to use that slow laptop drive as a redundant drive [Since it has no other use] Can't I?

[Eigenvektor]

1 minute ago, Hold-Ma-Beer said:

I know it is not a backup solution. I backup my files on an external drive, but I wanted to use that slow laptop drive as a redundant drive [Since it has no other use] Can't I?

Depending on the controller, you typically need at least two identical drives for a RAID array. The simplest form would be RAID 1 which requires two identical drives.

 

As @Draelren said, it is not a backup, it simply protects you against hardware failure. If one disk fails, the data should still be available (as long as the second drive doesn't fail before you can get a replacement and restore the array).

 

I'd say software that automatically creates snapshots of your data and places them on the other disk (+an external drive) is probably more worth it. Try searching for the "3-2-1 backup rule" to get some ideas.

[Nick7]

First, having backup on one single computer is bad idea. If you get cryptolocker, you will lose all your data AND your backup.

RAID helps with redundancy, be it main computer or backup drive - it helps if one hard drive fails. It does not help for any other type of failure.

 

As for RAID - you can use 1TB with 500GB drive in RAID1 (mirror), but you will use only 500GB of larger disk and have rest of space unusable. Also, performance will be most likely lower as I suspect 500GB drive is slower than your desktop one.

 

Suggestion?

Get some cheap NAS, and use that for backup, as well as 3rd option (USB drive that you occasionally connect or some cloud storage) for family pics.

It's really easy to lose pics you value other way.

[Jarsky]

 

10 hours ago, Hold-Ma-Beer said:

I wanted a backup system which automatically updates any changes I make into the 1TB drive's partition to the 500GB drive.

Two things about this statement.

If you want to RAID them in a mirror, they need to be of equal size. You cannot RAID a 1TB and 500GB together and retain 1TB of usable redundant space. 

Secondly is the more important part of your statement "automatically updates any changes you make". This means if you (someone) accidentally deletes something, something becomes corrupted, something becomes infected by malware/virus, this also replicates to your mirrored drive. As others have said, RAID is really only to maximize availability of your data, it's not an effective backup especially when it comes to important/personal data you don't want to lose. 

 

I do a nightly backup sync from my PC's to my NAS, which has RAID. I then also have it once a week sync a portion of that backup (Photos, Documents, etc..) to a USB thumb drive . You can do the same thing with Windows backup to a local drive as well. 

[Hold-Ma-Beer]

13 hours ago, Jarsky said:

 

Two things about this statement.

If you want to RAID them in a mirror, they need to be of equal size. You cannot RAID a 1TB and 500GB together and retain 1TB of usable redundant space. 

Secondly is the more important part of your statement "automatically updates any changes you make". This means if you (someone) accidentally deletes something, something becomes corrupted, something becomes infected by malware/virus, this also replicates to your mirrored drive. As others have said, RAID is really only to maximize availability of your data, it's not an effective backup especially when it comes to important/personal data you don't want to lose. 

 

I do a nightly backup sync from my PC's to my NAS, which has RAID. I then also have it once a week sync a portion of that backup (Photos, Documents, etc..) to a USB thumb drive . You can do the same thing with Windows backup to a local drive as well. 

Well, I started with windows backup, but it only takes the "User files" from C drive and I store the pic and stuff onto another drive... Do you know any safe backup software that can mirror and sync the partition (of 1TB drive) to another drive (external/internal)?

[Jarsky]

8 hours ago, Hold-Ma-Beer said:

Well, I started with windows backup, but it only takes the "User files" from C drive and I store the pic and stuff onto another drive... Do you know any safe backup software that can mirror and sync the partition (of 1TB drive) to another drive (external/internal)?

Thats not true, I backup my entire D drive. I find the legacy Backup & Restore (Windows 7) works better though. 

 

For a 3rd party utility I believe a lot of people here use FreeFileSync. It can do incrimental syncs after you've done the initial full sync. 

[Nick7]

I use Veeam free version for my home PC backup.

Each night backup is triggered and makes incremental backups, which is great feature so I can return back upto a week if needed (can be set up for longer depending on your requirements).

Basically, main backup is about 1.2TB, and each incremental is usually around 5-6GB.

 

 

[wseaton]

Veeam, Macrium, and pretty much a dozen others make free backup software that works far better than Windows backup. In all fairness, Windows Back / Restore is now a legit service that works, but the free after market products like Veeam Endpoint and Macrium are much easier to use and have far better granularity when it comes to differential and incremental backups. Plus they are free. IMO Macrium free > Veeam Endpoint....unless you are dealing with servers.

 

My suggestion just like the others is to do a nightly backup with Veeam / Macrium to a NAS, external drive, or other drive. Size don't matter because the backup image is just a file and you just need space in the destination. Set for incremental / differential the nightly image takes a snapshot of your entire c:/drive and only updates what has been changed from the last full backup. 

 

In reality your changed data has to wait until the backup executes to be protected. Real time backup protection requires RAID 1 for drive redundancy or something like Windows buit in Shadow Copy. Are you afraid of deleting your stuff on accident or a drive failure? Onboard Intel RST RAID is so *bad* in terms of performance, even on desktops I no longer advise using it.