Raid 0 Questions

[AKMiner]

I am wanting to purchase another 500GB SSD to go with the one I first built my computer with but I have some questions.

1.Does it need to be the same brand? I currently have a Samsung 500GB SSD that I got on sale but now is super expensive. Can I get a cheaper on with the same capacity or is it better to stick with the same brand?

2.With the data I currently have on my SSD: If I put the two in Raid 0 does it auto stripe my data from on drive onto both or will I have to transfer it to my hard drive, set up the raid, and then send it back?

3.How often should I back up? Currently I have a 1TB Hard Drive that is just has basic stuff I don't access often. If I put all my data onto my SSD: how often should I back it up to my Hard Drive?

4.These SSDs are brand new (well when I purchased them). Should I be worried about them dying out? I do video editing, photoshop, and game frequently on this machine. Do I need to worry about my drives dying every year or is that only once every 10 years (give or take)?

[failblox]

1. Nope. But the drives will operate at the speed of the slower one. I'd stick with the same brand if I could, but if that's not possible, get one with similar performance.

It will wipe your drive. You need to back up your data, set up the RAID 0 array, then send back the data. I recommend doing a fresh install of Windows if you can though.

I backup my C:\ every day. If you don't have the space to do that, once a week should be good as well.

No.

[Dobbsjr]

I am wanting to purchase another 500GB SSD to go with the one I first built my computer with but I have some questions.

1.Does it need to be the same brand? I currently have a Samsung 500GB SSD that I got on sale but now is super expensive. Can I get a cheaper on with the same capacity or is it better to stick with the same brand?

2.With the data I currently have on my SSD: If I put the two in Raid 0 does it auto stripe my data from on drive onto both or will I have to transfer it to my hard drive, set up the raid, and then send it back?

3.How often should I back up? Currently I have a 1TB Hard Drive that is just has basic stuff I don't access often. If I put all my data onto my SSD: how often should I back it up to my Hard Drive?

4.These SSDs are brand new (well when I purchased them). Should I be worried about them dying out? I do video editing, photoshop, and game frequently on this machine. Do I need to worry about my drives dying every year or is that only once every 10 years (give or take)?

1. Preferably it should be the same brand with the same capacity
2. Yes, you do have to back up.
3. How often you should back up is up to you. 
4. SSDs last a really long time so don't worry.

[NannerBeans]

1.Try to get similar performing ones.

2. When you set up the raid, it will wipe both of your drives.

3. As often as you can

4.. It's more likely that the raid fails and not the actual SSDs. 

[AKMiner]

 

1. Nope. But the drives will operate at the speed of the slower one. I'd stick with the same brand if I could, but if that's not possible, get one with similar performance.
2. It will wipe your drive. You need to back up your data, set up the RAID 0 array, then send back the data. I recommend doing a fresh install of Windows if you can though.
3. I backup my C:\ every day. If you don't have the space to do that, once a week should be good as well.
4. No.

 

 

 

1. Preferably it should be the same brand with the same capacity
2. Yes, you do have to back up.
3. How often you should back up is up to you. 
4. SSDs last a really long time so don't worry.

 

I'll go ahead and stick with the same one I have. Now I can back it up as the capacities will be the same but is there any better way to do it than just Windows? Is there maybe a special program I should use or is just default windows the best way to go? I've always just done regular windows backups but would like to know if there is a better way.

[AKMiner]

1.Try to get similar performing ones.

2. When you set up the raid, it will wipe both of your drives.

3. As often as you can

4.. It's more likely that the raid fails and not the actual SSDs. 

How often do raids fail? I will try and back up as often as I can but in case I don't I'd like to know the possibility of a raid failing and what kind of damages could it do?

[NannerBeans]

If you lose power for some reason while the raid volume is initializing, the raid volume will fail. So basically, back up as often as you can. 

[AKMiner]

If you lose power for some reason while the raid volume is initializing, the raid volume will fail. So basically, back up as often as you can. 

Alright so if I loose power on start up it could wipe all my data. I'll try and pick up a UPS down the line. Thanks for all the help!

[kirashi]

I am wanting to purchase another 500GB SSD to go with the one I first built my computer with but I have some questions.

1.Does it need to be the same brand? I currently have a Samsung 500GB SSD that I got on sale but now is super expensive. Can I get a cheaper on with the same capacity or is it better to stick with the same brand?

2.With the data I currently have on my SSD: If I put the two in Raid 0 does it auto stripe my data from on drive onto both or will I have to transfer it to my hard drive, set up the raid, and then send it back?

3.How often should I back up? Currently I have a 1TB Hard Drive that is just has basic stuff I don't access often. If I put all my data onto my SSD: how often should I back it up to my Hard Drive?

4.These SSDs are brand new (well when I purchased them). Should I be worried about them dying out? I do video editing, photoshop, and game frequently on this machine. Do I need to worry about my drives dying every year or is that only once every 10 years (give or take)?

 

Recently I went over options for doing a RAID setup on my newly built machine linked in my signature below.

I'll answer your questions below, and let you know what I settled with in the end for my configuration.

• You can mix n match brands and types of drives in a RAID. Just keep in mind that the RAID will operate at whatever the slowest drive is.

   

• RAID drives need to be wiped clean and setup bit-for-bit in the BIOS or RAID configuration screen, BEFORE booting to Windows.

  You'll need to backup your data, wipe the drive you have now, and configure both for RAID0/1/5 etc. before reinstalling Windows.

   

• You should backup whatever you cannot bare to lose, as often as you update the files. Everyone's backup strategy will be slightly different.

   

• Considering Samsung has a drive still being written to from 2008 without failure, you're good as a consumer in terms of drive writes.

  Enterprise situations where 200TB+ of data might get written everyday are definitely more of a concern, but not so much for home users.

Hardware RAID has advantages: Faster write speeds, OS independent drive mounting, to name a couple.

For your bootable OS drive, you'll need to go with Hardware RAID or something like LimeTech's unRAID OS underneath your Windows installation.

 

Unfortunately, the main reason I chose not to go with Hardware RAID is hardware failure.

See, when a RAID card fails, whether it's built into your motherboard or an add-in card, you may not simply be able to replace the card.

Hardware gets discontinued, goes out of stock, and fluctuates in price. Motherboards come and go every 6 months, or sooner.

Unless you've got money to buy doubles of the hardware you use in production, good luck finding a compatible replacement 5 years down the road.

 

The problem with Hardware RAID is that its hardware dependent (obviously) - meaning if the RAID card fails, another card, even from the same company, may not be able to rebuild the Array for you.

Worse, if a RAID controller starts to fail at writing data but shows no sign of failure until it actually dies, your data may not be written correctly in the first place, like @LinusTech found out recently.

Of course, this can happen with software RAID too, but because software RAID usually implements more checks at the OS level, you'll be notified of failing data writes sooner.

And if you've got a solid backup of your data and don't mind taking time to restore it, then Hardware RAID is probably what you want. Some of us just enjoy the simplicity of a software RAID.

 

 

After researching different RAID solutions, I've settled upon software RAID via StableBit's DrivePool* software.

It lets you pool groups of drives together similar to Windows Built-in Storage Spaces, but allows you to access the drives from any OS should one drive in the pool fail.

Because of this, your data shows up as folders on disk in the original structure you wrote them, so you can just copy paste them off the failing pool, then replace the drive at your convenience.

The caveat is that Hardware RAID is still much faster at writing data, and unfortunately you can't install your OS to a pooled drive. But the read speeds are very similar to RAID speeds.

 

Combine any number of physical hard drives into one large virtual pool, without formatting them or erasing anything on them.

• Easily add any disk to the pool in seconds.
• Any existing files on that disk are not changed.
• StableBit DrivePool is a real file system that Windows sees as a real disk.
• 100% of the pooling is done in the native Windows kernel for the best performance.
• No rebuilding is ever necessary to get access to your files.
• Plug in any pooled disk to any computer running StableBit DrivePool and your files are instantly available on the pool.
• You can access your pooled files from any Windows computer, even without StableBit DrivePool installed.
• StableBit DrivePool is the un-RAID.

 

affiliate link to StableBit.com - I do not work for StableBit - I am just another loving user of their software