RAID 1 or external backups?

[27-bit]

I can get only 2 hard drives. So i was thinking what would be better a RAID 1 configuration or just one internal HDD and an external one for backups. I want to backup all my Library.

The HDDs are going to be 2TB each.

[UberFefa]

I am going to need a little more information.

Why can you only get two HDDs? Does your case only have 2 HDD bays? Or are you on a budget? Or did you already buy the drives? Please explain.

[bill]

RAID 1 will protect you from a drive hdd failing but is not a replacement for backups. It will not protect you from a user deleting files, corrupt files, or a virus. If you had to choose between the two I would pick a backup but more info on your setup would help.

[ACK]

RAID 1 is not back up. It only offers data redundancy and olny protects against HDD faillures. It doesn't protect against accidental deletion or filesystem corruptions. So I suggest that you get an external HDD and use it to make automated backups.

[ACK]

Yes I saw it, and for a moment I thought it double posted too because it also showed me an error. I guess we were typing it at the same time!

[27-bit]

I am going to need a little more information.

Why can you only get two HDDs? Does your case only have 2 HDD bays? Or are you on a budget? Or did you already buy the drives? Please explain.

budget.. and also am getting a 120gb ssd as a boot drive

[27-bit]

RAID 1 will protect you from a drive hdd failing but is not a replacement for backups. It will not protect you from a user deleting files, corrupt files, or a virus. If you had to choose between the two I would pick a backup but more info on your setup would help.

i7 920, intel x58so, msi gtx 660, viper xtreme 1600mhz (3 x 2gb) and my seagate drive just stopped working i had everything backed up on an external drive and on my laptop.. so i now i can get 1 Kingston SSDNow V+200 120GB ( i know my board doesn't support SATA 3 but what can i do.. ) and 2 x 2TB drives..

[Boomwebsearch]

The configuration of RAID 1 will prevent any hardware failure that may occur and backups can restore data from previous points in time although for most protection of your data I would recommend that you use RAID 1 in addition to another drive for backups. If you only have 2 hard drives then I would recommend using only backups that will be taken care of automatically and will save different file versions as well.

[seagate_surfer]

came here to explain that RAID is not a backup, got thunder stolen.

Basically RAID (with the exception of RAID 0 which is strictly to boost performance and since you're getting an SSD anyways is fairly irrelevant in this case) is meant to prevent having to knock your system down in the event of a drive failure, so that you don't have downtime, but should never be considered your main backup strategy.

The best investment for your wallet with the info you've given would probably be to buy the SSD, buy an internal drive for whatever main storage you feel the SSD can't provide, and buy an external drive for backups. Alternatively, you could look at investing in a larger capacity SSD and then have the external for backups. Whatever floats your boat.