reliable array for desktop

[Psittac]

Every few year's my dad's desktop puke's it's gut's and I'm left cleaning up the mess.  In the past it's been viruses or user error, this time it was a cheap ssd that crapped out.  Luckily I had it in raid 1 but it corrupted the boot record on the remaining drive so I had to image everything off of it then half assed put it on a new OS.  I would do some sort of cloud but it's almost impossible to get my dad to use a computer properly, he doesn't even understand saving to a specific location.  Problem is that ALL of the family business information is on that computer and he was freaking out if it was all lost.  I got the important stuff back but want to make sure this doesn't happen again.  I'm going to give some kind of cloud solution a go again, I've got a synology that I can use and now that I took the time to figure out where he ends up storing thing's it might be easier.

 

But my plan is to get rid of his old AM3 quad core and give him my 5820k with a raid card and a raid 5 or 6 array with enterprise drives.  Can I get suggestions on a reliable raid card that can be replaced if it poops it out years from now?  Also what drives? I was thinking WD gold 500g but he doesn't need that much space.  Maybe look into SAS drives that are smaller capacity but don't have any experience with them.  My theory with this solution is I'm mostly left with user error like a virus, which I've upped my game and done a good AV and antimalware paid subscriptions.  I think between better AV software, a solid raid array and doing my best to idiot proof a cloud solution the chances of losing the data is minimal.

 

Looking for any and all thought's here.

 

Side note, I have a raid5 array on a dell r710 that I could use for backup but I'm not even close to understanding how that all works.  I've just got an RD windows server running my plex and acting as a NAS, in the process of setting up a domain for external services.

 

Another thought is I might go with 500g-1tb drives and only partition enough for his OS then leave the rest for another drive to let Acronis do regular backups on.

[Electronics Wizardy]

HOw much storage space  do you need total?

 

You don't really seem to want raid here, you want backups. Raid is for uptime, not for keeping data safe. Backups are much better at keeping data safe.

 

Does the raid need to be the boot drive, Id just use storage spaces in windows and software raid.

 

Your best hope is to setup a backup solution, and make it so he can't disable it and give you the logs so you know if it stops working. Have it backup important files every hour or two so you can' t lose much work ever.

[Amazonsucks]

That RAID is a ridiculously complicated solution to a really easy to fix problem.

 

First get him Malwarebytes premium. Hopefully thats the AV solution you bought. Anything else is pretty useless when it comes to zero days, crypted malware or new ransomware.

 

A single high quality SSD in a computer with a good PSU and UPS is already going to be reliable with less points of failure than an outdated spinning rust RAID. 1TB Crucial MX500s are $150 rn on newegg. A good 1000VA APC UPS is about $100.

 

Any good SSD will be using some form of RAIN on the drive itself, plus all the ECC that comes with it, and user configurable overprovisioning for reliability.

 

All you need then is a big external drive for backups. If hes addicted to getting malware, you should probably teach him how not to and basic cybersecurity best practices. Also where did the malware come from? Why couldnt it just be cleaned, then run DISM and SFC to repair Windows?

 

I personally have an internal and external hard drive with backups of important files, and DVDs in a fireproof safe for really important financial data, but he should really only need an external backup.

 

Windows has built in backup tools so theres no point with a third party one for a home desktop. He could have it back up specific folders on a daily basis, as well as use the File History function for extra resilience to deletion or modification.

 

 

[RollTime]

I'm going to agree with Wizardy here. You need some kind of automatic backup software, not RAID. I'd also recommend sending him to a basic computer class, if that might help.

[Psittac]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

HOw much storage space  do you need total?

 

You don't really seem to want raid here, you want backups. Raid is for uptime, not for keeping data safe. Backups are much better at keeping data safe.

 

Does the raid need to be the boot drive, Id just use storage spaces in windows and software raid.

 

Your best hope is to setup a backup solution, and make it so he can't disable it and give you the logs so you know if it stops working. Have it backup important files every hour or two so you can' t lose much work ever.

What program would you use for backups?  I thought I had acronis doing it but turns out I left it to norton.  I was in a time crunch so I never was able to look at the backups and ended up pulling data essentially off the old drive, which left me with permissions issues.  I spent an entire day trying to recover the OS because he can't adapt well to changing technology.  Raid 1 did save my butt this time but the solutions I put in place left a messy situation.  I have a 1tb drive on the system where norton did the backups but I hate norton.  Problem is I never have time to work on it as I work with him in the business so I have to take my own time and I never get it set up correctly, then throw in some ignorance on my side of thing's because until recently I cared little about data.  I have the day off tomorrow and I'm going to go work on it again and set it up properly this time.

 

On the note of raid, the reason I want to do a full blown raid is because I don't trust these ssd's, I was lucky that only one of them pooped out and I'm relying on the motherboards onboard raid which is a pita, wasted much of my time just messing with that (I've been at this since friday morning).  If I have a full raid and backup then I don't have to worry as much, at least that's my theory.  Open to suggestions

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Psittac said:

What program would you use for backups?  I thought I had acronis doing it but turns out I left it to norton.  I was in a time crunch so I never was able to look at the backups and ended up pulling data essentially off the old drive, which left me with permissions issues.  I spent an entire day trying to recover the OS because he can't adapt well to changing technology.  Raid 1 did save my butt this time but the solutions I put in place left a messy situation.  I have a 1tb drive on the system where norton did the backups but I hate norton.  Problem is I never have time to work on it as I work with him in the business so I have to take my own time and I never get it set up correctly, then throw in some ignorance on my side of thing's because until recently I cared little about data.  I have the day off tomorrow and I'm going to go work on it again and set it up properly this time.

 

On the note of raid, the reason I want to do a full blown raid is because I don't trust these ssd's, I was lucky that only one of them pooped out and I'm relying on the motherboards onboard raid which is a pita, wasted much of my time just messing with that (I've been at this since friday morning).  If I have a full raid and backup then I don't have to worry as much, at least that's my theory.  Open to suggestions

I use the backup built into windows, works fine. Permissions also restore right. User the backup and restore windows 7(don't use the new one in the settings app)

 

You probably want to get a IT provider if the data is this important. You need to put time and effort into data integrity and security. This is what happens when you skip on IT.

 

Also be sure to test the backup and restore procedure.

[Amazonsucks]

3 minutes ago, Psittac said:

What program would you use for backups?  I thought I had acronis doing it but turns out I left it to norton.  I was in a time crunch so I never was able to look at the backups and ended up pulling data essentially off the old drive, which left me with permissions issues.  I spent an entire day trying to recover the OS because he can't adapt well to changing technology.  Raid 1 did save my butt this time but the solutions I put in place left a messy situation.  I have a 1tb drive on the system where norton did the backups but I hate norton.  Problem is I never have time to work on it as I work with him in the business so I have to take my own time and I never get it set up correctly, then throw in some ignorance on my side of thing's because until recently I cared little about data.  I have the day off tomorrow and I'm going to go work on it again and set it up properly this time.

 

On the note of raid, the reason I want to do a full blown raid is because I don't trust these ssd's, I was lucky that only one of them pooped out and I'm relying on the motherboards onboard raid which is a pita, wasted much of my time just messing with that (I've been at this since friday morning).  If I have a full raid and backup then I don't have to worry as much, at least that's my theory.  Open to suggestions

Wut... You should remove anything Norton from your system. Its snake oil and worse than actual malware to get rid of

 

Windows has plenty of built in backup options... I use File History and do a full image backup but thats because i dont want to waste time reconfiguring things if there is a failure.

 

Good SSDs dont just fail. Either it was a shitty SSD or a bad PSU or power surge.

 

What kind of UPS does his system have? 

[Psittac]

3 minutes ago, Amazonsucks said:

That RAID is a ridiculously complicated solution to a really easy to fix problem.

 

First get him Malwarebytes premium. Hopefully thats the AV solution you bought. Anything else is pretty useless when it comes to zero days, crypted malware or new ransomware.

 

A single high quality SSD in a computer with a good PSU and UPS is already going to be reliable with less points of failure than an outdated spinning rust RAID. 1TB Crucial MX500s are $150 rn on newegg. 

 

Any good SSD will be using some form of RAIN on the drive itself, plus all the ECC that comes with it, and user configurable overprovisioning for reliability.

 

All you need then is a big external drive for backups. If hes addicted to getting malware, you should probably teach him how not to and basic cybersecurity best practices. Also where did the malware come from? Why couldnt it just be cleaned, then run DISM and SFC to repair Windows?

 

I personally have an internal and external hard drive with backups of important files, and DVDs in a fireproof safe for really important financial data, but he should really only need an external backup.

 

Windows has built in backup tools so theres no point with a third party one for a home desktop. He could have it back up specific folders on a daily basis, as well as use the File History function for extra resilience to deletion or modification.

 

 

It wasn't a virus or malware this time that I can tell.  I think this was hardware related as one ssd was bricked the other had a locked and broken bcd/mbr.  I couldn't fix it because I was supposed to have it done asap, also this isn't my thing.  Until recently my moto was to simply nuke and OS at the first sign of an issue.

 

Yes I have malwarebytes premium on it and bitdefender

 

I didn't know about the windows backup functions, I'll look into it and configure that tomorrow.  Like I said there is a 1tb hdd in the system as well I just never configured the system properly, this was before I started caring about data.

[Psittac]

2 minutes ago, Amazonsucks said:

Wut... You should remove anything Norton from your system. Its snake oil and worse than actual malware to get rid of

 

Windows has plenty of built in backup options...

 

Good SSDs dont just fail. Either it was a shitty SSD or a bad PSU or power surge.

 

What kind of UPS does his system have?

no UPS and I think the psu is a random thermaltake they gave me while building the system at micro center years ago.  It could have been user error, maybe he killed power at the wrong time, I don't know.

 

Problem is that I get really frustrated trying to do anything tech related for my dad and never put the kind of effort into it like I do with my stuff.

[Amazonsucks]

Just now, Psittac said:

It wasn't a virus or malware this time that I can tell.  I think this was hardware related as one ssd was bricked the other had a locked and broken bcd/mbr.  I couldn't fix it because I was supposed to have it done asap, also this isn't my thing.  Until recently my moto was to simply nuke and OS at the first sign of an issue.

 

Yes I have malwarebytes premium on it and bitdefender

 

I didn't know about the windows backup functions, I'll look into it and configure that tomorrow.  Like I said there is a 1tb hdd in the system as well I just never configured the system properly, this was before I started caring about data.

If its got a 1TB HDD and you dont want another SSD(i cant live without a fast SSD) just get an external USB HDD. 5TB externals are dirt cheap. He can back up everything to it. 

 

Personally id skip bitdefender and just use MBAM with rootkit scanning on, self protrction on, and make custom exploit profiles for whatever internet facing applications he uses(Skype, Discord, Teamspeak etc) and windows defender.

[Amazonsucks]

8 minutes ago, Psittac said:

no UPS and I think the psu is a random thermaltake they gave me while building the system at micro center years ago.  It could have been user error, maybe he killed power at the wrong time, I don't know.

 

Problem is that I get really frustrated trying to do anything tech related for my dad and never put the kind of effort into it like I do with my stuff.

Well if you have a RAID or even a normal PC with no UPS, thats a huge liability. Particularly with a RAID, since if you corrupt data from a shutdown on all drives, all drives will be corrupted and youll lose data anyway.

 

Simplicity is usually best for reliability by reducing points of failure. Thats why i have the setup i listed in my profile.

 

An APC UPS, with a high quality PSU(Seasonic or something good) will remove random power fluctuations and bad quality internal power from the equation.

 

Then all you need is an external HDD to back stuff up to using Windows built in backup functionality. You could optionally get a small cheap NAS and have backups go there. You could also be connected via the network to the NAS and download or backup whatever to your PC or burn to DVDs.

 

I would avoid RAID like the plague though. Everyone is moving away from it to flash where possible.

[Psittac]

well thanks for the reality check.  I'm just going to reconfigure his system tomorrow with windows backup's.  Now that I know where to look for his files I know what to backup.

 

I think he does need to take basic computer courses, I'll see if the community college offers them.

 

I just renewed bitdefender so I'll go with that, mbam seems a little out of my league.

 

I'll stick with the hardware he has and maybe add a ups, he's just so damned cheap that he doesn't want to spend money ever

 

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Psittac said:

well thanks for the reality check.  I'm just going to reconfigure his system tomorrow with windows backup's.  Now that I know where to look for his files I know what to backup.

 

I think he does need to take basic computer courses, I'll see if the community college offers them.

 

I just renewed bitdefender so I'll go with that, mbam seems a little out of my league.

 

I'll stick with the hardware he has and maybe add a ups, he's just so damned cheap that he doesn't want to spend money ever

 

 

the one thing id do is either check backup log frequently or have it emailed to you.

 

Also Id remove his admin access if you can, it will reduce the change of major problems.

[Amazonsucks]

5 minutes ago, Psittac said:

well thanks for the reality check.  I'm just going to reconfigure his system tomorrow with windows backup's.  Now that I know where to look for his files I know what to backup.

 

I think he does need to take basic computer courses, I'll see if the community college offers them.

 

I just renewed bitdefender so I'll go with that, mbam seems a little out of my league.

 

I'll stick with the hardware he has and maybe add a ups, he's just so damned cheap that he doesn't want to spend money ever

 

 

Wait i thought you did have malwarebytes premium? Its not out of anyones league. I wouldnt use a system connected to the internet without it. The rest of the consumer AV landscape is useless by comparison. Only thing better is stuff like Bromium.

 

And if hes that cheap itll cost him more money replacing cheap broken junk in the long run and some data is irreplaceable...

[Psittac]

8 minutes ago, Amazonsucks said:

Wait i thought you did have malwarebytes premium? Its not out of anyones league. I wouldnt use a system connected to the internet without it.

 

And if hes that cheap itll cost him more money replacing cheap broken junk in the long run and some data is irreplaceable...

oh, I wasn't aware of what mbam was lol, talking about profiles is more than I wanted to do.  It hasn't been running in premium for most of this year, taxes hit us really hard so I started cutting expense's.  I reactivated tonight though.

 

Also I agree completely on going cheap cost's more, I'm fighting off the desire to give him my x99 system and buy a ups.  He is known to leave the computer on so I bet it was a brown out that did it.  I don't even know what psu is in his system, but I do know that I've got a similar machine with a seasonic gold in it right now that I can steal the psu out of, might have to do that I was just hoping to use it for my next machine.

 

*edit: last time this happened I showed up with a new keyboard mouse and monitor and he freaked and told me to put it back how it was.  His monitor is an old 4:3 flat panel that I got for christmas well over a decade ago.  He won't let go of it.  It took me forever to get him off of windows xp and I had to put a kvm of sort's so he could go between the xp machine and this one for a couple years, before that he had two computers side by side because he wouldn't let go of his barely functional gateway.  He hates change in all form's, and tech is the worst.  If there's one thing he hates more than change it's spending money.

[Amazonsucks]

9 minutes ago, Psittac said:

oh, I wasn't aware of what mbam was lol, talking about profiles is more than I wanted to do.  It hasn't been running in premium for most of this year, taxes hit us really hard so I started cutting expense's.  I reactivated tonight though.

 

Also I agree completely on going cheap cost's more, I'm fighting off the desire to give him my x99 system and buy a ups.  He is known to leave the computer on so I bet it was a brown out that did it.  I don't even know what psu is in his system, but I do know that I've got a similar machine with a seasonic gold in it right now that I can steal the psu out of, might have to do that I was just hoping to use it for my next machine.

Its pretty user friendly to make profiles. Basically name it and type the exact  .exe you want shielded with the anti exploit feature. I wont use Discord or Skype without it. Id let bitdefender lapse and not renew. Malwarebytes, Win Defender and 2FA on all accounts is all you really need. Make sure you do turn rootkit scanning on in settings though.

 

And just tell him what i tell people who ask me for the impossible(like design me a supercomputer for $500) and say "welp data loss is impossible to prevent unless you do x, y and z".

 

I help people with cybersecurity and if i come across someone unwilling to take basic steps or spend any money im like "oh well dont blame me when your data gets pwned and your accounts are all stolen".

 

Dont tell people what they want you to say. Just tell them the truth when it comes to that kinda thing.

[Psittac]

4 minutes ago, Amazonsucks said:

Its pretty user friendly to make profiles. Basically name it and type the exact  .exe you want shielded with the anti exploit feature. I wont use Discord or Skype without it. Id let bitdefender lapse and not renew. Malwarebytes, Win Defender and 2FA on all accounts is all you really need. Make sure you do turn rootkit scanning on in settings though.

 

And just tell him what i tell people who ask me for the impossible(like design me a supercomputer for $500) and say "welp data loss is impossible to prevent unless you do x, y and z".

 

I help people with cybersecurity and if i come across someone unwilling to take basic steps or spend any money im like "oh well dont blame me when your data gets pwned and your accounts are all stolen".

 

Dont tell people what they want you to say. Just tell them the truth when it comes to that kinda thing.

Thanks for the reality check, I never thought of the psu or a ups but that will be addressed tomorrow.

[Psittac]

40 minutes ago, RollTime said:

I'm going to agree with Wizardy here. You need some kind of automatic backup software, not RAID. I'd also recommend sending him to a basic computer class, if that might help.

I took your advice and did a search for computer courses, found this locally.  I'm going to talk him into it, my mom should take it too.

 

 

[RollTime]

4 minutes ago, Psittac said:

I took your advice and did a search for computer courses, found this locally.  I'm going to talk him into it, my mom should take it too.

 

 

Good idea. Micro center has classes like this as well if you're near one.

[Amazonsucks]

3 minutes ago, Psittac said:

I took your advice and did a search for computer courses, found this locally.  I'm going to talk him into it, my mom should take it too.

 

 

If hes cheap, just find good videos on youtube and he can watch those. You can basically give yourself a 4 year degrees worth of anything computer or engineering related. Literally they have thousands of lectures from universities on yt for free.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

9 hours ago, RollTime said:

I'm going to agree with Wizardy here. You need some kind of automatic backup software, not RAID. I'd also recommend sending him to a basic computer class, if that might help.

An automatic backup scheme requires the backup drive to be connected to the computer at all times, exposing the backup to viruses and other malware. For a backup to be a backup, it needs to be kept powered down and disconnected from the computer except whle updating the backups. To avoid transferring viruses, etc. to the backup, the computer needs to have antiivirrus/antimalware scans run immediately before updating the backup.

 

Since your father isn't particularly computer savvy, you need to take control of his backups. I suggest making sure his data is kept on a drive or partition other than the C:/ partition. This will allow you to make images of his System files (OS and programs) with a program like Macrium Reflect Free. Then, when things go pear shaped, you can quickly restore the C:/ drive or partition. I also suggest you keep the images yourself so he can't lose them for you.

 

Data should be kept on a separate drive or partition. The safest way for your father to backup the data drive or partition would be to use a good, paid cloud backup service. I suggest Backblaze. These services work in the background and automagically update the backup on the fly. Good, paid backup services have firewalls and antivirus/antimalware protection out the wazoo so the chances of backed up data getting corrupted or lost is very low. The cost of Backblaze is reasonable and won't require you to babysit it or your father's computer.

 

BTW, RAID is NOT a backup! It will not protect from infections, user error, theft, disasters such as fire or storms, a failing PSU or power surge frying everything in the computer, etc. Only proper backups can protect against those.

[Amazonsucks]

I also just wrote this guide to basic cybersecurity that you could have him read.