What's with RAID?

Question

I consider myself to be fairly proficient when it comes to building my own PC's. I've done it since I was 18 (now 30), with numerous upgrades in between. Granted, I usually have to learn the latest technology when I do build a new system, and that's usually no problem. However, I haven't been able to grasp the RAID concept. After researching what RAID is, I think I understand it's uses, but why would an everyday home PC user need RAID? Sure, I got the fault protection benefits with some of the levels of RAID, but if I'm backing up my sensitive & important data on a regular basis, what's the point? Is there really that much of a performance boost when using a mirrored array? I don't host a website, so I don't need constant data availability. To me, it just seems that doing regular back-ups is much easier than trying to set up and manage a RAID array. I ask these questions becuse I am currently building a new system, & trying to fix a friend's, & I suspect a bad RAID confg. THX

Answer 1

RAID has two main uses.

1) Protection from single (or potentially multiple) disk or disk controller failures.

2) Leveraging multiple disks that can be accessed in rapid succession or simultaneously for improved disk I/O and throughput.

In server computers, this is important to ensure uninterupted uptime, and deliver maximum application performance. Uninterrupted uptime can be achieved using RAID with hot-swappable drives, where if one fails, it can be replaced without incurring an outage.

In home computers this makes it a lot easier to recover from a disk failure, or can significantly improve performance for video editing or gaming.

If a hard disk fails in a raid set that is configured for data protection through mirroring or parity, it only takes a fresh disk and a little time in the background to be back to 100% operaitonal and protected. If not using raid, a lost disk can entail hours or days of rebuilding and reinstalling.

Answer 2

There are 2 main things that make RAID 1 (Mirroring) useful now:

1) Hard Drive space is so cheap. It makes keeping a constant copy of all your data with a full working system, even if one hard drive fails, that much easier and worthwhile. Restoring from an external backup to a WORKING installation can take many hours if not days.

2) There is a SLIGHT performance increase when READING data only. The computer can read a half of a file in from one drive and half from the other (mind you, you have to have a computer that can handle the performance increase possibilities to make this worthwhile.)

When writing however, you have to write to BOTH drives. Although this is done together at once, there will be some slight overhead in order to deal with 2 drives instead of one. With hardware RAID though, this is usually hardly anything.

Answer 3

Raid arrays are used for fault tolerance or to increase the size of a logical drive. A mirrored raid is slower as the data has to be written twice. A home user should not need a raid array as their needs arent similar to those of larger business.

Answer 4

Yeah, we could end. i did no longer propose to try this out of malice, for that reason, anybody is unhappy. we are able to raid a sparkling section. besides, 3 of my questions have been reported. I enjoyed my "help! I"M PREGNANT WITH AN ONION?" question, lol.

Answer 5

it is just another technology to get people to buy new hard drives to make mirror images of their master drive,

Answer 6

you wouldn't, it can actually make home pc's slower, it's just a buzzword to increase sales