Posted: 4/6/2009 5:49:32 PM EDT
|
I just installed ubuntu on an old system. It has a 18G Master HD, a 42 G Slave HD and I have a 200G external attached. It is used for light duty stuff around the house (Some web surfing, pre-school kids games etc....). Probably the most important stuff to me are thousands of pics on the external. I have copies backed up elsewhere but would like to set up a RAID as another failsafe. I am a noob to linux and want to do this without buying a RAID.
Pmc |
|
So buy another external HD, back everything up to it, and stick it in the safe.
Yes, you can raid, but the pics are only as safe until you format the wrong partition. Or until your computer is destroyed by some unforeseen disaster. Or the computer is stolen. Raid is for securing data which is constantly being written and rewritten. (To prevent from a single HD failure from taking you out of commission). The other raid is to "speed up" access to your data (Striping). Think this one through before you act and give yourself a false sense of security. If I just pissed in your cornflakes, and you have a raging hard on for RAID, I can probably help. |
|
Software raid does suck, but I've used it from time to time. With different sized drives, unless you use LVM, you'll be limited to RAID-0, which offers no data protection.
However there's a pretty cheap off the shelf solution: http://www.dv-gear.com/serial-ata/serial-ata-usb-raid-enclosure-venus.htm. You can drop two (identical sized) drives in it and it will do hardware RAID-1 and give you both USB and eSATA connections. Other companies make ones that do firewire. You should be able to find a better price than that site too; I got my enclosure for under $100 at the local computer store. |