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Hard disk failing, robust backup strategy, raid 1?
Hello All,
Great forum, has helped me setup a backup strategy I am happy with... since discovering the forum I have:
- Found my E drive (2TB Seagate) is slowly dying (using Crystal disk info);
- Copied all data, with only minor loses, to my F drive (another 1TB Seagate);
- Backed up my C drive (128 GB SSD) using Macrium Reflect paid version (I liked the folder and file backup feature);
- Have made no less than three complete C and F drive backups to separate USB drives with Macrium. One to keep at work, one to keep attached to my computer at home, and one in a drawer at home;
- Have discovered the joys of Teracopy for moving data around;
- Installed CCleaner and got rid of heaps of duplicate files.
Here in Australia, the 2 TB Seagate Barracudas are super cheap, and I want to replace the failing one, now that I am happy all data is safely backed up.
Is it too much hassle to setup the two drives up as a software raid 1?
I know that these drives don't have the best reputation. But now that I have good backups, I am not fussed with another failure some time in future. I don't really want to spend the money to up spec the new hard drive...
Back in the 90's I had a SCSI / raid 1 setup with my hard disks that was super robust and completely transparent in general use.... everything just got written to both drives simultaneously with no fuss. (It was a daisy chain SCSI cable arrangement)
I am surprised there is not much talk of RAID 1 setup on this forum... is it not a valued method of backing up?
I know that Raid 1 won't help with a ransomeware attack.
I think I'll have to reformat both drives to setup the RAID.
I have looked at the Toms Hardware resource on SCSI.
I have heard about "bit rot" but that is a discussion probably best left to another thread.
I am not fussed by a slight loss in performance in reading and writing using RAID 1.
Some advise that the drives should be identical for RAID 1 to work? But different drives may work.
I just want the second drive for a bit of redundancy should a HDD failure occur.
Alternatively, I could just attach the second drive in under 10 minutes and be doing my Macrium backups super quick and conveniently to there...
Any thoughts/advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks.