Any advantage in Hardware-level RAID 1 for full Drive Redundancy?

cognus · 01 Oct 2020

I need to catch up on Software-based RAID in Windows 10 version 2004, vs the older, but quite reliable, Chipset-supported BIOS-level RAID. The goal in this case [i happen to have 2 needs right now] is full "no nonsense" fail-over protection.
So the plan would be two matched drives, boot drives, on two SATA channels, completely identically mirrored. Sounds old-school doesn't it?

I have never attempted to do this with Windows-only, on a system that otherwise Does Not have "hardware level RAID capability". In the past I would look very hard for a desktop or small server that has an Intel chipset which unequivocally supports RAID function. [ example: Intel(R) Q270 Chipset Product Specifications ]
It is not easy to ferret out such details but the rewards are good. I personally use and have used for many years just such a setup. I can walk in there and pull the plug, so to speak, on either drive and the system will boot right up with no drama. Just a small message notification that one of the drives has an issue....

Have any of you gone this direction with Windows, and tested it to make certain the drives are "bit for bit" identical.
I would say that Macrium Reflect [one example; the devil I know] can accomplish almost the same thing in software, but one would have to have boot media at hand, and a fresh drive, upon which to restore the image, and it would not be real-time, and few regular humans can be trusted to maintain the constant backups necessary for a 'fresh' image, AND one would just pray that Macrium have no goofs like they have had in the past, and the drive not actually be bootable [ask me how I know].

your experience? advice? Can a 'pure windows' approach be trusted?

EDIT: To explain more fully what I had, in past few years, installed for some level of redundancy for users that otherwise don't think of such things.
Two base scenarios with others just adding other functional differences:
1. Minitower or Midsize desktop form factor serving as the primary workstation. The HDD serves as the boot drive, and is mirrored using the RAID option ROM onboard, with the Intel IRST and Console running. So, either drive could be booted and run with the data on the same drive. This sort of config was factory option for Dell and HP [don't know about Lenovo but probably so] but I did a few of these from scratch. The idea was simply that if one drive failed/failing, a notice would be flagged to the user, and help would determine what needed to be done. Users were urged to ALSO provide a USB removable drive and periodically backup [copy/paste or use and app] to that drive the files they were most concerned about. That setup had one strength, which was tolerance of a single drive failure, and an opportunity to fix the issue. Drive failure is still the number one killer statistically speaking

2. Ditto above with a single boot drive [SSD for instance] and a pair of mirrored data drives

3. Hardware-level RAID 1 mirrored sitting on the LAN as a backup device only, 2 drives with Windows installation [boots from the same drives as data is stored on], or 3 drives with dedicated boot device [1 drive] and mirrored storage drives.

4. Same as either 1, 2, 3 except with the added backup of using an application at the workstation/user level [these days I prefer Macrium] to ALSO run a periodic full and differential backup scheme. Uses up quite a bit of space but drives are cheap, and gives a fairly quick restore should a drive be lost, if all goes well.

5. Ditto above but add a removable storage device, single drive, to run a backup/restore application [again I favor Macrium] to backup the RAID drives. This is a bit of a hassle to manage for the user but at least it is offline. Has a number of weaknesses but offers at least a chance of surviving ransomware/cryptolocker class attack. Lots of pitfalls, most of them human.

I have not tried Linux-based or other proprietary "Backup boxes" on the LAN but have read up on them and decided that a better approach would be to use cloud-based backup if the speed of service was conducive to such. [in my world, that is not always the case].

All of this is Home-user, SOHO, or small business users.

storageman · 01 Oct 2020

I really don't know much about the software raid capabilities, I tried it once long time ago and found that HARDWARE Raid works a lot better. There are no Drivers that need to loaded before booting your OS etc. But all have little issues. Under hardware raid if there is a problem detected before boot time, it will stop the booting and notify you of a problem. Older Spinners were not as reliable as today's spinners, but the chance of having a write error is still a possibility. Any hardware raid will bring your system to a halt and request you do something. Some times you can get soft positives ie: a soft write error. Some times you need to replace the drive in question. I have had in the past several soft errors where it only needed to rebuild the volume. But depending on how large the disk is, it could take some time to rebuild a whole volume. To me that was the biggest down side especially on my system disk. Since it gets used quite heavily, chance to have a soft error rise.

I now only have Raid 1 running on an external USB 3 backup disk. Since it only gets updated when I perform a backup (Either full or incremental), I have seen little problems. Its been running RAID 1 for about 3 years and adds an extra level of backup security to my backups.

The choice is yours.

pparks1 · 01 Oct 2020

Honestly, I think RAID 1 for home use is somewhat pointless. The most likely cause of a problem is going to be

User error. You deleted something
malware or virus related: Your files get mangled
Updates or install screws something up.

A RAID 1 setup will not save you from any of these items. You would need another backup solution anyway to protect you against those typess of issue.

Raid 1 will just keep you booting up in the event of a hard drive failure.

LMiller7 · 01 Oct 2020

RAID is fine, if used for the right reasons. RAID in any form does not protect your data. For that you need backups. No form of RAID ever devised is a viable backup solution. RAID will only protect you against drive failure and you can't rely on that.

The purpose of RAID, except RAID 0, is to protect access to your data in the event of a drive failure. In such a case you can continue working and defer drive replacement to a more convenient time. That is very important with a busy server. For a home user the benefits are less important and the costs more difficult to justify.

Software RAID is often considered as poor mans RAID.

cognus · 09 Oct 2020

Your perspective is parallel to what I've thought for a decade but I notice that as time has gone by the use of onboard hardware RAID capable chipsets, at least from Intel, have been more spotty in the corporate-grade desktops/towers - still obviously a bigger deal in the small servers. Nonetheless, one can discover what the chipset is in a given system [I mainly look to HP and Dell for the hardware] and their Ark info on the chipset states clearly whether onboard support of RAID is or is not.

I see from the other responses I need to clarify my original post. I will edit that now.

the long running site win-raid.com has a lot of depth on this subject but I admit it is not easy to get right to precise comparisons of software vs chipset-level configurations though there is a lot of data on that subject buried in the long threads.

storageman said:

I really don't know much about the software raid capabilities, I tried it once long time ago and found that HARDWARE Raid works a lot better. There are no Drivers that need to loaded before booting your OS etc. But all have little issues. Under hardware raid if there is a problem detected before boot time, it will stop the booting and notify you of a problem. Older Spinners were not as reliable as today's spinners, but the chance of having a write error is still a possibility. Any hardware raid will bring your system to a halt and request you do something. Some times you can get soft positives ie: a soft write error. Some times you need to replace the drive in question. I have had in the past several soft errors where it only needed to rebuild the volume. But depending on how large the disk is, it could take some time to rebuild a whole volume. To me that was the biggest down side especially on my system disk. Since it gets used quite heavily, chance to have a soft error rise.

I now only have Raid 1 running on an external USB 3 backup disk. Since it only gets updated when I perform a backup (Either full or incremental), I have seen little problems. Its been running RAID 1 for about 3 years and adds an extra level of backup security to my backups.

The choice is yours.