Direct MP3 Download: My Hard Drive Died #1 – All about RAID
Summary:
Hosted by: Scott Moulton of MyHardDriveDied.com and Steve Cherubino of Podnutz
- RAID: What is it?
- The advantages of RAID
- Why RAID0 is dangerous
- Which RAID is best for data recovery?
- The truth about putting a hard drive in the freezer
Show notes:
Topics discussed:
What is RAID? (Redundant Array of Independent Disks)
A system of hard drives bound together to form a single capacity storage device.
Spreads data among drives, offers redundant data, superior performance, storage capacity and reliability.
RAID Levels:
RAID 0 – Striping:
Stripped Disk Array with no redundancy, requires at least 2 drives
Easy to implement, cost effective, utilizes full disk capacity
High performance especially for gamers and video editing (speed)
Disadvantages: No redundancy, failure of any disk results in data loss
RAID 1 – Mirroring:
Data is redundant on two identical drives, if either drive fails, no data is lost
Configuration is the easiest and simplest amongst all RAID levels.
Disadvantages: Inefficient use of disk space, corrupted data is replicated on both drives
RAID 0+1:
A combination of stripping and mirroring with all the best features of RAID 0 and RAID 1
Provides high data transfer performance with at least 4 disks
Fast data access and fault tolerance at single drive level.
Disadvantages: Inefficient use of disk space, costly to deploy
RAID 2 – Obsolete
RAID 3 – Obsolete
RAID 4 – Obsolete
RAID 5 – Striped
Minimum requirement of at least 3 drives to be implemented
Losing a drive does not bring down a server, rebuilding a bad drive is easy but time consuming
Supports a hot swap extra drive, some arrays allow 45 drives
It is probably the most popular RAID level
RAID 5E & RAID 5EE are additional versions available (include different parity options)
RAID 6
Known to be an extension of RAID level 5, allows 2 hot swap extra drives
Is the best available RAID array for mission critical applications and data storage needs
RAID 10:
Provides very high performance, redundancy and reliability
Minimum requirement is 4 drives, can support multiple drive failures
Disadvantages: Very expensive, Not very scalable
RAID 15…
Others…..
Higher RAID versions are normally a combination of previous versions, only seen on the “Corporate” arena with different variations, not very common
Disk File Systems:
FAT32 Old format (Limitation: 4GB Maximum File Size Allowed)
NTFS Standard window formatting (Not commonly use because of licensing restrictions)
XFS Buffalo stations / SANs (Network Storage Devices)
HFS Mac Systems
EXT Western Digital Book Drives
ZFS New file system, also called “Soft RAID”, (Being explored by: Open Solaris, Mac O/S)
OS2 Old IBM format
HPFS Old IBM format
JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks)
A collection of hard disks that aren’t configured according to RAID
A hard disk enclosure for several disks lacking a RAID controller.
Does not provide any improvements in performance
Advantages: Avoids drive waste, easier disaster recovery
http://www.pc-pitstop.com/
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/
Hard Drives
LaCie: http://www.lacie.com/
Maxtor: http://www.maxtor.
Western Digital: http://www.wdc.com/en/
Free NAS (Linux based NAS box)
You can use any old computer and setup a RAID; it becomes a NAS
You have control on the file system to use
Drobo Storage Products
Simple, scalable, reliable data storage solution
LaCie Drives
Fail on a regular basis, very common devices in a Disaster Recovery environment
Usually report problems with their boards and the power supply
Is it safe to put a hard drive in your freezer?
Changing temperature may alter the heads and may contract some parts inside the drive and may work
This is a last resource option; there is condensation build up though
Freezing may trigger a chip on the drive and may allow you to use it also
On-Site and Off-Site data backups
Critical data should be off-site
Distribute your backups in different locations
Data Recovery Classes
http://www.myharddrivedied.
Notes by Jorge Hernandez of 123ComputerRepair.com
