RAID Question

[RubberDuckie]

I have a NAS with 2 500G HDD mirrored in RAID. Not that it matters to my question but it is a WD World Book II. Lets say this thing craps out. Now I have two hard drives with the same data on them.

How would I access this data? I mean how good is the RAID backup? Can I just place these HDDs in computer and read the data? I expect no because the thing is running Linux (I assume) therefore I can not just place one of the HDD in my windows box. What would I have to do if the box crapped out but the HDDs are good? Not necessarly asking the question for the WD World Book, I would have the same question with any NAS in RAID.

Next question.... If I were to upgrade the HDDs from 500G to 1.5T. Can I swap one HDD out and let it sync. then swap the other out to get additional storage? or would I have two 1.5T HDDs formatted at 500G?

Thanks

[b-man1]

you could put one of the drives in a linux box (just boot to linux from a CD or something) and copy the data over to your Windows box across the network. putting the drive in another USB enclosure would be easiest, rather than installing it internally. there are also utilities that let Windows read linux partitions (at least i'm pretty sure there are...), so you could get the data that way too.

regarding swapping in larger drives, it would depend on the RAID controller, but typically you would end up with 2 x 1.5TB drives...but just 500GB partitioned and formatted. we do this all the time at work to expand arrays and such. your controller would then need to allow you to expand the partition into the unused space (which may not be an option with the stripped down external drive setups).

.02

[RubberDuckie]

Cool. So if I understand, I could read one of the drives at any time in a linux box without any raid setup? And as I expected there would be no way to increase size without starting over (moving data...replacing HDD...then putting data back).

[FlyingPenguin]

If your NAS contains files that aren't duplicated somewhere else, then it's not a real backup solution. LOTS of things can happen that would destroy or misplace the NA (theft, fire, tornado, etc).

Any real backup strategy should have multiple backups.

With the very affordable cost of off-site backup (Amazon S3 with Jungle Disk for instance) I would highly recommend that as a secondary backup for irreplaceable files.

[ZYFER]

Data corruption is a key worry, can happen for many reasons. Also, things like power surges and lightning strikes is another worry. RAID is not full-proof protection, if all your data is still in one single location you are left with the risk of losing anything from a list of possibilities.

[RubberDuckie]

I have the RAID mirrored to another HDD across the network once a month then stored in safety deposit box. I was more concerned with the RAID configuration and if the HDDs could be used outside of the RAID.

---
This seems like a nickel and dime you to death deal. Ill just backup to my own HDD and take to safety deposit box.

Jungle Disk
Storage
$0.15 per GB-Month of storage used
Data Transfer
$0.10 per GB of data uploaded
$0.17 per GB of data downloaded
Requests
$0.01 per 1,000 upload requests
$0.01 per 10,000 download requests

[FlyingPenguin]

I'll give you some real world numbers. I have somewhere around 10+ Gb backed up on Amazon S3 and it cost me $2.40 last month.

Your first month is the most expensive because of the upload fees, so my first months was maybe $4.50. Once you've initially uploaded all your data, then it only uploads files that are new or have changed so the upload fees are negligible.

Honestly, compared to other off-site backup solutions, this is dirt cheap.

I have several backups strategies (server, external USB drive, monthly DVD that gets put in my safe deposit box) but I dodged a bullet last year with a very close pass of a tornado and I realized that I could have easily lost everything so this is my safety net.

The really nice thing is that you can install Jungle Disk on a USB drive. So I carry around a portable copy of Jungle Disk and if I need to access one of my files in an emergency when I'm away from home, I can just plug in the USB drive on any computer, run the program, and I have a "J" drive that gives me access to all my files. Close the app and there's no trace left behind on that PC.

Your data is also totally secure as long as you use a Jungle Disk encryption key. The NSA could sieze your data from Amazon with a court order, but unless you give them your private key they aren't going to be able to read it.

Some people also use this as a simple way to share files between remote offices.