My apologies for the latest batch of tech posts that nobody cares about (that get you see plenty of on MystBlogs, tsk tsk), but I'm compiling notes for myself, too. But after some more discussion, I have opened up some new options for myself concerning RAID and backup solutions. Basically, RAID isn't considered a backup solution because the drives are connected to the computer and can be accessed... Basically, since the computer can see the drive, it's not really a "backup", it's a redundancy. Essentially the same thing, but, technically, a backup is something that you make and store offline and in a safe, secure place. I really don't want to have to worry about making hard copy backups to use to restore my files, and I would much rather use some sort of redundancy. I think I've done pretty well over the last 8 years keeping my data safe when I can freely navigate the folders, so that's not really a problem for me.

So, as I discovered on the last post concerning this, I decided that a two-drive RAID 0 would be what I want in my desktop. The more drives you add, the exponentially faster the speed becomes, but I think two drives will suffice. Unless I get, say, four small, cheap drives and put them in a RAID 0... But that also dramatically increases my chance for a failure. UNLESS I actively mirror the RAID 0 to a single external drive. Say, I get four 150GB hard drives in RAID 0? That's 600GB. I could get a 600GB drive that would be a single-drive mirror of the RAID 0! Synchronize it every week (or say) or so. That way, if something bad happens to the RAID 0, I'll have a mirror that I can recover everything from.

I was also considering using this set up and put 1TB of drives in RAID 0 in the computer itself, and then have a single 1TB external drive (maybe even mirror that, as well) that stores everything. Operating system, program files, sensitive data... But that undermines the idea I had to have my documents and sensitive data on a separate RAID 5, so I'm inclined to shy away from this idea. I really don't want to put my data on the same partition as the operating system and other reinstallable stuff, ya'know?

But! I think my tentative (and colossally expensive) plan is to put two 500GB drives in RAID 0 in my desktop and have a single 1TB (1000GB) drive that the RAID 0 mirrors to, just to give me the option of recovering stuff... But, actually? Now I'm remembering my plan that if RAID 0 is only Vista and games, I don't really need to have that stuff stored redundantly. If I lose it, I can reinstall. However, along the same lines, I haven't quite decided if I want to invest in a RAID 5 for my sensitive files, because external RAID 5 setups are incredibly expensive... $1200 for a 2TB, four-disk array from LaCie, which, frankly, is the only external RAID 5-capable box that I'd trust right now. Although, technically, 2TB is the grand total... It means that there's four 500GB drives. Putting it into RAID 5 will reduce the grand total to 75%, meaning that it's really only about 1.5TB. Similarly, the eSATA 1TB, two-disk array from LaCie has a grand total of 1TB, but if you mirror it, then it's only 500GB that you have. Kind of disappointing and a little misleading, but I don't care at the moment, because I was smart enough to discover it! Hah! Anyway.

So do I go for a simple mirror? 500GB (or even the 1TB) that's mirrored entirely, so I have access to all my data in the event of a disaster, or do I invest in the 2TB (1.5TB in RAID 5) four-disk array? Technically, the RAID 5 would have the same failure rate as the mirrored, since both RAIDs allow for only a single drive to fail before you lose all data. The question, I guess, is how much data I have that I want to save? The answer is: I have no clue. At the moment, I have a full 40GB drive and a full 200GB drive on my current desktop. I have a full 100GB drive on my laptop, and I have a 240GB drive that is also full. That's about 600GB already, give or take a few! Geez. Of course, this is counting operating systems and massive games like World of Warcraft, so this number is far, far smaller than it seems. So... I really don't know. I know 500GB isn't going to be enough since I'm known for downloading and storing extremely large files on a regular basis...

I honestly don't know... If I go for mirrored, I need the 2TB drive so I have 1TB available, which is 960 dollars, or, for RAID 5, the 2TB set (which gives me 1.5TB usable) for 1240 dollars. Ugh. I guess it would all depend on the form of redundancy that I want. Actually... the RAID 5 would have more of a chance to lose all data, wouldn't it? The one with 2 drives only allows 1 to fail and still keep the data, the one with 4 drives also only allows 1 to fail and still keep the data. Hmm. Both ways, if you lose two drives, all data is lost. The smaller mirrored RAID would be more portable, so I could take my collections on vacation with me... That would be really fun!

So we were eating supper and I happened to glance out the window and... What's that white stuff? It's falling from the sky! On Easter, too... This shouldn't be happening! It obviously can't be snow, because the scientists are in "consensus" that the entire planet is getting catastrophically hotter and it's wreaking total havok on our environment. So... It can't be snow, since they're telling us it's too hot. So I'm going to have to agree with Peter Heck here... This strange white fluffy stuff falling from the sky on Easter? Global Warming Residue. We don't know what it is, but there it is!

Okay, all jokes aside... It's snowing. On Easter. In all my 23 years, I can't remember that ever happening. But, hey. Remember! The planet is getting hotter. Or... Hmm. Reminds of the headlines that NewsBusters found: "Global Warming Not Always To Blame For Extreme Winters." Yeah? As opposed to... Global warming ALWAYS being the blame for extreme winters? Okaaay. Is it just me, or does nobody have a straight story here? Me? I'm just going to watch the SNOW FALLING ON EASTER and laugh at them all. (Well, until that law comes into effect that bans incandescent light bulbs... Thank you, Democrat Congress!)