which raid mode to suggest

i only have 2 x 200 serial ata discs which i would like to raid on my server, now i doubt i will ever use more than 200 gb on there (although that can change) so im wondering is it best to go with RAID0 or RAID1, main thing i do on there atm is transfer files from xp pro box to server for storage (not long week or so) and burning discs and such

Carpo said:

i only have 2 x 200 serial ata discs which i would like to raid on my server, now i doubt i will ever use more than 200 gb on there (although that can change) so im wondering is it best to go with RAID0 or RAID1, main thing i do on there atm is transfer files from xp pro box to server for storage (not long week or so) and burning discs and such

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Sounds like the machine is mainly being used as a file server. In that case, if the stored data is important to you, a RAID1 setup would be a good idea for redundancy. If one disk fails, you can salvage the data off the mirror.

I wouldn't recommend RAID0 on that box, considering what it's being used for. If you were using it for constant disk-intensive tasks, you could perhaps have considered it. But remember that if one disk fails, all your data is gone, so it's not a good idea for a machine that's primarily being used for storage.

well its going to have apache on there with mysql but that will be ran from c drive, apache htdocs folder will be on d, and everything else sent to e and f which will be the raid, and although i will be backing stuff up weekly (yes i know i should do it daily - lazy ) harddrives can and do fail at the worst times.

raid1 it is then

personally, I never really recommend RAID 0. There are very few circumstances/applications that actually see any major benefit from a RAID0 setup. In most cases, it's just worth a little performance increase for twice the chance of data loss from a drive failure.

RAID 1 is all good as suggested.

Just don't 'rebuild' the 1 of the drives when it fails. A junior sysadmin did it before asking the other day.... did not have a good evening

i think i know what you mean but just to be clear can you explain it a bit more, just so that i know what and what not to do if all goes pete tong

do you mean if drive 0 fails dont use what ever is on drive 1 ? and if that does happen how do i get all the fiels back