Topic: USB & eSATA Disk Array RAID

[plucks]

Is this external HD compatible with most any computer system?
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=205770649
the Disk Array RAID label i am not familiar with.

or, would this be more appropriate?
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?sku=A1459415&cs=19&c=us&l=en&dgc=CJ&cid=24471&lid=566643


thanks!

[Brian Skalinder]

What's the intended usage of the HDD(s)?  Simply more storage space?  Real-time mirroring and redundancy (data is mirrored on the fly, all the time)?  Reasonable redundancy (data is mirrored once a day)?  Something else?  Do you plan to add these HDDs in addition to a disaster / recovery plan, like optical or magnetic media and / or offsite backup?

[Brian Skalinder]

Regarding RAID, a post I just made in a similar thread:

Personally, I think RAID is overkill for data that <a> doesn't change rapidly and <b> isn't mission-critical.  Additionally, IME most inexpensive RAID solutions use RAID controllers that I wouldn't trust any farther than I could throw them.  If I'm not going full enterprise-quality RAID, I'm not going RAID at all.  But that's me.  My solution:  reasonable redundancy without RAID.

Summary:

• Multiple HDDs in an external case (firewire in my case, but eSATA will work just as well)
• Mirrored nightly.  More info in the reasonable redundancy thread.
  
  

Pros:

• Inexpensive
• Works great
• Easy to set up
• Very reliable
• Doesn't rely on a cheapo / proprietary RAID controller
• Easily recoverable in the case of HDD crash, etc.

Cons:

• Doesn't have the cachet of an uber-geek RAID setup
• Less usable HDD space v. RAID5 (though same as RAID1)