Re: [tlug] Hard Drive Failure (Was: Help! Total hardware failure)

[Curt Sampson <cjs@example.com>]

On 2008-09-15 11:26 +0900 (Mon), Ian Wells wrote:

> All RAID is software, it's just a matter of where it runs.

True. But when we talk about "hardware RAID," we're generally referring
to a separate system that presents itself to the host system as a single
disk. It's an important distinction, because....

> You're just offloading the task to another processor with proprietary
> software. And we don't like proprietary software around here - in this
> case because you're never quite sure exactly how it's RAIDed the disks
> together, and so when the RAID card dies you can be up shit creek...

Well, the theory is that it's better tested, or more reliable, or
something like that.

The practice is, I have *never* used *any* RAID system that has not at
least once failed in some catastrophic way and lost data in a situation
where it was theoretically recoverable.

In otherwords, you're quite correct.

Which is why, at this point, I don't use RAID to protect my data; I only
use it on systems which I would like to keep running in the event of a
hard drive failure. I protect my data with careful backups.

cjs
-- 
Curt Sampson       <cjs@example.com>        +81 90 7737 2974   
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