• Storage & Archiving

  RAID 5 Array to Non-Raid

  Posted by Matt Deck on July 20, 2011 at 7:21 pm

  Hi there,

  3 years ago I built my own Computer and decided to go with an RAID 5 Array (Software only). I thought since I have a Quad Core (Q6600) the performance would still be great.
  Well not really. It bogs my Computer down quit a bit. So I know there is no EASY way to go back to No-Raid. I have 3 500GB drives in my Array. I would like to keep all my installed programs etc but basically redo my drives. I got plenty of additional HD’s. I got another 500GB No-Raid in the Tower as well as a 2TB and a 640 GB External Drive. So How can I “Backup my System the way it is and rebuild it in NO-Raid ??

  Any Help is appreciated,

  Matt

  Todd Perchert replied 15 years, 1 month ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Tony Segreto

  July 20, 2011 at 9:31 pm

  Here is my advice, and what I do. I would separate your boot drive from your archive/documents/media/work drive. Make your boot drive an SSD or Raid 0. Your boot drive can have all your work applications and games or whatnot. Back it up via a software image backup.

  For your archive/working/media drive, through it into a Raid 1 or multiple raid ones. This way you have the safest type of redundancy for your data.

  This is what I have going on at the moment:
  WD Black 640GB boot drive (soon getting an SSD)
  (2) WD Black 1TB Raid 1 – Current Projects/documents/music
  (2) Hitachi Green 3TB Raid 1 – Archive of old projects

  As far as backing up your items for the crossover, I would move all your documents/media to an external with a backup, and then make an image of your boot drive with all of your applications. Throw that on some drives as well.

  https://www.VigilanteHD.com
• 

  Todd Perchert

  July 21, 2011 at 2:16 pm

  And, yet another thought… Definitely keep your system drive and media separate, that will bog down your computer. I wouldn’t worry about a Raid for the system drive, but using one drive and imaging it to another drive for backup. Then do what you were looking at with the RAID-0 for media and backup that daily. If you are able to, get a good, dedicated hardware RAID controller and do RAID-5 for media that way, but you will still want to backup daily. As others will point out, RAID-5 is not backup.
  Good Luck! TC

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