Edit with Raid 1 drive?

S

shortnstout

Well-known member
Hi all,
I'm looking into a new safe (backed up) storage solution. I know a Raid 1 doesn't save me from all problems, but I think a mirrored drive will be perfect for my daily editing (while I do a real separate backup of everything irreplaceable).
So I've been looking into the Raid 1 systems like the G-Safe and the Lacie 2Big. I think I need about 2TB of storage (backed up on another 2TB). But are these drives really too slow for editing? I usually edit off a bus powered Lacie Rugged firewire800 drive with no problems. Will a Raid 1 be slower? I'm working with 1080p ProRes mostly, and on a MBP.
Do I need to step up and do a Raid 5 or something like the Lacie 4Big? That is expensive! Might have to just force myself to do more regular "SuperDuper" backups on a couple of regular 2TB drives.
 
Raid 1 isn't going to give you any speed improvement - it's just a mirror. Why not set up a raid 0 and mirror that? with 2/3 1tb drives you get a speed improvement because you're writing to multiple discs at the same time and you set up a single 2tb as a mirror.

I have 2 raid 0's and back up to a raid 5
 
RAID 1 is the slowest of the RAID options. That's because of the mirroring. What you may want to consider is RAID 3 or 5, which are very good compromises of speed & redundancy. If you can't do that, consider RAID 0 with a good backup strategy.
 
i've been a fan of my mediasonic raid box, 4 bays, running raid 10 with 4x2tb green drives. edits small to medium length projects with no lag
 
Hey,
Thanks for all the input everyone! So this seems to clear it up, I wasn't sure if the Raid 1 was actually slower than a regular (non-raid) drive, but it seems like it is, all because of the mirroring. I have never seemed to need anything faster than my regular old drives, and just wanted the simplest backup solution, but seems like going with Raid 1 would slow me down too much. I suppose the cheapest reliable option is to just get a couple drives and schedule my SuperDuper to do a Smart Backup once a day.

If I get 2 Raid 0 drives, is there an easy/cheap way to just have one mirror the other without being in some more expensive Raid 5 or 10 box? Sorry I'm new to this :)
 
Mirroring is good for redundancy, but it's bad for using as a back-up. Mirroring drives does not protect you from accidentally deleting a file, file corruption, an 'act of god' that fries your machine (drives included), etc.,. Back-up your footage to another HDD and, if possible, put it in a different geographical location for safe keeping.


-Andrew
 
Thanks- yes, I do backup the really important stuff that way, but since i work with really quick turnaround I want something that will give me some protection simultaneously because I know I'm not going to be doing a real backup all the time. All my precious stuff (ie finished films, etc) I have on 3 drives, one of which is out of the building.
 
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