RE: Re: Compressing DVD ISO Images

["Ian Lowe" <ianlowe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> For media servers do you *REALLY* need RAID though?

It's a convenience really, nothing more...

> If you are using *HARDWARE* RAID using a PCI or mobo based RAID
solution

Absolutely - I do not use hardware raid any more. (in context - 20Ks worth
of Proliant Server is obviously in a different ballpark from the pocket
raid
solutions we are talking about here)

> It seems that there is a lot of belief that as long as you have some
form
of
> "RAID 5" solution then you can sit back safe in the
knowledge that your
data
> is secure and I know I'm going to get shot to sh*t on this for
contradicting
> the crowd but I don't consider it quite that cut-and-dried.

Well as a fully paid up "IT guy", I have to agree - RAID in the
big server
world is something you can depend on (usually) but you pay handsomely for
the security. At the low end, it's akin to an airbag - it bumps the odds in
your favour, but is not a guarantee.

I lost a lot of data on raid 5 due to the whole dodgy driver/roll of the
dice thing, I have never lost data from a mirror set.

> The only data that I have flagged up as "too important to
lose" is the
family documents > directories, the family digital photos and my
extensive
collection of "porn"

Likewise - for the important stuff I use a mirrored pair, plus one - every
now and then (last one was a few months ago) I'll deliberately break the
mirror by removing a drive, then rebuild it onto another drive: I keep the
"half mirror" safe as a backup.

Ian.