Pls Help: Dell have lost my old hard drive

CashStrappedTeen89

gaming_guy wrote: »

RAID isn't really a backup IMO.

What happens if you have a power surge that takes out the computer & both hard drives? (i have seen this before when a PSU blew and took most of the machine with it)

External to .. But im pretty sure RAID would be fine.

I can see what your saying though!, i've had a coolermaster PSU blow up on me when my watercooling rig leaked but the HDD's came out untouched, also at work i've now had 4 PSU's explode thanks to kids switching the voltage on the PSU as well and the HDD's have worked.

(Wont happen more than that, i've now resind the switch so its rock solid)

cybergibbons

gaming_guy wrote: »

RAID isn't really a backup IMO.

There is no opinion involved - RAID is not backup. Please do not rely on RAID in any form as backup.

All you have prevented against is the failure of a single drive.

If it is one of the consumer RAID network drives, have you contemplated what happens if the controller itself fails? They often use proprietary formats which means you can't easily recover it without the same controller.

What happens if you accidentally format the drive?

What happens if you delete a file, and don't realise for a month?

What happens if someone steals the array?

What happens if there is a fire?

CashStrappedTeen89

cybergibbons wrote: »

There is no opinion involved - RAID is not backup. Please do not rely on RAID in any form as backup.

All you have prevented against is the failure of a single drive.

If it is one of the consumer RAID network drives, have you contemplated what happens if the controller itself fails? They often use proprietary formats which means you can't easily recover it without the same controller.

What happens if you accidentally format the drive?

What happens if you delete a file, and don't realise for a month?

What happens if someone steals the array?

What happens if there is a fire?

I dont have the type of money to afford a NAS, SAN or other preventative measures. So i manage on what i have, having my main drive mirrored helps protect from failure of one drive, i have an external drive that i also back up to and then i copy that back-up off site at work to my own work machine.

I am currently trying to source together a half decent bit of kit out of parts at work that'll have about 10-20 100gb drives in that i can use to shift the backup off my work machine, although this is taking a backseat at the moment due to work.

Answear to your Q's -

What happens if you accidentally format the drive? I cant see that actually ever happening, not at home, but i would then have my mirrored drive to replace it with.

What happens if you delete a file, and don't realise for a month? I should still have it on my external and work machine.

What happens if someone steals the array? Ill have my external or Work drive.

What happens if there is a fire? As above.

DVardysShadow

weegie.geek wrote: »

No they don't.

It's a user's responsibility to keep data safe and backed up. Hardware fails, and can do so at any time. It's a hard lesson to learn, but if a person's data is worth so much, they can afford a second drive to back it up onto, or blank DVDs, tape backup, online storage, etc.

It's nobody's responsibility but the owner of the data to keep the data safe.

You are missing the point. What you state above would be correct if Dell left the HD with the OP. But what has happened is that Dell have wandered off with OP's hard drive - which they had no rights to.

PROLIANT

RAID is a continuity methodology, not a backup solution.

The cost of an external hard drive or large capacity pen drive is tiny, a hard lesson learned and I can assure you if we had a disaster at the company I manage the IT systems for and I said to my boss "ermm...I did not have a backup" lets just say I would be out of a job and most probably in court as well.

tronator

CashStrappedTeen89 wrote: »

Answear to your Q's -

What happens if you accidentally format the drive? I cant see that actually ever happening, not at home, but i would then have my mirrored drive to replace it with.

You don't seem to know how RAID1 works. Whatever you do on disk 1 will be written instantly on disk 2. All RAID levels except 0 protect you from hardware failures, not from user errors. If you have a backup on an external disk, then THIS is your backup, NOT the RAID array.

weegie.geek

DVardysShadow wrote: »

You are missing the point. What you state above would be correct if Dell left the HD with the OP. But what has happened is that Dell have wandered off with OP's hard drive - which they had no rights to.

Still, the OP should have a backup. If the dell guy had killed the OP's hard drive while fixing the PC up it'd still be the OP's fault for not having it backed up.

cybergibbons

CashStrappedTeen89 wrote: »

Answear to your Q's -

What happens if you accidentally format the drive? I cant see that actually ever happening, not at home, but i would then have my mirrored drive to replace it with.

What happens if you delete a file, and don't realise for a month? I should still have it on my external and work machine.

What happens if someone steals the array? Ill have my external or Work drive.

What happens if there is a fire? As above.

So, as you have stated above, the RAID array isn't backup, it's the mirror on an external HD.

DVardysShadow

weegie.geek wrote: »

Still, the OP should have a backup. If the dell guy had killed the OP's hard drive while fixing the PC up it'd still be the OP's fault for not having it backed up.

Different question. Coming out with the line about backups is a complete distraction which only obfuscates the real issue - Dell wandered off with the HD.

JasX

DVardysShadow wrote: »

Different question. Coming out with the line about backups is a complete distraction which only obfuscates the real issue - Dell wandered off with the HD.

A HD which they will replace, they wern't contracted to safeguard user data being a hardware job, they would quite reasonable expect that to be down to the user/customer.