>And if you have a software glitch, you have two
>identically trashed hard drives. Been there, been burned.
>
>A "BACKUP" is just that. You make a copy and then you
>tuck it away somewhere safe using removable media (HD case)
>or a separate computer and network mount the drive for use
>only when backup is being done. At least you then have
>something from which you CAN backup.
>
>Any disk trashing virus will just toast your
>hard drives faster if you have raid.
>
>What you should consider today is a removable SATA or
>USB2 or Firewire drive since the newer controllers
>support hot swap,
>so you can mount and remove the drive without rebooting.
>
>It is also a question of how valuable your data may be.
>If your house/office burns it is likely that the
>hard drives will not work too well for recovery.
>A removable dive (or two) that you rotate back and
>forth between two safe locations is the only really
>GOOD backup. And with big drives being as cheap as
>they are, there is no reason not to have a few (like
>I do).

I second that. A RAID array using mirrors is only a keep you going
arrangement if you have a physical failure of a hard drive.

A backup is a must for important data. Kept offsite in case of burglary or
fire or flood or plague or tempest or ....

Having been a computer engineer when a customer had a fire in their plant
(it was a paint factory, there wasn't much left) and seen the results when
smoke from a failed air-conditioning went through a machine (water and smoke
dust are highly corrosive) and had customers back running again from
backups, you never want to go through it yourself. Keep the backup in some
sort of vandal and fireproof safe, preferably off the premises as a "belt
and braces" recovery system.

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