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What is RAID? [Noob Question]
Hello,
So I recently lost all my data because I did not setup RAID. Many users and even OVH staff told me that if you had setup RAID, your data should not have been lost.
I have OVH KS-LE-B with 2x 450GB SSD NVMe Soft Raid.
I did not understand that what is soft raid?
Is it if we setup RAID 1, We can only use 1x 450GB instead of 2x 450GB? Sorry for these foolish questions, But I need someone to explain more clearly.
Thanks!
Comments
Soft RAID is based/managed on/by software. Soft = software.
RAID 0 = high performance = full capacity but no redundancy (if it fails = bye bye data)
RAID 1 = redundancy but less capacity. So, if you have 2 x 450, you can only use 1 x 450Gb since data will be doubled.
RAID 1 mirrors data onto both drives so you can use 450gb (1 nvme drive) in simple terms raid1 you basically get half of the usage space you would have from jbod/raid0 but you "safety" is if one drive was to fail your data is on the other mirrored drive
Also you can take a read, I think no one will explain in much detail themselves
https://www.liquidweb.com/blog/raid-level-1-5-6-10/
Soft RAID is software raid.
Essentially utilising multiple disks to mirror your data across them in different ways.
Raid1 means the data is striped/mirror across two or more disks.
In your case, you can think of it being replicated consistently across both disks. If one disk fails - the other disk still has a full copy of the data and can continue working when you replace the faulty disk.
Edit: I read the other thread. Sorry for the negativity and I’m glad you’re trying to learn from the mistake!
Should also be explicitly mentioned that RAID0 is arguably less redundancy than just running two separate disks standalone.
With RAID0 between 2 (or more) disks, if only one of those disks die - regardless of which one - then all data in that RAID0 is lost.
Depending on what your usecase is you can still use raid0 for better performance (and more usable storage) and do regular backups to a storage server or similar you can run cronjob rsync to automatically do this every night and easily backup if needed....but again it just depends on what type of data or app/project you are running on your main server there is further steps involved if theres DBs involved etc etc
Quite useless with only two disks but https://www.raid-calculator.com/default.aspx may be a good chance for you to understand for different raid levels:
Thank you everyone for quick replies.
I got it that with RAID1, I can use only 1 disk instead of 2.
A huge thanks to everyone who replied quickly.
Any cheap safe storage site to backup whole windows every month?
RAID is not a backup! I have my server setup as raid 1 and daily backups to another VPS with a completely different location and company.
HostBrr storagebox is probably as cheap as it gets. Otherwise, wait for Black Friday for any special deals from providers.
Not only buy a backup storage server but choose one from a reliable, quality provider that has endorsements from the community, like @labze @hosthatch @host_c to name a few, so that you know your backup won’t disappear with the provider going out of business (deadpooling). (This has happened to me before.)
Storage VPS from @host_c is what id recommend
RAID1 is somewhat should have saved me as one of my two drives got failed. It is indeed a good thing.
Although its good to have another backup.
What is Soft RAID?
What is RAID 1?
Why You Lost Data:
Let me know if you want help setting up RAID next time!
Clean and clear explanation.
Thanks a lot!
You use both the disks in RAID-1
It allows mirroring all data from disk 1 to disk 2.
The capacity is limited to one only.
Maybe now is a good time to invest in a nice backup plan (leave multiple copies with multiple providers) if data is important.
I have a feeling you may setup Raid1 now but skip on the backups
Raid0 works wonders with 2 disks, as in OPs case
RAID IS NOT BACKUP
This cannot be said enough times. It is replication at the system level. It will not save you from an irrecoverable crash or a datacenter fire.
I have two 4 TB storage servers at two different providers from here to keep two offsite backups of my data. It cannot be emphasized enough that redundancy needs to be in everything: different provider, different location, and preferably different continent. Buying backup from the same provider but different location is not sufficient redundancy, to be clear.
4TB of sisters we love to see it
Soft RAID = software RAID as opposed to have a dedicated hardware managing the RAID.
There’s a lot of great advice in this thread already, but I want to emphasize something critical that many people still misunderstand: RAID is not a backup.
You mentioned it’s “good to have another backup,” but based on the rest of your comment, it seems your mindset is that RAID is a form of backup. That’s a dangerous misconception.
Also, your comment about “only being able to use half” or “just one hard drive” reflects another common misunderstanding. The actual usable space in a RAID configuration depends on the smallest drive in the array and the RAID level you're using.
Example:
If you have a 1TB drive and a 2TB drive and put them into a RAID 1 (mirroring) setup, you’ll only have 1TB of usable space—the size of the smallest drive. You don’t get to use the “extra” 1TB on the larger drive. That’s how RAID works. It’s about redundancy and availability, not storage expansion or backup.
And here’s another serious issue people overlook:
Let me say it again clearly:
If the RAID controller fails, or if there's data corruption, or a fire in the data center, both drives can be lost simultaneously—and with them, all your data. There are countless stories of people who thought their data was safe just because they had RAID, only to lose everything when the array failed.
Even in home setups, many people with two-drive NAS devices mistakenly think the second drive is their “backup.” It’s not. If the RAID fails, the entire array can become inaccessible.
Bottom line: Always have a real, separate backup—preferably offline or off-site. RAID helps with uptime and redundancy, not disaster recovery.
RAID 0 (Striping)
RAID 1 (Mirroring)
RAID 5 (Striping with Single Parity)
RAID 6 (Striping with Double Parity)
RAID 10 (Mirrored Stripes – RAID 1+0)
Hi there,
You can use our RAID Calculator tool in future. It also offers a little bit of information on fault tolerance of your setup, as well as read/write gains for the selected RAID type.
https://www.enginyring.com/tools/raidcalc
RAID - redundant array of independent disks or redundant array of inexpensive disks.
So it won't help with
... RAID is not a backup.
Define a backup. If you think backup is "a copy of your data stored elsewhere", then RAID kinda is a block-level backup, in some RAID configurations. Not RAID0, but in RAID1 for example, Disk2 is a backup of Disk1 and vice-versa.
I believe we're all perfectly capable here of consulting ChatGPT by ourselves. Question is, why are you trying to use ChatGPT without citation in an otherwise perfectly natural conversation among humans?
its when you buy 2 of the same book because you're afraid you'll lose one of them
Take notes @painfreepc. This is human ingenuity!