RAID - Can I see the 'COPY' that the RAID places on the 2nd drive?

WD Legacy Products My Book Live Duo
1

 I would also like to see the ‘copy’ that the RAID has created on the other drive ( I have 2 x 3 Tb configured as RAID) I can only see 1 x 3 TB- So I would like to again make sure BEFORE I delete files off my PC that they are in fact NOW on the 2 drives within the Live Duo.

I see the files on the public part of my drive but how do I confirm the other drive has mirrored the first?

2

It’s RAID – You CAN’T “see” that second copy, because it’s not a “Copy.”  It’s RAID.

3

So it is to some extent - blind faith - that I go ahead and delete the original? 

4

If the file is that hyper-critical, you do have a backup, right?  …Because RAID is not – I’ll repeat-- NOT a backup.

5

I appreciate your continued patience. Given that I have selected files from my PC to be ALSO placed on the MBLD with RAID it would seem to me to be a ‘backup’,  perhaps semantics here or just my poor understanding of this area. So the end result then ?.. is that I have placed important files onto a RAID enabled system. Like a backup to a 2nd HDD or DVD or portable drive located in a safe deposit box- they are all only as good as the medium and its life - such that if the Portable drive fails or the DVD corrrputs I will lose my files - ‘backup’. I figured with RAID then I have placed data onto a drive WITH the safety of redundancy such that in the event of the primary drive failure the data is able to be reconstructed from the 2nd drive to a replacement new primamry drive.- YES /. NO ??

Thanks again for assisting in my understanding or failure!

6

famreeks wrote:

I appreciate your continued patience. Given that I have selected files from my PC to be ALSO placed on the MBLD with RAID it would seem to me to be a ‘backup’,

… but you said that you’re about to DELETE them from the PC, meaning that the MBLD is the ONLY copy of the file, not a BACKUP copy.

RAID *only* protects from the failure of the medium.   It does NOT protect from:

  • Human Error (what if you or someone else accidentally deletes or corrupts the file?)
  • Host System Failure (what if the MBLD fails completely in such a way that the filesystem is corrupted?)
  • Data Corruption
  • “Acts of God”  – What if the drives BOTH fail or disappear simultaneously due to Fire, Theft, Lightning Strike, etc.
  • … etc.

RAID is *NOT* the same as a backup.