RAID technology is the use of multiple drives to emulate the performance of one drive. This is typically done to increase data security and redundancy, speed up read/write performance, or a combination of both. It is very useful in corporate data management.
Data is an integral part of businesses today. It is said that information is power and with good reason, especially when you consider the nature of the modern world economy in what we call the information age.
This has led to the explosion of information technology integration in most companies. Most companies employ some type of information system that stores sensitive information vital to a wide spectrum of operations.
These systems can be trusted, especially as technology increases the amount and accuracy of information stored on various media and systems. However, the likelihood of these systems crashing or data loss cannot be ignored.
Most data crashes occur when some physical or logical error is introduced into a system. Hard drives, CD-ROMs, tape drives, and other storage media can and will eventually fail. This could be due to host reasons: power outages, physical damage to media, head crashes, motor issues, and the like.
Whatever the reason, you will need a means to restore all of this data. This is especially true if, for some reason, the deleted, destroyed, or damaged data contains information that is not backed up or does not exist in any other location anyway.
A special consideration when planning your backup strategies is the type of storage you choose to use. If you’re using a RAID configuration for accessing and recording your data, you’ll need to keep some additional tips in mind in addition to your general knowledge data management.
1. Regular Maintenance – While RAID components are generally reliable, regular backups at set intervals are recommended. There is always the possibility that such systems have logic and continuity problems. To do this, you may want to employ special software to maintain the integrity of your RAID configuration.
2. Know your problem – You may need some training to tell the difference, but many RAID problems can be resolved using readily available RAID data recovery tools. If in case such software does not work then you can consider the services of a professional data recovery expert.
These experts are highly trained and use equipment not readily available to most people to recover badly damaged drives and hopeless media.
3. If possible, use software RAID instead of hardware RAID, while software RAID is a viable alternative to hardware RAID. Software RAID has some practical drawbacks.
Software RAID is not as fault tolerant as hardware RAID. It may not be an error magnet, but it’s still much less reliable compared to hardware RAID.
Furthermore, the software raid consumes valuable system resources and must be started before it can be used. This is not to say that software RAID should be avoided like the flu; it’s just that there are very good reasons to use hardware RAID instead
4. Invest in Maintenance – While spending valuable hours backing up and maintaining your RAID can be exhausting and, of course, unnecessary, you only have to look at a professional data recovery bill to realize it was worth the effort. grief.
