Key findings
- SSDs do not require RAID due to their longer lifespan and faster performance.
- RAID reduces storage capacity, especially with RAID 1 mirroring.
- RAID requires additional drives and costs, but is not a replacement for backups.
A redundant Array of Incognito Disks (RAID) has been around for decades, where multiple drives can be bundled into a single array for better redundancy. Hard drives would eventually fail, and a RAID allowed software to recover the failed drive by pulling data from a dedicated recovery partition and loading it onto the replacement drive. Do you need a RAID in your desktop PC? I would say no, as most systems have a few drives and most of them are SSDs. A backup would be a better protection against data loss.
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1 RAID is not required for SSDs
An SSD works differently than a mechanical hard drive. Gone are the spinning platters and motor. In their place is a single circuit board, a controller, some memory chips, and a few other parts. Instead of storing data magnetically, an SSD uses electricity to charge and discharge the memory cells. Because the device inherently doesn't use anything that physically moves, the lifespan is far greater than the best hard drives, and that's simply due to physics and the incredible manufacturing precision required for mechanical drives.
That's because an SSD lasts much longer than an HDD and is only limited by the amount of data that can be written to the drive. As long as you don't plan on writing too much data to the SSD, there's a good chance it will last longer than your PC. This makes an NVMe SSD ideal for storing games, as performance is significantly better than a SATA drive with plenty of bandwidth across PCI lanes. RAID can have a positive impact on hard drives, as additional throughput is available by combining the drives.
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2 You lose storage capacity
When using RAID, at least one drive is reserved, depending on which RAID you choose. It all starts with RAID 1, which mirrors the data between two drives and reduces the maximum capacity by half. Using RAID 1 on two 4TB drives would result in a usable capacity of only 4TB. RAID is useful for servers and NAS, where losing capacity is not a big problem because larger hard drives are available. For this reason, I recommend buying larger drives rather than smaller ones. It is better to buy two 20TB drives than five 4TB drives, although this would cost more.
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3 Additional drives and costs
To get the most out of your storage drives with RAID, you'll need to buy additional units to provide more capacity for data storage, which adds to the costs associated with multiple drives. Although an SSD will typically cost more than an HDD for the same capacity, the more drives you have, the more savings you'll make by not using RAID. Then there's the cost of a RAID controller. Since using software (e.g. Windows) isn't as reliable, you'll need to buy a dedicated RAID controller, and the more expensive ones (less prone to failure) can be quite expensive.
4 RAID does not perform backup
I recommend using RAID on NAS, servers, and other storage solutions, but you should never rely on RAID for data backup. It should not be included in the 3-2-1 backup rule. This is because there are still multiple points of failure, including the RAID controller, the operating system, and the drive itself. It is only suitable for quickly recovering from drive failures and improving the performance of slower SATA drives. You should always keep at least one copy of the data you want to protect on your PC and store it externally.
Back up your files elsewhere
The best way to protect your data is to have a reliable backup plan. The 3-2-1 backup rule is ideal for ensuring you never lose a single file. RAID is handy for recovering from a drive failure, but as long as you have backups of all your data stored elsewhere, a drive in the desktop PC can be quickly swapped out and the data reloaded. We've covered Network-Attached Storage (NAS) extensively on XDA, and I recommend checking out some reasons why you should get one.