SSD's, RAID, and External Backup

[ScottW]

With prices on SSD drives coming down, I want to make the leap for my laptop and desktop. I bought a new thinkpad with a standard drive, and plan to drop in the Intel X-25E SLC which from what I've read is a sweet drive. I don't use much space on my laptop, and I think I can work with 32GB.

BUT, I want to go SSD for my desktop too. I can't stand lag, delays, hard drive chugging - too many years of waiting for my computer while my mind is 5 steps ahead of it - and that's with a fast processor and 3GB of RAM on XP.

Right now, I have two 160GB western digital SATA drives in RAID 1. I really need RAID because this is my business machine - I can't afford the down time even if I have my data backed up. I've thought about the Intel X-25M MLC drive which is supposed to be fast and not have the write-issues of other cheaper MLC drives. Anyone have experience with that drive? Ever hear of it being used in RAID 1 or is that silly since SSD drives are unlikely to fail like mechanical drives? Would the X-25M still be much faster than the fastest mechanical drive if used in RAID 1?

Onto my other question... I want to find a hot-swappable RAID array external backup, that automatically backs up my desktop via USB or firewire, and maintains two drives cloned at all times. The array must be encrypted but not compressed necessarily. Then, periodically, I would pull out a drive, put it in a secure place, and then swap in another drive - and so on and so forth. So I'd always have one drive in a safe place with all my data, and the two drive RAID array will always have all my data too. Is External Hard Drive, Portable Hard Drive, Rugged Hard Drive, Mobile Hard Drive, Transportable Hard Drive - Olixir any good? Any alternatives?

[Rootstonian]

Wow...that's a lot to take in.

First, I think going for a SSD is a great idea...but, are you going to fit an OS and your applications on a 32 gig drive? Seems like you're "laptop bound" so I won't suggest a new i7 desktop with WD Raptor drives; doesn't get much faster than that.

Next, backup. I dunno about the external hot swappable RAID; what I think you really need (and it may be costly) is a good tape backup unit. Not the old TARVAN drives we used to have, but a real up-to-date tape system. Go to any modern data center at a company and I promise you their networking group is running nightly backups to tape; perhaps even 2 copies (on on-site and the other off-site). And they probably have a 10 tape backup system running incremental backups on a 2-week cycle for any given system.

I dunno how much money you have to spend, but it sounds like you possibly need an laptop upgrade with some type of file server as a backup medium (hard drive, tape, burn to blu ray etc.)

[ScottW]

Well I'm not actually laptop bound. I'd say I use my laptop and desktop fairly equally, though I do big projects on my desktop PC with multi-monitors. I'm fairly sure I can fit my OS and apps on the laptop with the 32GB drive and be okay. Desktop, no. The X25-M is 80GB which would work for my desktop, if the -M is fast enough for writes with MLC and RAID 1.

I've never worked with tape backup. I guess tapes are reliable? I don't need a whole tape library, I just need to have one tape that I swap out in a secure place periodically, weekly etc.

[KarmaKiller]

What kind of tower case are we talking here? There is quick swap HDD devices out that may be helpful?
Thermaltake BlacX HDD Docking Station - 2.5" & 3.5" Hard Drives (N0028USU) - FrozenCPU.com

ICY DOCK MB672SKGF-B Tray-less 3.5 SATA HDD Heavy Duty steel Internal Enclosure with LCD, Screw-less Hard Drive Mobile Rack- Hassle-free

Something like that work for your dekstop?

[ScottW]

No I don't want the backup drives built-in to my desktop - I want an external raid array solution.

The desktop talk was referring to the separate issue of whether or not anyone has tried or would recommend the Intel X-25M SSD drives in RAID 1 just overall, not backup related.

[Rootstonian]

And if you're talking of backing up the 2x 160 gigs in RAID 1, then I would just get a couple of WD Passport drives. Then you have the 2 RAID drives and 2 external drives (about $200) and your data, for all intents and purposes, will be on 4 different drives. Odds of 4 drives failing at same time SHOULD BE slim LOL

[ScottW]

Yeah but I'm thinking offsite backup. The point of the RAID in my desktop is to minimize my frustration and downtime if a drive fails, but not necessarily data loss, since that's taken care of by backups. The external RAID backup will be a data backup but in case of theft or fire, bye bye data, so I'm thinking offsite which means either tape or hot swappable drives where one can be removed from an array and stored offsite and the drive that was offsite can then by cycled back into the array so that there is always a "safe" and encrypted copy of all of my data offsite.

[rickytim]

How about looking into remote data backup like Mozy. I have used the free edition to backup some of the important data on my pc. Depending on how much data you have stored this also might be a option to look into. They also provide encryption for your files.
Online Backup, Data Backup & Remote Backup Solutions from Mozy.com – Welcome

[ScottW]

Yay I found a cool solution using Amazon's S3:
S3 Backup • Maluke Co.

offsite, encrypted, cheap