Having a RAID is great, they offer improved disk performance, redundancy and are relatively easy to setup. Whether you use a hardware RAID or a software RAID I highly recommend using one. I have a hardware RAID setup on my main desktop and like having it. If a hard drive dies I can swap in a new hard drive and rebuild the RAID array. In the last five years I have had two hard drives die in two different RAID arrays in my desktop. In both instances I was able to rebuild the array and continue on.
As great as RAID array is to help protect your data there is one thing a RAID is not. A RAID is not a backup! You accidentally delete a file it will be deleted off of all the drives. I have been called out to many small businesses where they have a file server and have a RAID installed. The story usually goes some thing like this.
Client: We just discovered that we accidentally deleted ______ file. Can you recover it for us?
Me: When did you delete it?
Client: We just discovered it gone yesterday, it might have been a week ago. We have a RAID so it should be there.
Me: Well let me take a look and see if I can recover it.
Me: I try to recover the file, occasionally I am able to. More often than not, it is not possible. I then have to tell the client that their important file is gone.
A RAID is great. It can improve your file server or desktops performance, but it is no replacement for a reliable backup. Do regular backups, and use an online backup service to make backups automatic and easy to do.
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