# Software RAID 1 with 2 x WD20EARS

## der bastler

Hello!

To solve the problem of my ever growing DSLR image library I tend to move from a DVD+R-based archive system to a HDD-based on.

2 TB ought to be enough and my desktop flagship computer is scheduled for upgrades anyway. I plan to add two HDDs as an additional RAID 1 to it, mounted once in a while.

Western Digital drives did not let me down in the last years and so I reviewed the market for 2 TB desktop drives.

Black line: good performance, loud, hot, expensive (60 EUR/TB).

Green line: low priced (33 EUR/TB), sufficient performance, silent, cool-running.

Conclusion: buy model WD20EARS.

Ok, I did read about IntelliPark and Advanced Format.

As far as I know recent versions of parted can handle the 4 KB sector size and can align partitions accordingly. IntelliPark will rapidly increase the load cycle count, but for a drive mounted once in a while this will be negligible.

But do such drives play well in a Software RAID setup?

----------

## NeddySeagoon

der bastler,

There are reports of IntelliPark not playing nicely with raid of any sort.

Be advised that raid is not an alternative to backups.

```
rm very_important_file
```

removes it from the raid set.

Keep in mind too that you only have a backup when at least two validated copies exist.

----------

## s_bernstein

Hi der bastler,

I had a similar problem with my media storage. In my case the storage should be always online but also energy efficient. So what I've done is I've a small RAID1 (as in 2x500G drives) which holds the system and the receantly added / changed data. I also have a 2TB WD20EARS as a additional drive which holds the immutable data for my media storage. This drive I backup periodically on another WD20EARS in an external docking port. The internal WD and the RAID1 are then combined by unionfs_fuse to one logical storage and distributed in my private network by samba and nfs. I have found that solution runs quiet smoothly and it has some additional benefits over a simple big RAID1.

I have an external backup of all of my really important data (as in personal photos, video, music...)

I can make use of the power management of the WD drive so it won't run all the time

You don't get problems because of the 4K-sectors. You do have to lookout during partitioning because the drive will not annouce it uses 4K-sectors, but you don't have to figure out how to align your RAID partitions correctly to the sector boundary.

I can easily add another big drive for immutal data whitout creating a raid, so I can always read and backup the drives indiviually (my backup drive is infact a exact copy of my online drive sync with rsync)

If a WD drive should fail I simply can swap the drives, no need for a rebuild

and for future optimisation, I could replace the RAID1 part with some smaller SSDs to further reduce power comsumption

There are of cause some drawbacks:

I have to manually move data from the RAID1 to my immutable storage drive. But because of the kind of data and the way I work with it, this is not a problem for me. I do the cleanup, sorting and organizing on the RAID and when I'm happy with it, I move the data to immutabale storage.

At least for the moment I have to start my backup manually, but there a proven solutions for this problem

There is a slight delay in reading the data from the network drive, if the WD is in standby which my cause amarok to fail for the first song

Happy tinkering

----------

## der bastler

Yes, I know the difference between backup and archive.

 *Quote:*   

> There are reports of IntelliPark not playing nicely with raid of any sort. 

 

Well, since "Blue" drives are only available up to 1 TB the "Black" series is left. Sort of overmatch regarding performance and consumption...

At the moment I 'm using Verbatim DVD+R as archive medium and an external RAID 1 (2xWD10EADS in a Lian Li Ex-20 enclosure) as backup medium.

Everything not currently needed is written to the archive. ECC checksums created by DVDisaster as well as incremental backups of my computers are stored on the backup medium.

Pro:

I'm fine with the DVD+R media so far. Still readable after years. In combination with checks on a regular basis and possible error correction this seems rock solid.

System capacity expandable by adding new DVD+R

Contra:

DVD+R capacity is limited to 4.7 GB, but I have data sets exeeding this size (mostly photo sessions -> RAW files).

One has to juggle with discs and needs a catalogue mapping files to DVD.

Lian Li RAID represents more or less black box; maintenance access via proprietary linux tools, health state of individual disk unknown.

That's why I am considered switching to a HDD storage solution for archive purposes. Perhaps I have to reconsider...

----------

## frostschutz

 *der bastler wrote:*   

> Conclusion: buy model WD20EARS.

 

Great choice. I just bought a NAS myself with 4 of those disks running in Linux Software RAID 5. It's also my main system disk in my desktop, and I have other WD Greens for external / portable backup. No issues with them so far.

 *Quote:*   

> IntelliPark will rapidly increase the load cycle count, but for a drive mounted once in a while this will be negligible.

 

You can configure the parking behaviour, all it takes is an USB stick with FreeDOS and the wdidle3 tool. I've done that to all my disks.

EDIT:

I also use Verbatim DVD-R media, I have about 500 discs. However, it is difficult, if not to say it takes ages, to check them regularly, so I don't. And over the years I've seen 2-3 failures so there's a certain risk involved (that's also why I burn anything that's actually important twice and also keep it on a hard disk somewhere anyway, such as photos). All in all, a hard disk just offers so much more comfort. With a Linux based NAS with RAID, you can run a self check of all disks in a matter of hours, furthermore you can do this automatically and have reports sent to you by email. No more spending days shuffling DVD discs around.

----------

## Rad

I agree with your conclusions. Use HDD instead of optical media, save time, gain the ability to easily monitor that all files that should be on the present and intact, easily keep multiple versions, and easily restores in all of these scenarios.

The WD Green you picked are the better choice, too. WD Black would be a waste of money[/quote] for the purpose described.

----------

