What does a hardware failure mean to you?

[Saracen]

I lost a hard drive in my unraid server last night so just pulled one of my stock, replaced it and let it rebuild the data array. It can be a pain but as long as you are prepared, it doesn't have to be a nightmare.

Agreed. And for my server, I have two spare RAID controllers, two spare 3-bay hot-swap cages, and several spare drives, including a sixth drive already running in a 5-drive array as a hot spare.

But RAID is a bit unusual in that it's explicitly designed to withstand that type of failure. Indeed, maximising uptime is the point. Most PC builds aren't like that though, and being "prepared" is, in itself, quite expensive.

Of course, if we were really prepared, we'd have a duplicate and duplexed/mirrored server running.

[hesham1516]

As much as I hate hardware failures, I can't help but enjoy myself when sorting it out

That feeling of achievement if I manage to fix it with some ghetto mod is almost like a drug

[KeyboardDemon]

As much as I hate hardware failures, I can't help but enjoy myself when sorting it out

That feeling of achievement if I manage to fix it with some ghetto mod is almost like a drug

You're not alone. I think it's not just the feeling of triumph over adversity but also the feeling of growth and empowerment that comes with it.

[jim]

Do you recommend it then, over other solutions, I've tried using Windows based backup solutions with network drives in the past and found that the software would refuse to see the network drive until I manually opened up a folder on the drive first, or maybe that was just something to do with the NETGEAR ReadyNAS drive.

I'm primarily advising it on the basis that it's very simple, works cleanly in the background, doesn't waste resources, and doesn't cost anything.

I can't really compare it to commercial alternatives as I simply haven't tried any, but it certainly does the trick in my experience. Seems a lot more reliable than WHS backup which is the only alternative I do have experience of.