Heya folks, I'm thinking about getting an Twin HDD External Enclosure, and 2 HDD's to go with it, probably 500Gb each, maybe 750's if budget allows. What's the flexibility of Mirroring (RAID+1 I believe), or is it both Hardware and Software/Utility dependent? Because I might be looking to split the HDD's whilst mirrored into 300Gb/200Gb Partitions, and Encrypt the latter with Trucrypt. Actually, introducing Trucypt could get complicated. In fact, I don't even know how Mirroring usually works, is it on the fly? Would you drop files onto a Targeted "Primary HDD", and the Enclosure (with RAID built-in) automatically copy to the Secondary Designated drive? If it Mirrors as such, then you would treat it like a normal Hard Drive, mount the Partition(s) with Trucrypt, and when you do your normal business (deleting/adding files in browser window), the enclosure simultaneously background Copies your actions? (To a HDD you may not even be able to access, if it treats it like a Slave against the Main one you interact with) Is this accurate? I hope so, elsewise direct access to both would be... complicated. In RAID+0 (Striped is it?), I guess you can't really access both again... not something I want to do anyway. BOTTOM LINE: Twin Enclosure with Built-In RAID+1 for Data Mirroring; will it copy all actions you perform on one drive to another (Including Partitioning)? Thanks for the help! On a side note, is Twin 500Gb SATA HDD's and a suitable Enclosure with RAID for £160 a good deal? :P HDD's are Generic though ~_~ Might try and find Seagates or something...

I am not quite sure what it is you want to accomplish. Do you want to assemble your own external setup from parts? I don't know if you can buy a bare RAID 1 enclosure. What is the purpose of partitioning to two partitions? I wouldn't recommend any encryption on an external drive. Enclosures with TWO HDrives inside are intended to either work a a mirrored pair or as two independent drives. When mirroring all that you do is write to the enclosure and the data is written to both drives automatically. The purpose is to have redundancy. If one of the two drives fails you can still read the other to have access to the data.

"Do you want to assemble your own external setup from parts?" Yes, I have looked at Premade solutions, and price wise it sort of seems better, generally, collecting the parts. "What is the purpose of partitioning to two partitions?" There is sensetive data I only want accessed at certain times (So, Mount a Partition with Trucrypt when required). Other normal files I want to access on and off, I don't wanna have to fumble with Typing passwords all the time to re-mount partitions. But having said that, it gets complicated because I have no experience with Twin RAID Enclosures, let me highlight something you said: "When mirroring all that you do is write to the enclosure and the data is written to both drives automatically." So, you would see one drive in My Computer, and just backup to it with Cobian Backup Utility for example, controlling which/when files are copied across - and the enclosure will do the behind the scenes work of Mirroring to the second Drive? "I wouldn't recommend any encryption on an external drive." Seriously? Why's that? I already do it with a Single Seagate External HDD, works flawlessly O_o Unless you mean when combined with RAID and Multiple HDD's - I kinda feel a bit skeptical as well, but it'd better work, be friggin' useful. "The purpose is to have redundancy. If one of the two drives fails you can still read the other to have access to the data." Precisely what I'm trying to attain :P

Ignore me. I'm beginning to understand something ~_~ For a start, true RAID functionality built-in, regardless of a Premade or Custom solution is going to be somewhat more expensive. I have realised the RAID functionality is irrelevant, I can purchase a normal Twin Sata Enclosure, and setup Cobian to copy the Data to both HDD's one by one. I can arrange such a backup as a weekly event over night. Then, if one HDD still fails, I can literally Copy/Paste one disk contents to another (Or find a proper Utility, with Data Verification functionality, ensure they are Mirrored without corruption etc.) RAID is perhaps far more reliable, considering it's probably on-the-fly; when you add to one disk, the other is instantly updated. I do not need it anything that overkill (hence, it's expensiveness I guess, Business Storage solutions and up really?). Yup, standard Twin Enclosure all the way! XD Apologies for wasting your time, at least I have a better, if not perfect idea of what I'm after. I thank thee, for your help ^_^

First of all you should ALWAYS maintain at least two copies of any data you wish to retain. A mirrored External drive set would marginally meet that goal. External drives are not as reliable as their Internal counterparts. The extra circuitry and the heat in a confined space are most likely the reasons. I believe that if you ever needed to install the encrypted drive/partition internally you MIGHT have problems decrypting the data. I am not sure about that but it would be worth your time to check it out further. IMHO the better method would be to use RAID 1 (mirroring) internally and then setup some type of backup system in case of total computer failure, which can happen. I prefer imaging to DVDR myself as I know all hard drives are subject to failure. The other advantages of optical media are the ease of duplication and the small cost. If you use good partitioning practices you can backup each partition independently. I run 3 partitions in my main system. If I had sensitive data that required encryption I would run four, or better yet a separate HDrive for that data. Hope we aren't just talking about porn here. I say that because I can't imagine why you would need so much space for encrypted files.

"First of all you should ALWAYS maintain at least two copies of any data you wish to retain." Atm, I'm keeping the data I have across on my Internal Drives, then the external Twin HDD enclosure would hold 2 copies. A Total of 3 identical sets of files. It kinda sounds extreme, but I put hours, in fact better to say Nights of work categorising my downloaded files into Correct File Names and Directory structures (1 Gigabytes worth of perfectly Named/Sorted Desktop Wallpapers, to name a fraction). (So yes, I have no life). 2 Backups on HDD's is perhaps overkill, but worth the Cost which is nowadays not much. Even if the Drives last 3 years and then die, when the first one goes down, by THAT time, a 500Gb HDD will be even cheaper. Apparently CD's last 100 years, probably DVD's too, but HDD's offer much more capacity, and... it's just easier to me XD Replacing them is not a problem. Uh... everything else you speak of is probably... too much for my requirements? Plus, my PC Case is relatively new, and I don't wanna buy another one just to get extra 3.5" Racking space (I could convert the 5.25" Bays I guess, but external via USB, for weekly Backups doesn't seem like a 'bad' alternative). Although you do mention heat due to extra circuitry, in that case, I had better thoroughly investigate the Enclosure I pick, make sure good reviews are passed for it. Oh, and I don't think I need to worry about encryption problems, as my plans to used Cobian and that eliminate problems, as I won't be using RAID Hardware. I'll be manually Backing up stuff to designated HDD's (in the Enclosure), so... it's exactly how I treat my current 160Gb external (Where the whole drive is Encrypted; mount with Trucypt, then navigate/copy to like a normal Drive). It may not be the best/most efficient solution, but... it will work well enough for me. In fact, to quickly throw in the idea, I could stick them both in my PC with the 5.25" Bay adapters... save £50~ off the bat. "But it's just Awesome having boxes of Hard Drives everywhere!", hehe. "Hope we aren't just talking about porn here." You make me lol :P No, we are not, your advice isn't in vein. Thanks for your help ^_^

If you also maintain the files on the internal drives then you are OK. Just the mirrored set in the external enclosure isn't good enough IMO. How much internal storage capacity do you have. As far as the backups on optical disk go, you spent hours building the collection, archiving on DVDR a little at a time isn't that hard or expensive. Even without compression a SL DVDR holds 4.4GB. I backed up my MP3 collection before I had DVD burning capability. 32CDRs stored away for posperity. You probably aren't thinking of all the possible ways you might lose your precious collection of files. What happens when you get robbed and they take everything in the room? Or an electrical surge (lightning) takes it all out? Not to mention fire. I buy DVDR for less than 20 cents in 50 or 100 packs. I have bought as cheap as $15/hundred. Just my opinion.