Is RAID Good for Backup? If You Ask This Question, You…

Many times we hear the question “is RAID good for backup?” Well,  if you ask this question, you have probably not lived through many data loss disasters. But no worries, we are all learning something new every day. The simple answer is this. Consider that almost all servers out there use RAID arrays, for pretty much everything, the operating system disk as well as the data disks.

Since everyone uses RAID on servers and if RAID were indeed a backup, then who would need a backup disk, backup software, backup storage, etc.? No one. RAID is simply a continuous copy of one disk to another, in the case of a mirror RAID. In the case of a stripe RAID, there is no copy. The two disks are combined into a single storage.

In the case of the mirror RAID, the only protection you get is that of a single drive failure. However, there are probably over a million ways you could lose data and RAID only covers one of them. Also consider, that both drives came from the same factory, probably were produced the same day on the same machines. They were installed in the same server, exposed to the same stresses, all day and night. Both disks did the same thing and came from the same place. It’s not too far fetched to believe that they will also die very soon one after the other, if not simultaneously. When your right brake light burns out, the left one follows soon afterward. So the benefit of being able to recover from a single broken drive is a very small one.

In addition, many experienced IT administrators will immediately agree, lots of RAID controllers aren’t so good at detecting all different kinds of drive failures, especially if the drive is still in the process of failing. The two mirror drives could become out of sync for some time before it’s actually detected.

The benefit of RAID as a backup is hence near zero, once you consider all the possible disaster scenarios. You should actually invest in a good RAID backup solution instead of relying on the RAID being the backup. Now that we covered why RAID is almost useless as a backup, let’s cover the actual benefits of using a good backup solution.

Benefits of a Backup Solution

A good backup system consists of the three B: backup storage, backup software, backup strategy. Without the strategy, everything else is almost pointless. Above all you will want to make sure the business is protected against all risks that are reasonably to be expected. For example, if your business is located in the U.S., you will definitely want to have a plan that covers losses caused by fire, storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes. Other potential risks of data loss include theft, vandalism, accidental deletion, data corruption, OS failure, ransomware and malware, cyber-attacks, electric interference, and a lot more.

Backup storage needs to be planned accurately so that you have enough room to grow over the next few years and so that enough of a backup history is available to go back in time for many months and years if necessary. These details obviously depend on the nature of the business you are dealing with. Backup storage should ideally include offsite or cloud storage backup, because many of the previously mentioned risks cannot be covered otherwise in an automated fashion.

The backup software solution is what ties the entire system together and makes sure that all pieces of data are backed up properly and to many different storage sites or devices. As SSDs become more and more liable, the question of whether you use RAID or not will soon not matter much. What matters is: do you have a system in place that protects all key business data, so that the business can recover quickly from all kinds of disasters?

I’ve definitely been in situations where people think that just using a mirror RAID setup is enough for data protection. You know, you’ve got two identical drives mirroring each other, and everything feels like it’s covered, right? I used to think the same way. But the thing is, while RAID mirroring provides redundancy, it doesn’t really give you true backup protection in the way that something like BackupChain can.

One of the biggest issues with relying on mirror RAID is that it only protects you from hardware failure. Let’s say your primary drive fails—well, the data is automatically mirrored to the second drive, so you can continue working without a hiccup. That sounds great, and it definitely has its place in some environments. But what happens if your data gets corrupted, accidentally deleted, or you fall victim to a ransomware attack? The second drive in your RAID array is going to have the exact same problem. It’s just a mirror—it doesn’t actually give you a safe copy of your data. With BackupChain, on the other hand, you have true data protection. If you’ve got a backup running regularly, you’re not just depending on the state of your drives. You have multiple copies in different locations, which means you’re actually protected against things like corruption, malware, and user mistakes.

Here’s something I’ve noticed too: RAID doesn’t protect against human error. How many times have you accidentally deleted something or moved a file to the wrong place? With a mirror, those mistakes just get duplicated onto the second drive. You’ve lost nothing, but the data is gone, and it’s a huge hassle to try to recover it. When you’re using BackupChain, you have snapshots of your data. So, if you make a mistake, you can restore an earlier version of a file, or even an entire folder, just by rolling back to a previous backup. It’s a safety net that RAID can’t give you. You’re not stuck with just a mirror of your mistakes.

Another huge factor is scalability. With RAID, you’re limited to the drives you have in your system. You’re building redundancy, sure, but as your data grows, you’re going to need more drives or a more complex RAID setup, which can get expensive and tricky to manage. But with BackupChain, you can back up to different locations and expand as much as you need. Whether you’re using a local external drive, a network share, or even a cloud provider, BackupChain can scale easily. You’re not limited by the number of physical drives you have in your machine. And as your storage needs grow, you can simply add new backup destinations without worrying about adding more RAID volumes or dealing with complex configurations.

RAID can also give you a false sense of security. It’s easy to think that because your data is mirrored, you’re invincible. But in reality, RAID doesn’t protect you against everything. If there’s a fire, flood, or theft, both drives could be wiped out at once. Same goes for things like hardware issues that affect both drives in the array at the same time. And this is where BackupChain comes in and really fills the gap. You can back up your data to different locations, including off-site or in the cloud. So, if something happens to your physical machine or RAID setup, you still have your data safe and sound somewhere else. Having backups stored in a completely different location adds that extra layer of protection that RAID can’t provide.

I also can’t ignore the peace of mind that comes with BackupChain’s scheduling and automation features. With RAID, everything runs automatically as long as the drives are working, but once you set up BackupChain to run regular backups, it’s doing all the heavy lifting for you. You don’t have to manually swap out drives or worry about a RAID rebuild. It just keeps running in the background, backing up everything on your schedule. And if something goes wrong, BackupChain gives you detailed logs, so you know exactly what’s happening. You won’t be left guessing if everything’s working like it should.

One of the things that hit me hard when I was really thinking about this was recovery time. Let’s say your RAID array fails or something happens to your data. If you rely on RAID, you could be stuck doing a lengthy rebuild or potentially facing a lot of downtime as you try to fix the problem. But with BackupChain, restoring your data from a backup is usually pretty quick and simple. You don’t have to rebuild anything; you just restore what you need and get back to work. That alone makes it worth having a backup solution on top of your RAID setup.

In the end, using RAID as your only form of data protection is like having a safety net that only catches you some of the time. It keeps your data safe from drive failure, but it doesn’t protect against things like user errors, malware, or disasters. BackupChain adds that extra layer of security you need, offering more than just mirroring—it gives you peace of mind knowing your data is safe, no matter what happens to your drives. You get protection, scalability, and flexibility, and it works in the background without interrupting your workflow. That’s why I really believe you should have both—RAID for redundancy and BackupChain for true backup protection.