Yeah, the whole reason my computer was running a RAID in the first place was because I wanted to mess with RAID at the time I set it up.  RAIDs 0, 1, and 5 all make some kind of sense to me, though 0 is a completely different beast (the others give redundancy while 0 requires a separate backup).  The rest I wouldn't touch, except maybe 6 which is just extra-strength 5. 

Really, though, I'd never want to use RAID 1 at home.  It's just a hardware backup without the protection against viral doom etc. that normal backups provide.  5 for size with built in redundancy, 0 for size and speed but you need a backup. 

What a thrilling and epic tale with a nice ending.

We need a dramatic re-enactment of this!

This is why I don't use RAID. It's such pain in the ass and frustrating when something goes wrong.

 I used to have RAID 0 on my 2  500 GB Hard Drives. It worked all fine until I decided to install some other operating system (well, ok, it was Linux, Fedora to be exact). One thing I didn't predict was the fact that once I installed Linux, getting rid of it would be tricky. It all worked fine until I decided to remove it (don't ask why, I can't remember, I think I installed it because Windows was screwing up and I figured I'd try to install it back). Well...I tried, but then I couldn't boot onto anything (all I got was a black screen).

Fortunatly, all important data I had saved on these drives was backed up so I could safely terminate that RAID...or could I?

Well, I couldn't.

I couldn't format these drives with recovery console and I couldn't reinstall windows. I couldn't get rid of RAID from BIOS side because that friggin app that was supposed to do it didn't want to launch. Hell, even the BIOS menu itself decided to crash on my face, first time I ever seen that.

Hardware was still on warranty and I didn't want to void it just to get rid of it manually.

I'm not bad at PCs myself, but I was completly stuck. The only way I could fix that was by paying a visit in PC service where I got the hardware from. The RAID was removed and everything worked fine since then.

Now I only use 3 Hard Drives, of which 1 I use for operating systems, 1 for Data storage and 1 for mirror of said data storage. Oh yeah, and I have Live Linux on USB stick, its less problematic that way.

umh why would you do a 3 disk raid?

i prefer mirroring data myself too. pictures and other valuables are on 3 disks including one i rarely use.

Never lost an hdd (well one but it was the external case, not the hdd itself) but i did with my camera ssd card ... full of vacation pictures :-/

3 disk would be the minimum for a RAID 5 array.

And naturally the reason for using RAID 5 is for the stripe drive speed of RAID 0, with the redundancy of RAID 1, which is why I'm sure is why he was using such a set up. They're supposed to offer security from individual drive failure.

Of course any single RAID solution is no guarantee for the security of all data being stored. If what you have on your array is that irreplaceable or important, your redundant data should also be stored on a remote disk or local server.

Personally, I've always used manual back ups with archive/back up software, but I'll be honest and say those back ups are not generated or refreshed with the type of frequency they should be. Typically just vital files, of which I have multiple copies on separate drives.

The only RAID I use is the SSD RAID 0 boot drive I set up for my graphics workstation. If that ever craps out, I have the original disk image with all my production apps installed along with a clean install of Win7. All other files are backed up on a separate internal HDD as well as removable HDDs for remote work.