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What Would You Do Part 2


Airbender

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Airbender

Hello,

 

People who know my issue will not need any more explanations however for new members please look at

http://community.mediabrowser.tv/permalinks/15381/what-would-you-do

 

So now i got a New Storage Enclosure System with 8 bays Thanks to everyone

http://mediabrowser.tv/community/index.php?/topic/940-storage-enclosure-system-vs-nas/

 

So now i am in right place but still need more help with my new setup so here is little details might help 

 

======================

Case:
Antec Dark Fleet DF-85 ATX Full Tower Gaming Computer Case
http://store.antec.com/Product/clearance_items/df-85/0-761345-15238-9.aspx
=======================
Ram:
Kingston Technology HyperX 16 GB Kit (4x4 GB Modules) 16 Quad Channel Kit 1600 (PC3 12800) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM KHX1600C9D3K4/16GX
=======================
Motherboard:
ASUS M5A97 Evo - AM3+ - 970 - SATA 6Gbps and USB 3.0 - ATX AMD ATX DDR3 2133 Motherboards
========================
Sata Card 1:
Rosewill RC-209-EX PCI 2.3, 32bit, 33/66Mhz SATA Controller Card
=============================
sata card 2:
Rosewill RC-212 VIA PCI SATA 1.5G / IDE ATA 133 Controller Card / Supports Raid 0, 1, 0+1, JBOD, non-RAID mode
=============================
SSD:
SanDisk Extreme SDSSDX-120G-G25 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

I have second 120 or 128 GB SSD as spare just in case something happen anything to sanDisk Extreme
=============================
CPU Color:
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler Compatible with latest Intel 2011/1366/1155 and AMD FM1/FM2/AM3+
==========================
CPU:
amd phenom ii x4 945
==========================
Power Supply:
RAIDMAX RX-850AE 850W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
===========================
Hard drives
23 TB in Total between 3TB and 2 TB drives and one 4TB drive
===========================
Hot Swap Module for DF-85 4 of them or mybe 6 not very sure need to open the box to see
http://store.antec.com/P/hot-swap-module-for-df-85/0-761345-30757-4.aspx
==========================
Antec Easy Swap USM External Hard Drive Dock + SSD bracket using 1 at this moment and i have 2 spare not in use in original box
http://store.antec.com/Product/accessories-other/easy-sata/0-761345-30750-5.aspx
=========================
Sans Digital 8-Bay eSATA RAID 0/1/10/5/JBOD Tower Storage Enclosure w/ 6G PCIe Card TR8M+B (Black)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111168&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL101013&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL101013-_-EMC-101013-Index-_-ServerRAIDSystems-_-16111168-LM2A
==========================

 

So at this moment i moved 8 Hard drives to my new Sans Digital 8 Bay eSata and keept 2 Drives in my pc

 

MY Plan:

 

I want to Use 2 SSD as RAID 1 An exact copy (or mirror) of a set of data on two disks so if one died or something happened but the problem is between 2 sata cards both are old and cheap one with very slow speed , my motherboad is sata 3.0 6Gps so i am not sure if the motherboard will allow me to set Hardware Raid 1 and Mirror or not , i understand Raid in theory but i never actually set one up.

 

Also i am not sure if FlexRaid does Software raid simller to Raid one with making Mirror ?

 

Also between 2 sata cards and motherboard my server system is full of so so many cables hard to tell which one is from sata card and which one from Motherboard so i might have to take all sata cables off and connect them one by one or something like that

 

 

The next part of the plan is:

I will use FlexRaid to setup Drive Pool and protections

 

The last part of the plan is:

To connect all drives to CrushPlan and start Network Backup on all my drives , sure it will take forever mybe years and years to backup all that much but it is second line of defiance for backup and protections

 

Hopefully once i can get all these stages done i will be in much better situation and i will be able to add up to 8 More drives to my Server whenever i need more space 

 

 

Please advise

Thank you very much

 

 

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JohnWhitmore

I have a server with 8 onbaord Sata ports + an cheap PCI express sata card. This allows 12 Sata Drives.

 

OS and a 'D' Partition on one drive (D is used by uTorrent mainly)

The rest are setup with FlexRAID with a 4Tb drive as the parity drive and the rest as Data drives. This means I have full use of 10 drives for data and the largest contains the "backup" information. I am covered for 1 HDD failure. If you want you can set up FlexRAID with 2 parity drives to give protection for 2 HDD failures. I have 16Tb of data with 3 Tb of free space.

 

I have a Gigabit LAN network and have no issues with playing HD movies from the server onto a connected HTPC.

 

Main consideration is using the largest drive for parity as it takes 48 hrs to create the parity drive (and you would need to do this if you want larger pool drives and therefore need to use a larger parity drive). I also suggest using Snapshot raid for this situation.

 

Another benefit of FlexRAID is if the whole PC and RAID got stuffed up for any reason, the drives can be removed and files are intact on each drive. ie a whole *.mp4 file is on one drive not in fragments spread over all drives. Therefore I would only loose some data, but much of it can be recovered.

 

Hope this helps.

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Airbender

I have a server with 8 onbaord Sata ports + an cheap PCI express sata card. This allows 12 Sata Drives.

 

OS and a 'D' Partition on one drive (D is used by uTorrent mainly)

The rest are setup with FlexRAID with a 4Tb drive as the parity drive and the rest as Data drives. This means I have full use of 10 drives for data and the largest contains the "backup" information. I am covered for 1 HDD failure. If you want you can set up FlexRAID with 2 parity drives to give protection for 2 HDD failures. I have 16Tb of data with 3 Tb of free space.

 

I have a Gigabit LAN network and have no issues with playing HD movies from the server onto a connected HTPC.

 

Main consideration is using the largest drive for parity as it takes 48 hrs to create the parity drive (and you would need to do this if you want larger pool drives and therefore need to use a larger parity drive). I also suggest using Snapshot raid for this situation.

 

Another benefit of FlexRAID is if the whole PC and RAID got stuffed up for any reason, the drives can be removed and files are intact on each drive. ie a whole *.mp4 file is on one drive not in fragments spread over all drives. Therefore I would only loose some data, but much of it can be recovered.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Hello, 

 

Thanks but i already know FlexRaid and parity drive which i am going to add 4TB soon just as Parity Drive and in the future i will add One more as 5TB but meanwhile i want to be able to Run 2 SSD as Raid 1 Mirror and then worry about FliexRaid and CrushPlan Backup  as second backup solution. and as far space goes Next Drives for data i am going to buy will be all 4TB and 5TB because now i have space to add 8 More Drive to my Server. 

 

Thanks again for your reply

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JohnWhitmore

ok...motherboard raid will suffice...but it is not a full hardware raid solution...On consumer motherboards it is closer to software raid. What is on the SSD? If it is only operating system, then run your 2 drives as a striped array (higher speed) and make a backup (using the windows backup software) each night to a portable usb drive.....This gives a fast drive and easy recovery in case of disaster to the OS drive.

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Airbender

ok...motherboard raid will suffice...but it is not a full hardware raid solution...On consumer motherboards it is closer to software raid. What is on the SSD? If it is only operating system, then run your 2 drives as a striped array (higher speed) and make a backup (using the windows backup software) each night to a portable usb drive.....This gives a fast drive and easy recovery in case of disaster to the OS drive.

 

That what i thought it wont be a full Raid One with mirror if i used motherboard but i am going to need to double check my Motherboard features and mybe ask ASUS Support for more info on this. as far using USB that to much i need to automate the backup every night if i am using windows backups feature

my ideal situation will be sync and mirror both SSD so if one fail then the second will kik in

 

Thanks

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Airbender

Hi

 

More interesting as i am looking deeply into this

 

AMD SB950 controller :
6 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), gray
Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10
JMicron® JMB362 controller :
2 x eSATA 3Gb/s port(s), red

 

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M5A97_EVO/#specifications

 

after all it sems my Motherboard does has option for Raid 1 but i am not sure if this is firmware Raid or hardware

 

going to need to dig more into it

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Tharnax

AMD SB950 controller : 
6 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), gray
Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10

 

My understanding is this would be hardware raid.  Before you install your OS, you will plug in the two SSD drives one each to one of the 6 available "grey" ports.  You would set the controller to raid in the BIOS on boot and then upon reboot after the BIOS screen you should have an option to press a key to enter the RAID configuration screen.  Here you will see your two SSD drives.  Follow the instructions to setup them up as RAID 1 (Mirror), reboot and then install your OS as normal.  You won't even notice that the OS is running in RAID 1.  If/when an SSD fail or starts failing you can go into back into the RAID configuration screen and replace the failing / failed drive with another like SSD drive.  Therefore, when you are purchasing your 120GB SSD drives ensure you purchase 3.  Therefore, if one fails you can at least replace the failed drive while you search for an alternative drive.  

 

I had an onboard RAID 1 setup with two WD 150GB Raptor drives for quite a while, by the time one drive started to fail it was more difficult and costly to replace the Raptor drive with another.  So I did an OS backup and replaced the two Raptor drives with two 120GB SSD drives, buying a third as a spare.  The problem is if one of the SSD drives now fails I have an on hand spare but after that I'm looking at buying three new drives again. Essentially I've thrown away 1 Raptor drive so far and by the time an SSD fails I'll be throwing away a working SSD drive.  Running Raid 1 sure reduces downtime but at a fairly significant cost.  Daily back-ups are a good alternative because as long as the replacement drive is of equivalent size or larger it's very easy to restore a back-up to any new drive.

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Airbender

AMD SB950 controller : 

6 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), gray

Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10

 

My understanding is this would be hardware raid.  Before you install your OS, you will plug in the two SSD drives one each to one of the 6 available "grey" ports.  You would set the controller to raid in the BIOS on boot and then upon reboot after the BIOS screen you should have an option to press a key to enter the RAID configuration screen.  Here you will see your two SSD drives.  Follow the instructions to setup them up as RAID 1 (Mirror), reboot and then install your OS as normal.  You won't even notice that the OS is running in RAID 1.  If/when an SSD fail or starts failing you can go into back into the RAID configuration screen and replace the failing / failed drive with another like SSD drive.  Therefore, when you are purchasing your 120GB SSD drives ensure you purchase 3.  Therefore, if one fails you can at least replace the failed drive while you search for an alternative drive.  

 

I had an onboard RAID 1 setup with two WD 150GB Raptor drives for quite a while, by the time one drive started to fail it was more difficult and costly to replace the Raptor drive with another.  So I did an OS backup and replaced the two Raptor drives with two 120GB SSD drives, buying a third as a spare.  The problem is if one of the SSD drives now fails I have an on hand spare but after that I'm looking at buying three new drives again. Essentially I've thrown away 1 Raptor drive so far and by the time an SSD fails I'll be throwing away a working SSD drive.  Running Raid 1 sure reduces downtime but at a fairly significant cost.  Daily back-ups are a good alternative because as long as the replacement drive is of equivalent size or larger it's very easy to restore a back-up to any new drive.

 

Hello,

 

as you will see i have extra SSD's

 

=============================

SSD:

SanDisk Extreme SDSSDX-120G-G25 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

 

I have second 120 or 128 GB SSD as spare just in case something happen anything to sanDisk Extreme

=============================

 

The problem is if i do hardware raid i am going start over

 

1-  i would have to remove to Sata Card as to many cables and i am not sure which goes to motherboard and which goes to sata card

2- choice an OS that will work most likely Windows 7 64 bit

3- Re do everything incloding MB3 install

4- Put the both sata card back and re-connect the cables TO much work but i guess i have no other choice

 

 

I think with your instructions that you provided i should be able to get this done i just have to match the SSD as i have samsung , SanDisk extream , Intel , SanDisk

so the speed of the SSD will matter so it will be an interesting way to do this mybe Ghost all of the drives into my 2TB Data Drive and then choice the same make amd model of SSD for Raid 1 

 

Unless someone else has better suggestion for me 

 

Thank you

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Tharnax

Are they the same SSD drive?  I haven't tried use the same size but different SSD manufactures.  

 

You mentioned this: SanDisk Extreme SDSSDX-120G-G25 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - but it does say if it's x1 or x2?  Do you have 3 SSD drives?  Or two?  Are the two SSD drives the exact same drives?

 

1. If you are rebuilding your server using the above specs, just start with the OS drives in Raid 1 and add the other drives as you go.

2. Windows 7 64-bit works, so does WHS 2011 as does Windows Server 2012.  It doesn't matter which OS software you used once the drives are in a Hardware Raid-1 config through the BIOS.

3. If you have to re-install the OS, then yes you will have to re-install MB3.  Don't know what else you use besides OS & MB3, but if you use CP/SB, Sabnzb you can pretty much just back up the config files/folders to a USB drive and copy them back after a clean install.  Rebuilding programs shouldn't be the difficult part, it's getting all the data setup properly that takes the time.

4. Should be part of the re-building process and yes this takes the greatest amount of work.  Suggestion, get a label maker and mark the drives both size and what it's connected to and stick it on the side/back of the drive.  Then when you have a failing drive, it's easy to locate, pull and swap.

 

It'll take a bit of time to get back up and running but it'll be worth it in the long run.  One of my current Server setups is getting a little old and is having a hard time keeping up with MB3 with multiple transcodes going.  I'm considering upgrading that server but have similar hesitations as I know the work / time involved to do it right.

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Xzener

Keep in mind, those of us using FlexRAID have multiple errors in our logs... Its saying "Access is denied" on some of out movie.xml's. But it doesn't hinder MB3 at all... its just a nuisance.

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Airbender

Are they the same SSD drive?  I haven't tried use the same size but different SSD manufactures.  

 

You mentioned this: SanDisk Extreme SDSSDX-120G-G25 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - but it does say if it's x1 or x2?  Do you have 3 SSD drives?  Or two?  Are the two SSD drives the exact same drives?

 

1. If you are rebuilding your server using the above specs, just start with the OS drives in Raid 1 and add the other drives as you go.

2. Windows 7 64-bit works, so does WHS 2011 as does Windows Server 2012.  It doesn't matter which OS software you used once the drives are in a Hardware Raid-1 config through the BIOS.

3. If you have to re-install the OS, then yes you will have to re-install MB3.  Don't know what else you use besides OS & MB3, but if you use CP/SB, Sabnzb you can pretty much just back up the config files/folders to a USB drive and copy them back after a clean install.  Rebuilding programs shouldn't be the difficult part, it's getting all the data setup properly that takes the time.

4. Should be part of the re-building process and yes this takes the greatest amount of work.  Suggestion, get a label maker and mark the drives both size and what it's connected to and stick it on the side/back of the drive.  Then when you have a failing drive, it's easy to locate, pull and swap.

 

It'll take a bit of time to get back up and running but it'll be worth it in the long run.  One of my current Server setups is getting a little old and is having a hard time keeping up with MB3 with multiple transcodes going.  I'm considering upgrading that server but have similar hesitations as I know the work / time involved to do it right.

 

Hi

 

Are they the same SSD drive?  I haven't tried use the same size but different SSD manufactures. ??

 

Answer:

 

They are all different Manufactures and different speed but all sata 3 6GPS and 3rd gen of SSD close to speed or read and write but in real time all of them are same in benchmark. as far size goes 2 are 120GB and 2 are 128GB but i can shuffle them around as this first time i thought of Raid 1 Mirror 

 

+ i have 2 SSD 65GB different manufactures setting and doing nothing so i dont know what to do with them or sale them or mybe use them on a laptop

 

I got them all one by one when as replacemnt of all my regular drive on my HTPC and Laptops but now most of the old computers are gone so i left with drives setting around or been used in laptops for extra speed

 

Thanks

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Airbender

Hi

 

So i have

1- Samsung 128GB SSD

1- Samsung  SSD 840 120GB

1- SanDisk Extreme 120GB

 

I am thinking i can Ghost the image from my server Samsung  SSD 840 120GB and then put it in one of my HHD Drives that hold data and os images

 

Then Clone my Laptop SSD which is SanDisk Extreme 120GB with Samsung 128GB SSD

 

Now i will have 2 SanDisk Extreme 120GB to start fresh with Raid 1 Mirror and one backup hard drive Samsung  SSD 840 120GB

so total of 3 SSD same size 120GB

 

Once this part is done then i can run the raid from motherboard and once the setup complete then install OS which is windows 7 Ultimate 64bit and then after that run FlexRaid with data protection and Drive pool

 

I think it is a lot of work but it will worth it as it is for better planing and fail safe

 

Thanks

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Tharnax

 

Now i will have 2 SanDisk Extreme 120GB to start fresh with Raid 1 Mirror and one backup hard drive Samsung  SSD 840 120GB

so total of 3 SSD same size 120GB

 

 

 

The 2 SanDisk Extreme 120GB in a Raid 1 Mirror should work perfectly without issue.  Id be a little concerned with using the 840 as a backup.  Before you get too deep into the build, you could try setting up a Raid 1 mirror between the 840 and one of the Extreme SSD drives to see if they will play nice.  If they don't then you know the 840 won't work as a backup SSD drive but it's better to find out now then we you go to swap out the drive after a failure and no way to get your hands on another Extreme 120.

 

FYI, in relation to FlexRaid, I haven't used it and it does look like a good drive pool tool.  However, I'm with CBers in your other post in regards to Drive Bender.  I've been running DB since it went to beta and I've been very happy with it.  Just worth looking at if you haven't purchased any pool solution yet.

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Airbender

The 2 SanDisk Extreme 120GB in a Raid 1 Mirror should work perfectly without issue.  Id be a little concerned with using the 840 as a backup.  Before you get too deep into the build, you could try setting up a Raid 1 mirror between the 840 and one of the Extreme SSD drives to see if they will play nice.  If they don't then you know the 840 won't work as a backup SSD drive but it's better to find out now then we you go to swap out the drive after a failure and no way to get your hands on another Extreme 120.

 

FYI, in relation to FlexRaid, I haven't used it and it does look like a good drive pool tool.  However, I'm with CBers in your other post in regards to Drive Bender.  I've been running DB since it went to beta and I've been very happy with it.  Just worth looking at if you haven't purchased any pool solution yet.

 

Buying a new SanDisk Extreme will cost me around 149.99 which i am saving for 4TB to buy a new drive to use it FlexRaid

I did not buy FlexRaid yet but after 1 months of reading and talking to so many people i think FlexRaid will be the best choice for me at this moment

 

Going back to main question i have 1 SanDisk SDSSDP-128gb it is in on my second laptop and it runs great so i can either use 2 SanDisk Extreme or one Extreme and one Samsunge or 2 128GB SSD but wont have any 128GB drive as backup

 

Now if i put Extreme with samsung 840 then the raid speed will defult to low speed of 840 and not fast speed of Extreme but why i am complaining it is SSD it is faster then HHD lol

 

 

Thanks

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Airbender

Hi

 

Also thinking to Ghost the image and then re put it back after raid complete not sure if it will work or not but in theroy it should

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Tharnax

Right, you are using this as a server not an desktop or gaming PC.  Not really sure the benefit of SSD OS for an always-on server but as you mentioned you have the drives so why not use them.

 

My only concern was the SSD drives don't match exactly, except for your 2 extreme 120GB drives.  I was just suggesting make sure you test a RAID 1 with two different same size SSD drives before you finish your build.  Installing an OS doesn't take that long any more, besides, you could build with two different SSDs to start, then pull the 840 to test the fail over on the Extreme, then install the Extreme and see if the Raid 1 rebuilds itself.  If it works then you've got your spare, if it doesn't work then you'll have to look for a solution over time but those two Extreme 120s should last you a while.

 

FlexRaid does have some nice features, parity being one of it's primary benefits over an alternative solution.  If you think it works for you go for it, I'm sure it will work very well.

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Tharnax

Hi

 

Also thinking to Ghost the image and then re put it back after raid complete not sure if it will work or not but in theroy it should

 

Yes, will work find.  When I replace the 150GB Raptors I had to go with 256GB SSDs as I could use 120GB drives because they were smaller then the 150GB Raptors.  Once I had the Raid 1 configured, it was as easy as running the imaging software boot disk and restoring the drives.  Took about 10 minutes to swap the drives, 2 minutes to setup the Raid 1 and about 30 minutes over a GB network for the image to restore to the new drives.  I was back up and running in less then 60 minutes.

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Airbender

Right, you are using this as a server not an desktop or gaming PC.  Not really sure the benefit of SSD OS for an always-on server but as you mentioned you have the drives so why not use them.

 

My only concern was the SSD drives don't match exactly, except for your 2 extreme 120GB drives.  I was just suggesting make sure you test a RAID 1 with two different same size SSD drives before you finish your build.  Installing an OS doesn't take that long any more, besides, you could build with two different SSDs to start, then pull the 840 to test the fail over on the Extreme, then install the Extreme and see if the Raid 1 rebuilds itself.  If it works then you've got your spare, if it doesn't work then you'll have to look for a solution over time but those two Extreme 120s should last you a while.

 

FlexRaid does have some nice features, parity being one of it's primary benefits over an alternative solution.  If you think it works for you go for it, I'm sure it will work very well.

 

Got it so  after all the tests done i can safte re ghost it and be done

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Airbender

Yes, will work find.  When I replace the 150GB Raptors I had to go with 256GB SSDs as I could use 120GB drives because they were smaller then the 150GB Raptors.  Once I had the Raid 1 configured, it was as easy as running the imaging software boot disk and restoring the drives.  Took about 10 minutes to swap the drives, 2 minutes to setup the Raid 1 and about 30 minutes over a GB network for the image to restore to the new drives.  I was back up and running in less then 60 minutes.

 

Hello Tharnax

 

You answer all my question and help me alot so thanks i have clear cut plan now

 

Thanks

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Tharnax

You're welcome!  Happy to be of some assistance!  

 

Taking a proactive instead of reactive approach to your build will leave you much happier in the long run, even if the proactive approach has a longer "start-up" time.

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Airbender

Exactly!

 

so for fail test how do i know if one of the SSD is not playing right ? or not syncying ? sorry i know Raid in theroy so this will be first time actually playing with it

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Tharnax

If it doesn't work with the Extreme & 840 combo, it will work with an Extreme & Extreme combo since they are identical drives.  The Raid configuration tool should tell you if there is an issue mirroring an Extreme & an 840.  If this is an issue, turn off the PC, swap the 840 with the Extreme and try again.  This should work fine and then you will know if the 840 will work as a back-up drive.  If the 840 works, you can go ahead and install the OS, etc., then unplug the 840 and boot.  Computer should boot find but you will get an error message that a drive in the Raid has failed.  Turn off the PC, swap out the 840 with the Extreme, go into the Raid config screen and rebuild the Raid.  The Raid will mirror all the data to the newly installed Extreme drive and you'll be fine to start your ghost.  Put the 840 in a safe place and hope you never have to use it. 

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