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[patatparis]

I have installed two 1-TB drives in my new DNS-323. Using the configuration wizard, I chose the RAID-1 option and was then ask to set how much of "Volume_1" would be dedicated to RAID. Here I entered the figure for all available space. While I have two hard drives installed, the configuration wizard never asked about "Volume 2". Also, when I look at the "Easy Search Utility", only "Volume_1" is shown and only one drive is mapped.

Since the installation instructions doesn't mention what the outcome of these selections should be, before I am satisfied that everything is correct, I ask the forum whether what I see is what I should expect to see.

Thanks much.

[fordem]

RAID1 takes the two disks and "mirrors" them, whatever data is written to the first disk, is also written to the second disk - so if you opted to use all of the available space for a RAID1 array, then there will be a single volume called Volume_1.

If you opted for separate disks, you would have two volumes called Volume_1 & Volume_2 - or - if you had opted for a RAID array and not used all of the available space, whatever space was not used in the array would been Volume_2.

Since you seem to be a newcomer to RAID - please be aware that RAID1 is not a form of backup.

[patatparis]

Thank you for the clarification.

On the topic of backup, I have read often that RAID is not a form of backup. However, I intend to use this volume solely to store backups; it will be used for now other purpose (no applications or files created by applications other than storing the result of the backup). That is OK is it not? And by mirroring, I am making  I have a duplicate my backup if one of the drives fail.

Is that reasonable?

[gunrunnerjohn]

Perfectly reasonable use.  

[MrBOFH]

It depends on how much you rely on that data. If the 323's PSU dies and fries both HD's, your data will be lost. If both HD's die at the same time (I have seen it happen) your data is lost. If you have a fire and your 323 gets burned, your data is lost.

If you have a copy of that data on another machine, you have redundancy in case of the above scenarios (except if that machine also gets burned) . Again, 'reasonable' depends on how mission critical that data is to you. It's about calculating the risk.

With over 25 years IT experience I've seen many instances of loss of data and lack of backups causing severe problems. My critical data is on the 323 as well as on an external USB drive (stored in a fire safe. Also there are DVDs stored off site. But that is data which, if lost, would cripple me.   

My less critical data is on my server and backed up on my 323 and to me that's a perfectly reasonable and acceptable scenario as the loss of that data will only cause me some inconvenience and will require some effort to recover it.