traditional hard drive vs solid state

Why do you mix raid 0 (striping) and raid 1 (mirroring)?
Striping is for speed. Mirroring is for faster "read speed" and higher availability.
If 1 disk fails.... no problem. You have only 50% of diskspace... because of mirroring. You're talking about RAID1+0 so not about RAID ten.

With 1 SSD you have 100% disk space.... but if it fails you're having problems.

SSD's are very very fast. But also very expensive

I only use SSDs since 2008 for my OS installations and HDDs for the data. There is no comparison in terms of speed. The access time of a SSD is on average 150 times faster than that of a HDD - raid or no raid. And data transfer is appr. 4 times the speed, but that is not an issue with the OS because it makes a lot of random access for very little 4K files.

And SSDs are cheap these days. You can get a 240GB model for around $100 and a 120GB model for appr. $70 - in 2008 when I bought my first 60GB model I paid $265.

Here you have a few examples. Prices in the UK may slightly vary (because of the VAT) but I have seen reasonable offers on Alternate, UK too.

Mirroring (RAID 1) provides redundancy to ensure continued operation should one of the drives fail. It's a somewhat inefficient way of getting redundancy since each drive requires the same sized drive to mirror to; it's also a bit slower than a single drive. RAID 0 is for speed however, if you lose one drive, you lose everything. RAID 10 is a nested RAID in which helps to make up for the speed loss and still provide redundancy. Keep in mind any form of RAID is not a backup. The same problems that can cause data to be lost from a drive—accidental deletion, virus or other malware, blown power supply, theft, etc.—can cause the same loss in the other drives. Only a discrete backup on media connected to the computer only during a backup can protect from data loss.

You didn't say what you use your RAID 10 for. If it is just for data storage, you don't need anything faster than a 7200rpm spinner; even a 5400rpm spinner is often fast enough for most people. The only thing you actually gain from replacing your RAID 10 with a single SSD is lower power draw, less weight, less heat and a bit less noise (todays spinners are pretty quiet). You will never notice the speed difference unless you frequently transfer huge files.

If you are running your OS and programs on it, you will definitely see a very noticeable speed gain in boot times and program loading with an SSD but your programs or games won't run any faster. SSDs aren't cost effective for data storage unless you are limited to only one drive, such as in a laptop.

I personally would get an SSD just for your OS and programs only and a single good HDD for your data storage, then use one or more external HDDs for backups. The size of the SSD would be determined by how much room your OS and programs. I fit all mine on a 128GB SSD with 58GB to spare. If 500GB is all you need for storage, I would just run two of your 250GB HDDs inside the computer (not in RAID; you really do not need it although it does have a certain Geek appeal) and back them up externally on the remaining two HDDs, using enclosures or a dock (actually, that is pretty much what I do except I have two local backups and two offsite backups for each drive I have in service). If you image the OS drive (aka boot drive) to a storage drive in the computer, it will be more convenient to access for restoration and will also get backed up externally when you backup the drive it is on.

Most people here use Macrium Reflect Free (here is a good tutorial on how to use Macrium Reflect) for imaging their OS and programs drives. I useFreeFileSync, a folder/file syncing program to backup my data drives on a daily basis.

web said:

Most people here use [URL="http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx" said:

Macrium Reflect Free[/URL] (here is a good tutorial on how to use Macrium Reflect) for imaging their OS and programs drives. I useFreeFileSync, a folder/file syncing program to backup my data drives on a daily basis.

will look up these programs I normally just copy can take some time...

Copying will not protect your OS and programs. Imaging will allow you to restore your OS and programs should they ever go wonky on you (it's best to have your OS/programs on a separate partition or drive for that). Imaging is like a film camera. The camera creates a negative that then can be used to create a print. An image is like the film negative and can be used to recreate your OS/programs on your boot partition or drive.

Copying can be used to backup data but manually copying data is very time consuming and prone to human errors. Using a folder/file syncing program, once set up, will automate the process. Folder/file syncing programs, after the initial backup, will copy, change, or delete folders and files on the backup to reflect changes to the original drive when using the mirror setting. FreeFileSync can also be set to send discarded folder and files to a versioning folder for an extra measure of backup. Once the initial backup has been done, subsequent backups are much faster and put much less wear and tear on your drives.

web said:

...the 4 240GB drives on raid 10 are my win 7 installation is this not a good idea any more ?, also I have two 1000GB drives on raid 1 mirror I use for storage, also backed up to a external enclosure

Once upon a time, all HDDs were slow and small so various RAIDs were used to gain speed and/or capacity. All RAIDs other than 0 improved reliability but RAID still isn't a backup for reasons I've already explained. Today's HDDs are much faster and more reliable, negating the need for RAID in all but the largest volumes (over 4TB) or in situations that require continuous operation at all times (such as businesses).

RAID 10 for your OS is way overkill. It isn't going to be much, if any, faster, isn't really needed, and will not protect your OS as well as a separate backup will, such as imaging will (as long as the images are stored externally).

As I mentioned earlier, SSDs will run circles around HDDs, even HDDs in RAID 0. A single SSD for your OS/programs is more than sufficient as long as you back it up.

The RAID 1s your storage drives are in will ensure continuous operation if one drive should fail but is not really needed unless a temporary shut down will unacceptable (while highly undesirable, temporary shutdowns aren't really a problem unless you are a business). Again, RAID is not a backup. All you really need are one or more (preferably more) external backups for each internal HDD.

web said:

Bit confused with my raid 1, so my raid 1 mirror of two drives, if one fails, can I still access content on that one drive that survives ??? that's was the hole reason for doing it, have I got this wrong ? ps just data

Raid1 is mirroring.... two exact copies. Writing is a little bit slower. It has to be done twice by OS or controller. Read speed is faster. It can read some blocks from member1 and some from member2.

If one fails ... system still can access the disk. Unless the controller is faulty or the system burns for example.