I'm *certainly* no expert on RAID (in fact, I had to look up the modern meaning
of the term before posting this.) But from the comments here, and a quick
overview on Wikipedia, it seems to me that RAID arrays are really meant for
'professional' environments, where there is either a lot of data to constantly
backup, or the data is super-critical (from a business point of view.) Or the
user perceives it to be so. I do understand that some typical *home* users might
find such a thing beneficial for one reason or another; but the cost of external
backup drives--even multiple ones--is now so low (and the technical saavy needed
to use them is also low), that I'm curious as to RAID's practical use in a home
environment--given the OP's statement that the data he wants to backup is just
his typical home stuff. True, a RAID array allows instantaneous backup and
recovery of data AFAIU; but losing, say, only a week's worth of 'home' data
between (non-RAID) backups doesn't seem so terribly catastrophic. That's
debatable, of course!!

I suppose my opinion of this is based more than a little bit on my own
perception of the complexity of setting up a RAID array (in Windows), vs. using
simple external USB drives.

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