I recently made a RAID1 array in my computer to backup some of the most important data. Only after a while I realized that my power supply is starting to get old as it is 4 years now and it is not a brand name one, and that in the event of it´s failure there is a high chance of getting nasty voltages on either the power cable or the sata cable that might kill both disks. I don´t mind about the motherboard or the system disk or other things, but I want to make sure my backup data stays ok.

So I thought I could make a surge protector for both connectors. I found this note from Bourns regarding surge protection, but it doesn´t tell much, just shows their parts. Right now I am pondering two ideas, I can either add TVS protection at the power supply, or I could make a sata plugin board just for the hard disks.

What would you choose? I think that the inductance of the long wires might help the sata board in case of failure, and also it doesn´t require modifying the psu so that it could possibly become an open hardware project if I can source some reasonably cheap and easily obtainable parts for it.
What do you think?

 

People are crazy... Just buy a new computer power supply if you are worried about the current one.

 

People are crazy... Just buy a new computer power supply if you are worried about the current one.

Well I could, but what makes you so sure that the new one you buy won´t die a week after you install it and take everything with itself as well? I am not only worried about the current one, but about any PC power supply. I simply don´t want to trust all my work to one component.

 

How about a separate power supply for each disc?

 

Well I could, but what makes you so sure that the new one you buy won´t die a week after you install it and take everything with itself as well? I am not only worried about the current one, but about any PC power supply. I simply don´t want to trust all my work to one component.

So have you also installed a fire suppression system, a safe, a lifeboat, an armed guard, an EMP blocker, bearing lubrication system, head crash detector, lightning suppression system and all other safety measures to prevent any of the other hundreds of reasons data loss occurs..

Is a porn collection really worth all the trouble/effort anyways.

Heck just burn the data to a few DVD's and call it a day.. Surely you can't have more than a few megs of "critical" data anyways..

There is preventive and then there is paranoid (and bored)..

Just buy a redundant power supply if anything..

 

Well I could, but what makes you so sure that the new one you buy won´t die a week after you install it and take everything with itself as well? I am not only worried about the current one, but about any PC power supply. I simply don´t want to trust all my work to one component.

I use Tripp Lite Line conditioners and a UPS. Only EMP would through the big inductors in the line conditioner. The line conditioners are about half of what a UPS is (FAR more than surge suppression, transient protection, over/under voltage protection, sine wave smoothing, etc).

If it never makes it to the power supply, it won't make it to the HDD Power supply.

This is assuming your networking switches are grounded as well and on similar conditioning/backup systems to everything the system is wired to.

I've had lightning blow down the tree 30 feet away and had no issues, other than a lot of loud alarms.

As far as replacing the power supply with a better protected one, they do work, and with the growing amount of power the current generations of processors use, need to be hardy (1000W+). You won't get nearly as much protection from a "safe" power supply than you will from a dedicated line conditioner. Most UPS systems have line conditioning internally, but the external ones do a better job and absorb more energy in a transient event without exploding.