[nycbug-talk] Advice on setting up a RAID array

[Jonathan]

Hello all,
	I'm thinking about setting up a RAID array for my computer for a few 
reasons:
1.  I'm really bad about backups and I have too much information that is 
reorganized too often to try to backup on CDs
2.  I'd like to have more hard drive space for future use
3.  I have some money to spend :) and I have not spent any on computers 
for over 6 months :(

	The main things I am looking for with the RAID array are (not 
necessarily in priority order):
1.  Size, I'd like to go 500GB+
2.  Redundancy, the main requirement I'm planning to try and mitigate 
any crashes considering I have no backups (I do know hard drive crashes 
are not the only thing that can destroy data but hard drive crashes are 
my main concern)
3.  Preferably Hardware RAID so it is more compatible across OSes and 
performs better.
4.  SATA, I don't know if this is even an option yet but SATA would be 
very nice esp. considering 18in IDE cables can't reach anywhere near the 
top of my case where I would need to put the drives.
5.  Compatibility, I don't doubt whatever I get would work under windows 
but I also want to be sure it will work under the BSDs (FreeBSD-current 
won't boot right now but I want to try  NetBSD one of these days 
(5.2.1-release does work for some reason))

Awaiting much helpful advice ;)
Jonathan