SnapRAID combines the safety of RAID with the convenience of backups. Now with real-time health monitoring and automation via the new SnapRAID Daemon.
SnapRAID is a powerful backup and redundancy program designed for disk arrays. It stores parity information (a special type of mathematical backup) that allows you to fully recover your data even if you experience up to six simultaneous disk failures.
It is primarily intended for home media centers and large storage arrays containing files that don't change frequently (like movies, music, and photo archives). It offers the high-end protection of a professional server but with the simplicity and flexibility of a home computer.
SnapRAID provides a unique approach to data protection that prioritizes safety, flexibility, and energy efficiency. It is designed to sit on top of your files as a safety net, ensuring your data is protected without requiring complex changes to your hardware or operating system.
SnapRAID acts as a transparent layer of security that protects your data without ever taking it hostage. It treats your array as a collection of individual assets, providing a safety net that is both powerful and precise.
The primary goal is total data reconstruction. Should a hard drive fail, SnapRAID uses its parity data to rebuild the entire contents of the lost disk onto a new one. Because it can handle up to six simultaneous failures, it provides a level of resilience that scales with your needs, ensuring that a hardware crash doesn't mean a data catastrophe.
Physical disk failure isn't the only threat; "bit-rot" or silent errors can corrupt files without warning. SnapRAID proactively defends your archive by hashing every file. It doesn't just wait for a disk to die; it constantly verifies that your data is exactly as you left it, identifying and repairing invisible corruption before it can spread.
SnapRAID is designed for the "real world" of home hardware. Most users don't buy ten identical 20TB drives at once.
You can mix a 4TB drive with a 12TB drive and add a new one whenever you find a sale.
You can start protecting disks that are already full of your movies and photos without moving them.
Your data is never trapped. If you decide to stop using SnapRAID, your disks remain standard drives that can be read by any computer.
The new SnapRAID Daemon bridges the gap between raw parity and proactive protection. Move from a manual terminal workflow to an "always-on" background intelligence.
Total data reconstruction
If your hard disks die, SnapRAID can fully recover all the data from the failed drives, up to the number of parity disks you have assigned (protecting you from up to 6 simultaneous failures).
Total data integrity
All your data is hashed to ensure integrity and prevent "bit-rot." If a file suffers from silent corruption, SnapRAID detects it and repairs it using your parity information.
Undelete and restore
If you accidentally delete files on a disk, recovery is possible. SnapRAID can reconstruct missing data and even undelete specific folders without affecting the rest of the array.
Confined data loss
When the number of failed disks exceeds the parity count, data loss is confined only to the affected disks. Data on all other healthy disks remains fully accessible and untouched.
Mix, match, and grow
Disks can have different sizes and different brands. You can add new disks to the array at any time as your storage needs grow, without the need for complex migrations.
Power-saving by design
To access a file, only a single disk needs to spin. This reduces noise, saves power, and extends the lifespan of your hardware compared to traditional RAID systems that spin every disk for every read.
Access your data, your way
You can utilize disks already filled with files without the need to reformat them. Access your files as usual, even without the program running. SnapRAID doesn't lock in your data; you can stop using it anytime without moving a single byte.
Transparent, Community-Driven, and Cost-Free
SnapRAID is released under the GPLv3 license, ensuring the code remains open for inspection and improvement. There are no licensing fees, no subscriptions, and no hidden "Pro" tiers. You have full ownership of your data protection engine.