Question : Problem: Is hardware RAID really better than software RAID?

I'm just looking for some opinions on this matter.  Basically, I've been burnt on hardware Raids before when the Controller goes bad, and have had to rebuild the entire array, basically defeating the purpose of redudancy (Which is why I understand the importance of backups).  If I'm thinking clearly, the only chance you would have have of losing everything in a software array is to lose all drives at once, correct?  I'm already aware of the performance issue, but really how much processing does a Raid card do?  I'm only looking to build Raid 1's and Raid 5's, so I don't think it would be to difficult to build a server with the necessary extra performance.  So my ultimate question is, performance aside, how are software Raid's not preferred since you would be eliminating a point of failure?

Answer : Problem: Is hardware RAID really better than software RAID?

Definitely yes...

Hardware, while not perfect, when you have quality equipment just runs. I bet you've had problems with your OS or an app on any given computer many more times than you have had a specific hardware issue.

Second, if hardware fails, you can usually just replace the controller card or some other piece of the hardware and most likely get back to a working system.  With software RAID you are depending on the underlying software to be there and if it fails recovery is doable if you set everything up right, but I've never wanted to depend on the software to be there if I really needed it.

When I was doing my NT training for MCSE we talked a lot about software RAID, but when I got into the real world and started looking at it... hardware-based raid was just a more stable and robust solution.