Single HDD to RAID 1 Setup with new Hybrid Drive

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Dave_0909

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Jan 6, 2014
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10,510
Hello, firstly is this is simply a copy of an existing thread please don't hesitate to redirect...

I currently have a single HDD with everything on it; OS, music, program files etc and with my laptop drive recently failed am keen for some redundancy. I think RAID1 would suite me best as I feel I can just set up and ignore until anything goes wrong.

However, I don't have the ability to back up the drive and don't want to lose anything on the RAID setup (which I have heard I will). Is there a way of adding a second drive without losing data?

I currently have:
1TB Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1 Terabyte 7200RPM HDD
Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 motherboard (which supports RAID1)
Windows 7 Home Premium

Secondly could I slightly upgrade to a Hybrid drive when I setup the RAID array? Like this one:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00ELAVIQ0

Would I gain anything from the hybrid? Or would the RAID1 setup mean its only as fast as the slowest drive?

Thanks for any feedback, especially if you have done this yourself!
 
Solution
USAFRet
(good grief...sorry about the typos in my last)

For a whole disk image - There are many imaging applications. CloneZilla, DriveImageXML, Macrimum Reflect, TrueImage.
Copy an image elsewhere. In case of need, that image can be restored to a new drive.
As for as doing it automatic on installation of a new program? Personally, I would not want that.
I install something, it sucks, I uninstall it tomorrow. Needless writing back and forth. And after you have your basic toolset established, how many new programs do you install? Just run that whenever you think you might need a new copy of the image.

For your documents, the mentioned SyncBackFree will do this on schedule. I have my "Libraries" (and other things) scheduled to copy to a...
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Mar 16, 2013
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Yes, RAID is only as fast as the slowest drive.

RAID is not a backup. A RAID 1 is a mirror. It has a duplicate of everything on both drives. It also faithfully mirrors accidental deletes, corruption, malware, viruses, etc.

Any company that uses a RAID setup also has an actual backup.

Instead of a RAID setup, I'd suggest 2 parts.
An image of the current drive. OS, applications,a ll of that
Then a daily (?) copy of your documents. Whatever is new or changed, copy to a different drive.

Update your image weekly, or whenever you add a new application.
Use something like SyncBackFree to copy over your personal documents.

Easier, and lees failureprone than a RAID.
 
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Dave_0909

Honorable
Jan 6, 2014
2
0
10,510
Thanks USAFRet.

I presume there is an automatic way for the system to back up that disk at given points (daily or when a new application is installed) ?

How difficult is it to move the whole disk to a new one? Without losing OS etc or (if I decide my budget allows) move the OS to a SSD and the rest to a new drive?

I presumed RAID1 was less failure prone, but I suppose you have just dumbed it down a little and simplified it even further.

Thanks again!
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Mar 16, 2013
171,302
17,826
184,590
(good grief...sorry about the typos in my last)

For a whole disk image - There are many imaging applications. CloneZilla, DriveImageXML, Macrimum Reflect, TrueImage.
Copy an image elsewhere. In case of need, that image can be restored to a new drive.
As for as doing it automatic on installation of a new program? Personally, I would not want that.
I install something, it sucks, I uninstall it tomorrow. Needless writing back and forth. And after you have your basic toolset established, how many new programs do you install? Just run that whenever you think you might need a new copy of the image.

For your documents, the mentioned SyncBackFree will do this on schedule. I have my "Libraries" (and other things) scheduled to copy to a different PC every morning at 2AM. Or weekly. Or whatever schedule you want.
 
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