Quick question about hdd's

Space monkey 12

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This is a stupid question in ask a few of them everynow and then but is the point of making a clone of your OS Drive (identical clone with whatever cloning 1:1 program) is the reason to do this so you don't loose data ie have a backup or is it for system downtime ie replacing the failed OS disk for the cloned version and then rebooting via the cloned drive ?
 
Solution
It's usually used for upgrading to a different hard drive without having to reinstall everything (HDD1 being replaced by HDD2).

You certainly CAN use cloning for backup, as long as you are ok with having a drive that is not usable for anything else but a pure copy backup.

People who are concerned about system downtime usually choose to set hard drives up in RAID, which has the option to make an identical cloned HDD copy in real-time.
It's usually used for upgrading to a different hard drive without having to reinstall everything (HDD1 being replaced by HDD2).

You certainly CAN use cloning for backup, as long as you are ok with having a drive that is not usable for anything else but a pure copy backup.

People who are concerned about system downtime usually choose to set hard drives up in RAID, which has the option to make an identical cloned HDD copy in real-time.
 
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Space monkey 12

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But can you remove the broken os drive hdd1 and replace it with hdd2 (clone) and then reboot windows with the cloned drive allowing virtually no system downtime in the event of os drive failure

I would keep this drive (clone) away from the system that's why I wouldent raid it also you would copy maby a virus on the os drive to both drives It would be a fresh install few program's setting n that and then a make a clone and take that out of the system
 
Nope, the system date and time is kept by your motherboard and would be updated in the OS as soon as it booted up.

If the clone was old you obviously wouldn't have the data you made between the cloning and the HDD1 failure, but the system clock and similar features would all work correctly.
 

Space monkey 12

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If I added more hdd's to my system data drives 2x2tb an used windows to mirror the two drives to protect my photos and then backed up to a nas in a raid 5 4x4tb array amd finally a backup to an external hdd's how safe do you think my photos would be

Ok thanks for that that would be ok there would be no data stored on the os drive
 
I think your photos would have virtually no way of getting lost if you did that correctly and with high-quality drives. That said, the procedure you described above seems like huge overkill to me.

For a thorough yet cost effective home backup:

-get a 4TB Western Digital Mybook (http://www.amazon.com/Book-External-Drive-Storage-Backup/dp/B008S94HXG) for local backup (or some similar external HD)

-Get a cloud backup service like Crashplan (http://www.code42.com/crashplan/) that mirrors your hard drive to the cloud.

This way you have a local and cloud backup without having to worry about setting up RAID or NAS systems. RAID would be hugely more expensive, as it requires enterprise level HDD's to run reliably.
 

giantbucket

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you know, your wife's gonna get older, so she ain't never gonna look as good as in the pics....

the pics will be fine. all 73 copies of them.

the OS drive can be swapped out very easily, with only an hour or so of downtime. possibly less. you could always just do a RAID-1 for the OS anyways, and when one of the two drives starts to croak, swap it out and let the system rebuild while it's running. zero downtime. almost makes sense to use two different types of drives for that (albeit same capacity), for example an 840 EVO and an SX900 or some such thing.
 

Space monkey 12

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The wife (girlfreind) is the reason I have gone over kill on the picture backup she likes to see where her photos of the kids are (on her phone or a pc hdd) and doesent like the cloud too much I already have a nas and a server running so it isn't that much hastle it's already set up that way now

It's pretty seemless truthully wifi backup from tablets and phones photos and videos to server server auto syncs that folder to nas and I back up the folder every two weeks to the external hdd
 

Space monkey 12

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You mentioned enterprise class drives to make raid work properly I currently use 4tb western digital red drives for my nas running flex raid 5 the only drives better than these that I no about are the wd red pro drives

Why would you suggest different drives and what would you recomend for my server build drives wise

My server just has a mix mash of disks but I am panning a new build for my server very soon I'm just stuck in the way I want to go about it

I was thinking about something like the fractal design define r4 series case with its 8 internal hdd bays and a heck load of fans for cooling

Or something like a sharkoon value t9 with 9 external 5.25 bays and then plan on ripping the front fans out of the case to utilise all 9 5.25 bays by filling them with 5 in 3 hotswap bays allowing me to put a unit into 3 DVD drive bays that could then hold 5 3.25 hdds giving me a total of 15 drives if I used 3 drive cages and utilises a pcie sas card with breakout cables

My problems are cost vs expandabiitty and ease of drive replacement

 
WD Red drives are great for NAS, so you're ok with sticking with them if they are still working well and under warranty. I can certainly recommend the Fractal Design R4 as a new case. I've had several, and they are great for large disk arrays with plenty of cooling.

I would suggest the Western Digital SE series for RAID/ server disks. I've linked the 2TB model below but you can adjust the size on the right of the Newegg interface to see other size options:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236522

The Se series is built to be used in professional data centers and read/write 180TB of data per year with a 5 year guaranteed warranty. Compared to a 4TB red drive, the 4TB Se is about $70 more expensive due to the higher-quailty parts and hardware testing.
 

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