Hard drive configuration questions

[rakoth]

I'm getting ready to replace an aging Dell and am planning to do my own build this time. The machine will be used for some gaming and video processing, as well as music and photo storage, but nothing hard core. The tentative build will be based on the Q6600 processor and one Radeon HD 4850 gpu.

In terms of storage, my plan is put in two 500 Gb drives and either use Raid 1 or Acronis True Image to maintain a backup of my data. The reason for this goes back to my Dell which used to have one drive. After a crash and lengthy reinstall of everything I've decided never to go without a backup drive (fortunately I had a backup of all my data).

Before I go this route, I want to make sure I'm not overlooking something. Which leads to a few questions:

1. Does Raid 1 mirror all data on the drive including the OS? In other words, if one disk goes can I boot from the other?

2. My disks have always been set up with one big partition. When would I consider creating multiple partitions?

3. I've noticed that some system builders buy a big drive for data and get one or two smaller drives for the OS and/or scratch space. I understand the need for a very fast scratch drive for some apps, but why would someone put the OS on a separate drive?

I think that's it for now. Thanks.

 

[liubros]

i suggest you keep OS and data on separate drive. for a starter, i would not use raid 1. just add a separate drive as back up.

 

[rakoth]

i suggest you keep OS and data on separate drive. for a starter, i would not use raid 1. just add a separate drive as back up.

What's the rationale for keeping the OS and data separate? And should applications go on the same drive as the OS or the data?

 

[sorce7200]

hard drive crashes are almost legendary for data destruction
and loss. I believe we all have at some time experienced this
frustrating situation...from merely bumping a computer while it is
turned on to total drive failure through age...
I use a backup plan built upon a backup plan....ergo:
I use a 1 Tb external drive for backup with ups while I also
use dvd storage backup. I use 7z compressor for storage
minimization also. The dual backup option reasoning is thus:
Should data become corrupt through media transfer unknowingly,
I also have the data stored elsewhere...some might call this
an act of paranoid redundancy...but it works for me.

 

[rakoth]

hard drive crashes are almost legendary for data destruction
and loss. I believe we all have at some time experienced this
frustrating situation...from merely bumping a computer while it is
turned on to total drive failure through age...
I use a backup plan built upon a backup plan....ergo:
I use a 1 Tb external drive for backup with ups while I also
use dvd storage backup. I use 7z compressor for storage
minimization also. The dual backup option reasoning is thus:
Should data become corrupt through media transfer unknowingly,
I also have the data stored elsewhere...some might call this
an act of paranoid redundancy...but it works for me.

I don't think a dual backup scheme is paranoid. After my Dell crashed, I rebuilt system with a new drive but kept the original drive in the system (which was repaired during the OS install). So I backup my data to the second drive and I do a periodic backup of all data to DVDs, which I move to a safety deposit box.

I like the idea of having a bootable image of a disk so I can get back up and running quickly. It's one thing to get a bad sector in your data area but it's really annoying to get one in your OS area, which is what happened to me.

 

[rozar]

1. Does Raid 1 mirror all data on the drive including the OS? In other words, if one disk goes can I boot from the other?

2. My disks have always been set up with one big partition. When would I consider creating multiple partitions?

3. I've noticed that some system builders buy a big drive for data and get one or two smaller drives for the OS and/or scratch space. I understand the need for a very fast scratch drive for some apps, but why would someone put the OS on a separate drive?

I think that's it for now. Thanks.

1. Yes, RAID 1 will mirror the entire contents of the drive. RAID 1 (or any other level) creates a single volume. Now some controllers will allow you to carve another volume at the time of creation for OS or other reasons but it will still treat the entire volume the same. RAID is not aware of or care what OS you use or how many partitions you create. ! drive is the mirror imageof the other.

2. You would create multiple partitions to have more drive letters in windows (or other OS). For windows in Disk Manager you will see 1 physical Disk and 2 or more partitions on that disk. Each partition can then have a different drive letter. If you are going to use 1 drive or 1 RAID volume and want to seperate the OS from the DATA this is a good use of more than 1 partition. There are others such as creating a partition for the swap file, or if you want to keep your movies on "D" drive and you music on "E" drive etc.

3. There are many reasons to put data and OS on seperate drives as opposed to partitions. If you sustain a drive failure on the OS drive you can bring it back quickly and not lose data, or you could put your swap file on the second disk or volume. In the case of some RAID levels that use striping 0, 5, 10 scratch space can be much faster. Normally there are 3 main reasons to use RAID

1 Redundancy
2 Speed
3 Volume size

Keep in mind though that with RAID there is no perfect RAID level. Each one has advantages and disadvantages.

RAID 0, fast and good overhead, but slower access and you lose 1 drive you lose all data
RAID 1, offers redundancy but bad overhead. Performance depends on the controller.
RAID 5, Decent overhead fast reads reduncancy, slower access times and slower writes.
RAID 6, 1 more drive of overhead than RAID 5 but can sustain 2 drive failures also slower access and writes
RAID 10, bad overhead, can sustain 1 bad drive and 2 if its the right one, faster than RAID 5

Those are some of the factors of some RAID levels, there are a few more RAID levels and many more factors.

One thing I will advise on strongly is to know exactly why you want to use RAID and why you are picking a certain RAID level before doing so.
Also do not confuse RAID with backup. Even if you do use RAID also have a good backup solution and use it.