RAID1 setup

[agarwaldvk]

Hi Everybody

I have an older PC that I am intending to use as file server for my home network. My home network will include 2 PC's and this file server computer.

I am thinking on the lines of having RAID1 setup on this file server computer. It already has an 80GB hard disk drive that has the Windows XP SP3 installed on it. I am looking at buying 2 identical 500GB HDD's and configure them as RAID1 leaving the existing drive with the O/S as is. I have checked the specifications of the motherboard of this PC and it supports both RAID0 & RAID1.

Is it possible to do what I am looking at doing? If yes, can someone suggest how should I proceed? Any pointers would be welcome.


Edit:-
On reading some of the threads on this forum, it appears that perhaps a better way would be for me to have a 500GB drive for my file server computer and have an external backup drive and back up the file server drive as required. That is fine by me however, how do I then guarantee incremental backup that before each of the computers are turned off. I am assuming here that increamental backup can be setup for a specific time or perhaps even for just before turning off the computer etc etc. What happens in a situation where more that one PC is turned off at the same time or pretty much at the same time. I might be actually looking at three (3) PC's on the network. Currently there are two (2) as mentioned earlier.


Best regards



Deepak

 

[JMecc]

Can the motherboard handle all 3 drives? - Many motherboards from a few years back only have 2 sata ports so just make sure (or if the 80GB is IDE then no problem).

Jo

 

[agarwaldvk]

Dear JMecc

The existing 80 GB drive is an IDE. This is the one that has and will always have the operating system on it.

And from informal advice from my friends (nontechnical) , it appears that going with one additional 500GB drive would be a better way and then somehow (these guys couldn't recommend anything advice on automatically setting up backup options) set appropriate settings for automatic incremental backup of this network drive. They only know of manually backing up the drive every so ofter.

What do you think of this option. And is it possible to set up incremental backup settings on each of the other computers on the network that would result in backing up of the network drive before each computer is turned off - addressing the problem of concurrent (or nearly concurrent) turn off of more than one (1) PC?


Best regards



Deepak