Backup Software, and Raiding Multiple Drives

[gravatrax]

Hello I plan on in the very near future purchasing to two Munchkin Chronox Deluxe 240GB SSD and using Raid 0 on them, I'd use those drives more or less for the OS core apps, and games that don't require a ton of microrewrites. In addition to this, if I eer find them on sale I was thinking about getting two raptors and putting them in Raid 0 as well. So essentially I'd have Two Instances of Stripe Raiding. I can't find anything on whether or not it's possible. In addition to this I have considered getting a large drive 2-3tb and using it as a backup drive for the SSDs, Raptors, and likely my 1.5tb WD CB as well. Not for OS backup or anything but just general data (music, ableton projects, etc. etc, stuff that can not but replaced with a simple install. So I'm wondering if there is software that performs such backups automatically. The idea of getting raptors is sort of up in the air.

On a separate note I know Raiding multiple SSDs can give you substantial upgrades to read/write speeds but I don't suppose anyones tried this with any Munchkin SSDs and have some benchmarks they'd be willing to share.

 

[Soda-88]

What motherboard and OS do you have?
Windows 8 has a feature called File History which would do the backup job. You can read more about it here:
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2012/11/how-to-use-windows-8-file-history-for-better-automated-backup/

As for the RAID0, you'll need a chipset that supports it, preferably has 2 or more SATA3 ports for your SSDs, i.e. Z77 (3rd party controllers that are often on motherboards, such as Marvell, don't perform nearly as well as Intel's).

 

[gravatrax]

Woops my apologies, I meant to include that info. It's an AsRock Extreme4 Z77 Mobo
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20Extreme4/

Ehhhh Windows 8? I dont know if I really want to "upgrade" to that. Lul.

 

[gravatrax]

Currently I have the latest version of Windows 7 installed on a single WD Caviar Black 1.5TB. I Intended to do a fresh install on the Munckins after they have been successfully RAIDed, I should note this is my first time experimenting with RAID.

 

[Soda-88]

Setting up RAID is easy, just follow instructions in your motherboard's manual.
Also I'm not very familiar with all the backup solutions out there, but from what I've seen by googling, all of the freeware tools have option to backup to external media/network PC/cloud and none had backup to internal HDD.
The prices on more robust backup software range between $30 and $50 for which you can get an Win 8 Pro upgrade until end of the month. It's up to you to decide whether you wan't to have a bulky backup software or latest Windows with all the features Windows 7 Ultimate sported and more.

 

[Hawkeye22]

Backing up a RAID which contains the OS is easy, restoring it isn't always so easy. Most backup software can create some type of rescue disk in case your OS drive/s fail. The rescue disk needs to have the proper RAID controller driver on it or it won't be able to see the volume to restore to.

You may want to test any backup software you decide to get to make sure it's rescue disk can see all the drives properly.