Hard drive setup...

[Blurr]

Hello to all!!! I'm looking for some feedback on the best way to setup and utilize the HD's on my system. I recently purchased a mb, cpu, RAM, HD, and DVD burner to upgrade my home computer. (Oops, forgot about the 18" flat screen...). My main concern was for backup purposes. A friend of mine suggested that I use my new HD as my system drive and buy an external to "mirror" that HD once/wk. (The idea being in the worse possible scenario of some type of disaster happening inside the computer the backup drive would be safe. Then all I would have to do is swap out the drives). Then to use my other two HD's for non-system apps and MP3 storage. I've been an end user for a number of years and I'm pretty solid w/ the basics (i.e. I can "probably" install components w/o too much trouble, but don't even come close to OC'ing...). Do I make the backup HD internal? Keep the other two older HD's or replace them? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

P.S. I'm upgrading to an Epox EP-8RGA+ mb, WD "special edition" (whatever that means) 80GB 8mb cache 7200 HD (EIDE Ultra ATA-100 interface), Athlon XP 2800+, Crucial Tech. 512MB DDR PC3200 CL3 x2, Pioneer DVR-106D DVD burner. I currently have two WD Caviar 5400 HD's (20/30G). Debating based on feedback whether to keep those two or upgrade...

 

[songoku]

Maxtor has a device that when you pressed a button on it, would back up your system. that could be something that you would want. you need to get the same size drives and i don't know how good it works. Your other option is a raid mirror setup. That is where you take two drives of identical size and have the same information written to both.


links -
http://www.shareholder.com/maxtor/ReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=116691&reltype=Product&maxtor_section=press

and

http://www.maxtor.com/en/products/external/onetouch/index.htm?b=3

Supporting AMD with your breakable stuff.

 

[Blurr]

Unfortunately my mb doesn't support any type of RAID setup. What is the story with Norton Ghost? Is that a full backup? I don't fully understand the "mirroring" thing, but I was thinking about having a second identical HD on the same channel, and "mirror" the primary HD to the second one once a week. Any thoughts? Thanks for the response.

 

[Guest]

You don't have to dedicate a whole drive for backups, only a partition of the same size. Or, at least that's what I do. You can also back-up to cd, if you have a cd/rw. I prefer to back-up to a seperate partition, only because it's faster and easier. I use ghost to mirror my main windows partition to a different partition, on a second hard drive that I never even think about.

_________________________
Your arrogance is boring!

 

[Flinx]

Here read this <A HREF="http://www6.tomshardware.com/storage/20030116/index.html" target="_new"> ADS </A>

Newer drives are likely to spin faster and have better (data) transfer rates. So use your new drive as your primary system drive.

If you have a large amount of constantly changing data then a removable HDD is good.

There are also write once and rewriteable CD's or DVD's. A couple hundred MB 650-700MB (Cd'). A couple of GB for DVDs' (about 4.5GB+ I think). Keep as many revisions as you want and are of course reuseable. Very cheap too. Easy to store. Easy to move. <A HREF="http://www6.tomshardware.com/storage/20030207/" target="_new"> Easy to move</A>


How much data is changing?

The loving are the daring!<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Flinx on 09/07/03 03:47 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Blurr]

Soooo, if I used two 80G drives and say, for example, partitioned the primary to 20G(for OS and system apps) and 60G for everything else, could I just equally partition a second hard drive and use that as my backup? Thanks.

P.S. I figure on using my older drives for MP3's, etc.

 

[Blurr]

The primary reason for the HD setup was to protect the system info. in case of some type of failure. I am currently debating between the second HD setup with partitioning and the DVD backup options (both excellent ideas, just not sure which to go with). The DVD option I think would work great in terms of system backup protection. However, depending if I decide that I want to keep everything backed up I may end up using the HD option. Either way, thanks for the excellent feedback and help. I appreciate you (and everyone else!!) taking the time to help me.

 

[Flinx]

Hey Blurr,

If your data and uptime are important there is also the idea of "Raid" drives. Certain Raid configurations duplicate your data automatically from one disk to the other. Should failure of one disk occur the other disk is available. Of course that may mean more hardware costs for you.

Both PATA (parallel ATA) and SATA raid configurations seem like an option for you.






The loving are the daring!

 

[Blurr]

My mb doesn't support RAID... (Epox EP-8RGA+)