So I'm setting up a new build, with the parts I have so far selected here:
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/EAPellow/saved/4
There's no GPU, but I'll add one in afterwards, at least a GTX 760 or much better, depending on my wallet's mood. I will also be running Windows 7 Pro x64, upgrading from XP.
My question is about RAID setups and external backup solutions. Namely, what is your preferred method of backing up your data as it pertains to ease of implementing said backup. I do have two 1TB HDD's selected for the build, but after reading some threads about how one would go about replacing one of the drives in a RAID-1 array if it failed - namely the possibility of erasing the data on the one good drive left - I backed off the idea.
So here were some options I'm looking into:
Internal Raid-1 array
External Raid-1 array with only 1 drive in the PC (such as Newer Tech's Guardian Maximus or ICY DOCK MB662U3-2S)
Regular external drive with third party backup software
External drive with bundled backup software (such as Western Digital's My Passport with differential backups of preselected files/folders)
I'm not looking to spend a lot of money, preferably south of $200, and I'd like to find a solution that will be the easiest choice to restore from. I do not plan on leaving an external backup drive plugged in for regular backups, but will instead plug in and backup weekly/as needed. I'm also not looking for the kinds that have fancy built in backup options for social media or LAN/wifi/cloud connectivity.
Another option I looked at: should I get an external HDD with 2 separate drives, and clone my PC's drive to one, and image it to another using something like Macrimum Reflect Free? I know that if my drive fails and I want to restore from an image, I need another drive first, so I could pop in the cloned drive. Or just use the cloned drive as is if it's recent enough - I wouldn't plan on cloning often. What size drive would you recommend for imaging? Even with this setup, I may choose something like a WD My Passport to duplicate my core files, but I do need a full backup solution to retain user preferences, application data, etc that could be easy to miss when doing a selective backup like that.
I currently have an old Seagate pushbutton 500GB backup drive (#9y7865-560), but it's reformatted and partitioned with backup info from some other drives and I don't remember what software it came with, and a 250GB Lacie rugged drive, but it's a slower portable so I may just use that for laptops. I'm getting a 1TB drive for this build, but, after downsizing my files, will have only about 100GB on it once built, though this will eventually grow more.
I've NEVER had to endure a flat out dead drive myself, and have only ever copied and pasted desired files for backing up. The only RAID-1 setup I've used was a Guardian Maximus, but that was on a Mac, setup to image the drive via Timeline.
Thanks for any input.
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/EAPellow/saved/4
There's no GPU, but I'll add one in afterwards, at least a GTX 760 or much better, depending on my wallet's mood. I will also be running Windows 7 Pro x64, upgrading from XP.
My question is about RAID setups and external backup solutions. Namely, what is your preferred method of backing up your data as it pertains to ease of implementing said backup. I do have two 1TB HDD's selected for the build, but after reading some threads about how one would go about replacing one of the drives in a RAID-1 array if it failed - namely the possibility of erasing the data on the one good drive left - I backed off the idea.
So here were some options I'm looking into:
Internal Raid-1 array
External Raid-1 array with only 1 drive in the PC (such as Newer Tech's Guardian Maximus or ICY DOCK MB662U3-2S)
Regular external drive with third party backup software
External drive with bundled backup software (such as Western Digital's My Passport with differential backups of preselected files/folders)
I'm not looking to spend a lot of money, preferably south of $200, and I'd like to find a solution that will be the easiest choice to restore from. I do not plan on leaving an external backup drive plugged in for regular backups, but will instead plug in and backup weekly/as needed. I'm also not looking for the kinds that have fancy built in backup options for social media or LAN/wifi/cloud connectivity.
Another option I looked at: should I get an external HDD with 2 separate drives, and clone my PC's drive to one, and image it to another using something like Macrimum Reflect Free? I know that if my drive fails and I want to restore from an image, I need another drive first, so I could pop in the cloned drive. Or just use the cloned drive as is if it's recent enough - I wouldn't plan on cloning often. What size drive would you recommend for imaging? Even with this setup, I may choose something like a WD My Passport to duplicate my core files, but I do need a full backup solution to retain user preferences, application data, etc that could be easy to miss when doing a selective backup like that.
I currently have an old Seagate pushbutton 500GB backup drive (#9y7865-560), but it's reformatted and partitioned with backup info from some other drives and I don't remember what software it came with, and a 250GB Lacie rugged drive, but it's a slower portable so I may just use that for laptops. I'm getting a 1TB drive for this build, but, after downsizing my files, will have only about 100GB on it once built, though this will eventually grow more.
I've NEVER had to endure a flat out dead drive myself, and have only ever copied and pasted desired files for backing up. The only RAID-1 setup I've used was a Guardian Maximus, but that was on a Mac, setup to image the drive via Timeline.
Thanks for any input.
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