Backing up HDD and RAID 0

satty · 19 Dec 2006 at 18:00

Hi

I wasn't sure if I should hi-jack another thread or not but basically I'm currently building my new system after selling all my old parts off. My two Raptor 80GB drives have arrived which I was going to use in a RAID 0 config to run OS and programme i use such as office. Anyway i am now looking to order a 3rd drive which I am hoping to use to store large files and use to store a back up on. I was looking to get a WD Caviar SE16 250GB for this job keeping with the WD theme. Although quite a lot of people on here recommend the Samsung Spinpoints, Seagate Barracudas. Which are better drive for the purpose I have stated. Also I have read a thread on here where someone had a RAID 0 fail a lot. How often does this happen? Is it common on raptors in a RAID setup?

Secondly if im wanting to do regular backs that if the worst happened and one of the raptors failed whats the best way to do this. I was thinking of making Ghost images on to the 3rd hard drive, using something like norton ghost. Is this possible? Or what would people suggest.

The last thing I wanted to know will relate to my thread in the motherboard section. This setup will involve a 680i motherboard. I've read theres a few problems with setup a RAID 0 with these but nvidia are working on it. Should i wait for this to be sorted out.

rpstewart · 19 Dec 2006 at 18:13

If your third drive is going to be for media storage etc only then speed isn't necessarily the top concern so just about any brand would be OK although Maxtor is currently public enemy #1. Personally I use Hitachis although I'm eyeing up a pair of Seagate 7200.10s at the moment, with good speed and a 5 year warranty they'd get my recommendation. You might want to look at the 320Gb ones, they're the best value at the moment.

Backups are certainly a good idea when you're dealing with RAID0, whether you want to go with a Ghost type image backup or file level is up to you. I tend to just do it at the file level (docs etc only not programs), I mess about so much that reinstalling every so often isn't a bad idea.

No idea about the 680i issues...

satty · 20 Dec 2006 at 01:21

Would it be possible to store a ghost type image on a 3rd drive and if say one of my raptors failed and i got it replaced just load the image from the 3rd drive back onto my RAID 0 raptors and continue where i left off so to speak.

satty · 3 Jan 2007 at 19:30

anyone know if i can do the above.

Also I just created a RAID 0 with two of my Raptor 80G hard drives and there showing up in the array as being 149GB instead of 160G it says there 74.5GB each when i was setting them up.

But before i set the array up it said in BIOS that they were 80GB on the main screen with drives SATA 1 & 2 which is right but when i set up the array they disappeared from the BIOS screen and in the setup were only 74.5GB.