Is there an idiots guide to Raid 1 with the Abit IP35?

Martin SH · 28 May 2008 at 19:49

Is there an idiots guide to Raid 1 with the Abit IP35?

I am putting together a computer for use with PhotoShop and would like to run three drives, a 500 gb system disk and two 1TB drives for images (I would like to set these up as RAID 1). I am very new to this so any help would be appreciated.

My system is listed below:

fobose · 28 May 2008 at 20:15

Make sure the RAID controller is running in "RAID" first, rather than "IDE" or "ACHI", go in to the bios (usually press Delete key repeated when booting up, or sometimes F2 I think) and look for something like "SATA configuration" then change the "Configure SATA as RAID".

Next save and exit the bios, on your PC booting up again, you should see "Press CTRL+I to enter RAID Bios" or something like that, so be ready to press those keys as soon you see it (this is using the Intel RAID controller).

Once you're in to the RAID bios, change the RAID mode to RAID 1 and it should automatically show your two 1TB drive model numbers, rename the array to what you want, then click on "apply" or "ok" which ever it says and thats it

Martin SH · 28 May 2008 at 21:15

Thanks very much for that! I will give it ago. I plan to build the computer later in the week.

Martin

BenhB · 29 May 2008 at 12:53

You have only 1x 1TB drive in your shopping list.

Martin SH · 31 May 2008 at 22:57

I have built the system but bought 3 x 500 GB drives.

I want to run them like this:

C: System Disk

X: Data Disk
Y: Data Disk Backup Removable Drive

Is this Raid 1?

Will running like this be slow? If not how do I achieve this?

Thanks

Martin

fobose · 1 Jun 2008 at 00:20

Thats not RAID 1. RAID 1 is basically a mirror, so if one drive fails your pc will still continue to operate (if the OS is installed on the RAID 1), or if its just got data on it, you will still be able to access the data with one of the drives failed.

What your planning to do looks like your going to be doing a manual backup of your data disk, which is much better for "backup" purposes incase you accidently delete a file. RAID 1 is generally slightly slower than a single disk so from what you're planning it should be fine.

That said, 500GB for a System disk is a bit much. I would RAID 1 2x 500GB (with OS on it), and have a 500GB backup of important data aswell as additional data.

Martin SH · 1 Jun 2008 at 10:08

Thanks for that Fobose.

To be honest I am not too worried about the system disk. This computer is purely for photography so only has the OS (Vista x64), Photoshop, Lightroom and a handfull of other programs. I could rebuild it in less than an hour.

I am more paranoid about the data. I have put in a caddy so I can back up the data drive and when I am away store this in another place. The question is, is there a way of automatically mirroring the two data disks. Can I raid them or would a software back up program be better?

If anyone has any thoughts on this I would appreciate it. Thanks.

fobose · 1 Jun 2008 at 10:35

If you raid them, every time you disconnect the external drive it will take a very long time for the RAID array to "rebuild" itself when you plug it back in again, a good couple of hours. What you need is a program to sync for you, there are ones about but I dont know what the best one is. I always do mine manually as I only have the few odd files that I need to backup.

Martin SH · 1 Jun 2008 at 11:11

fobose said:
If you raid them, every time you disconnect the external drive it will take a very long time for the RAID array to "rebuild" itself when you plug it back in again, a good couple of hours. What you need is a program to sync for you, there are ones about but I dont know what the best one is. I always do mine manually as I only have the few odd files that I need to backup.

Thanks for that! It looks like I will go for a software alternative. Any suggestions anyone?

Martin

rpstewart · 1 Jun 2008 at 12:13

Synctoy or Robocopy are the usual suggestions, both are free Microsoft offerings.

Martin SH · 1 Jun 2008 at 21:08

rpstewart said:
Synctoy or Robocopy are the usual suggestions, both are free Microsoft offerings.

Thanks for that I will give them a try. I found out that CopyRite XP a simple GUI for RoboCopy does not work with Vista x64 although it should with the 32 bit version....

Matin

fobose · 1 Jun 2008 at 22:34

I downloaded a program earlier called "allway sync" (google it). Its really good and very easy to use, first sync program that I have used that has just worked nicely.

Martin SH · 2 Jun 2008 at 16:48

I tried a couple but settled on SyncBackSE there is a free version that works well, but one feature I wanted was to back up a data disk on exit. SyncBackSE does this and works fine on my Vista Home Premium x64.

Thanks for your help.

Martin