[RESOLVED] Best Hard Drive setup?

Lellis2k · 04-17-2007, 02:36 PM

Hi Guys,

Just after a bit of advise really, I'm dual booting at the moment but im confident enough to fully swap over to vista now.

I was thinking about getting 2x 500gb sata's (i dont have any sata stuff in my pc but iv seen cards for £10 and power adapters for £1) wasn't going to raid them, instead do incremental backups from one to another so i have a weeks worth of lost/deleted data just in case. However now im not so sure...

1. Is sata the best way to go for speed?
2. If I do decide to raid do you think its best to go for mirror/saftey or speed?
3. How liable to corruption and drives breaking is raid?
4. Should I install vista on my 80gb IDE and keep my data on the 500s or keep it all together?
5. Which drive should I keep my paging file on and how big (I have 2gb ram)

Any help would be awesome, thanks guys!

Leigh

Tumbleweed36 · 04-17-2007, 06:57 PM

Well, this is a question that you will never get agreement on, because everybody does what they feel is best for them.

Personally, I run a Sata drive with everything on a single partition, and then I have an additional matching Sata drive that I use simplly to clone the first drive to with regular cloning from one drive to the other with XXClone. Fail safe that way.

For those things that are not important, but I want to keep, have two IDE drives on the computer that I use from time to time, but rarely. That is what I do, but you will have to do what is best for you.

**linderman** · 04-17-2007, 07:11 PM

to give a little splash of input

I would say given the ease of hard drive cloning and disk imaging I dont really see mirrored drives (raid) as a big benefit to you. A mirrored array is more suited to business environments IMHO atleast the benefits of redundancy are not as valuable for the everyday desktop user.

As for the array that combines two drives to act the part of ONE drive, this is an worthy way to improve system speed, although I dont see the real life improvement near as impressive as the bench mark numbers show. However, given the todays hard drive reliability issues, you need to be very back-up consencious if you adapt this configuration, if one drive dies from mechanical failure (which is very high numbers these days compared with yesteryear) then all data is gone.

The single sata drive speaks for itself, easy way to fly

please have a look at the guides in my singnature links about back-up your hard drive. there is a guide for xxclone & an image guide for Drive Image

both are easy to use; both are priceless when Mr. Murphy comes to visit ya!

Lellis2k · 04-18-2007, 09:04 AM

Thanks guys, I think i'll go with 2 sata's and xxclone every so often, especially seeing as how mr. murphy's been buggin me a lot lately.

Leigh

Tumbleweed36 · 04-18-2007, 11:22 AM

Good choice IMHO

04-17-2007, 02:36 PM	#1 (permalink)
Lellis2k Registered User Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 99 OS: xp + vista	[RESOLVED] Best Hard Drive setup? Hi Guys, Just after a bit of advise really, I'm dual booting at the moment but im confident enough to fully swap over to vista now. I was thinking about getting 2x 500gb sata's (i dont have any sata stuff in my pc but iv seen cards for £10 and power adapters for £1) wasn't going to raid them, instead do incremental backups from one to another so i have a weeks worth of lost/deleted data just in case. However now im not so sure... 1. Is sata the best way to go for speed? 2. If I do decide to raid do you think its best to go for mirror/saftey or speed? 3. How liable to corruption and drives breaking is raid? 4. Should I install vista on my 80gb IDE and keep my data on the 500s or keep it all together? 5. Which drive should I keep my paging file on and how big (I have 2gb ram) Any help would be awesome, thanks guys! Leigh

04-17-2007, 06:57 PM	#2 (permalink)
Tumbleweed36 Asst Manager Hardware Join Date: May 2005 Location: USA Posts: 19,658 OS: XP Professional	Re: Best Hard Drive setup? Well, this is a question that you will never get agreement on, because everybody does what they feel is best for them. Personally, I run a Sata drive with everything on a single partition, and then I have an additional matching Sata drive that I use simplly to clone the first drive to with regular cloning from one drive to the other with XXClone. Fail safe that way. For those things that are not important, but I want to keep, have two IDE drives on the computer that I use from time to time, but rarely. That is what I do, but you will have to do what is best for you. __________________ ---------- I don't receive email notifications of replies to subscribed threads. (Internet provider policy) Therefore, if I don't respond to your post within 24 hours, please send me a reminder PM and include the link to your thread.

04-17-2007, 07:11 PM	#3 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,437 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	Re: Best Hard Drive setup? to give a little splash of input I would say given the ease of hard drive cloning and disk imaging I dont really see mirrored drives (raid) as a big benefit to you. A mirrored array is more suited to business environments IMHO atleast the benefits of redundancy are not as valuable for the everyday desktop user. As for the array that combines two drives to act the part of ONE drive, this is an worthy way to improve system speed, although I dont see the real life improvement near as impressive as the bench mark numbers show. However, given the todays hard drive reliability issues, you need to be very back-up consencious if you adapt this configuration, if one drive dies from mechanical failure (which is very high numbers these days compared with yesteryear) then all data is gone. The single sata drive speaks for itself, easy way to fly please have a look at the guides in my singnature links about back-up your hard drive. there is a guide for xxclone & an image guide for Drive Image both are easy to use; both are priceless when Mr. Murphy comes to visit ya! __________________ I still know nothing and I respect that fact, striving to improve and, along the way, help anyone that comes from the place that I used to be! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial

04-18-2007, 09:04 AM	#4 (permalink)
Lellis2k Registered User Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 99 OS: xp + vista	Re: Best Hard Drive setup? Thanks guys, I think i'll go with 2 sata's and xxclone every so often, especially seeing as how mr. murphy's been buggin me a lot lately. Leigh

04-18-2007, 11:22 AM	#5 (permalink)
Tumbleweed36 Asst Manager Hardware Join Date: May 2005 Location: USA Posts: 19,658 OS: XP Professional	Re: Best Hard Drive setup? Good choice IMHO __________________ ---------- I don't receive email notifications of replies to subscribed threads. (Internet provider policy) Therefore, if I don't respond to your post within 24 hours, please send me a reminder PM and include the link to your thread.