Buying a new PC, single hard drive or multiple hard drives in raid 0 configuration?

[zepherman]

Hi everyone,

My trusty (but very old) Sony Vaio desktop is finally going out (one of the 2 raid 0 drives is failing), so I'm now in need of a brand new desktop PC. I have decided to wait a few weeks until PC's pre-installed with Windows 7 start becoming available.

But I need to know what would be the best choice for the hard drive? Should I get the largest capacity (1TB/2TB) single hard drive, or should I get one that uses 2 hard drives in a raid 0 configuration?

Any input would be much appreciated.:)


Seth

[Sylvander]

1. What makes you think you need a new PC?
Just how old is this "very old" PC?

2. I've seen people explain on the Puppy Linux forums that they deliberately and routinely in the long term run a [blisteringly FAST] Puppy on a PC with no internal HDD.

3. It's quite normal to boot a Puppy "live" optical disk to load the operating system.
You can have a choice of multiple [FREE] Puppies on a DVD-RW disk.

4. A pupsave file can be used to hold changes to the Puppy, and this can be held on ANY [suitable] connected storage device.
e.g. A partition on an internal HDD, or external USB HDD, or a Flash Drive.

5. If you prefer to use a conventional install [of this or that Windows or Linux OS] to a partition on an internal HDD....
(a) The HDD holding the OS doesn't need to be big.
In fact it's better if it's FAST and smallish.

6. The data files are best kept off the OS partition or physical drive.
(a) That might be internal, but doesn't need to be; could be on an external storage device [USB HDD?]
(b) Think of the advantages of being able to take your data files with you to some other PC.
(c) Or indeed take [multiple versions of] your [FREE Puppy] operating system with you to this PC or that.

[zepherman]

I originally thought about just replacing the bad hard drive (250GB) with a new one. But even by doing that, it's still an old PC (6 years) with a dated graphics card, processor, memory, etc. I do a lot of multi-tasking, so I decided instead to just go with an all new PC with all the newest goodies.

I'm definitely getting a new PC, and I just need to know if I should get a single large hard drive or go with a dual hard drive that's a raid 0?


Seth

[jlreich]

Personally I wouldn't run a system entirely on Raid 0. As you may already know if one drive goes down you lose your data with no way to really recover it. If you have other means of backing up important data and recovering your operating system then Raid 0 is fine if that is what you want.

There are so many ways of going about hard drives and partitioning, but for most people I recommend no Raid and one to two hard drives.

More information on what you use your system for would be helpful to advise on your particular setup. Also what kind of backup routine, if any, do you have?

[zepherman]

Personally I wouldn't run a system entirely on Raid 0. As you may already know if one drive goes down you lose your data with no way to really recover it. If you have other means of backing up important data and recovering your operating system then Raid 0 is fine if that is what you want.

There are so many ways of going about hard drives and partitioning, but for most people I recommend no Raid and one to two hard drives.

More information on what you use your system for would be helpful to advise on your particular setup. Also what kind of backup routine, if any, do you have?

I do a lot of photo editing, video editing, graphic art design, video gaming, mega music storage (WAV format). So I need something that will handle everything.

I do have an external back up (500GB Seagate) which is connected via USB. I have all of my important stuff on it, and it automatically backs up twice a week.

[jlreich]

If you feel comfortable with your backup system and are OK with the possibility of the system being down then Raid 0 is OK. Though if you have the budget I would advise getting a 10,000 RPM drive as a primary for OS and games that can benefit from a faster drive, and another 1TB or larger drive for storing pics and music and other files that don't require a fast drive. And still keep your backup drive external.

[zepherman]

If you feel comfortable with your backup system and are OK with the possibility of the system being down then Raid 0 is OK. Though if you have the budget I would advise getting a 10,000 RPM drive as a primary for OS and games that can benefit from a faster drive, and another 1TB or larger drive for storing pics and music and other files that don't require a fast drive. And still keep your backup drive external.

Yes I feel very comfortable with my back up system. Being that a RAID 0 doesn't mirror the data on the other hard drive(s), and basically uses the extra disc for added storage, I wonder if a RAID 1 configuration would be best for my needs?

This way "if" one drive does fail, I can still continue working normally using one of the other drives.

What are your thoughts on this?

[jlreich]

Raid 1 is good for uptime. If one drive fails the other takes over. Do keep in mind there are some instances that can cause both drives to fail, but it is fairly rare. Also keep in mind it is not really meant for backup, but rather for uptime in the case of drive failure. So keep your current backup routine.

If one drive fails you want to replace it and rebuild the array ASAP to keep redundancy and uptime going.

Like I said before there are so many ways to go about this it isn't funny. Everyone here will have a different way to partition hard drive/s and make backups. But you are doing the right thing and thinking about it before you get a new system.

As you can see in my signature I have four internal hard drives each with at least three partitions. I also have three OS's installed. To make backups I keep my windows OS partitions on the small side and make images of that partition. I also install all my "core" applications like AV, office etc on the OS partitions so they get imaged as well. Doing this I can restore an image in as little as ten minutes and have all my critical apps ready to go. For data I have several large partitions spread out over all the drives. I have some that is for data only, others I install large programs like games on.

I do not make image backups of those data partitions because they are not critical and I can reinstall in case of drive failure. I do however use on online backup service (Carbonite- $55 year -unlimited space and remote access) and set it to backup certain game saves and photos and such, including the occasional image set of my OS partitions. I also share a file that other computers in my house can copy data to and it will get backed up online automatically. I save the images to a different hard drive than the OS is on and occasionally burn the images to DVD/s and purge old ones from the drive to free up space. I also have a 250GB external USB drive but it rarely gets used since I started using the online backup service. I use that more these days for when I need to make data backups of customers systems.

So that's one way to do it. One way out of about five hundred trillion +. :p

For most people the simpler the better. Or something that runs automatically. After all a backup system is useless unless it is implemented and tested so you know it works. ;)

[zepherman]

Yes I'm finding out that there are so many options it's dizzying. And I was really leaning toward a RAID 1, but now after much thought I may just go with two 1TB drives. And I can always manually mirror the second drive if so desired.

So with that said, I think I've found a PC with the hardware that should keep me happy for many years to come. This is what I'm getting:

Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
Processor: Intel Core i7-950 processor [3.00GHz, 1MB L2 + 8MB shared L3 cache]
Memory:12GB DDR3-1066MHz SDRAM [6 DIMMs]
Hard Drive: 2TB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s - two 1TB hard drives
Graphics Card: 1.8GB NVIDIA Geforce GTX 260 [2 DVI, HDMI and VGA adapters]
Optical Drive: Blu-ray writer & Lightscribe SuperMulti DVD burner

Does this look like a good choice?

And I want to say thank you VERY much for your most helpful input.:)


Seth

[jlreich]

Looks good to me. That system should hold you for quite some time. :cool:

And I want to say thank you VERY much for your most helpful input.
You are welcome.

Enjoy. :)

[cmeyvin]

zepherman how much did the PC cost by the way?

[zepherman]

With all the options, which includes a 25 inch widescreen monitor, it comes out to $2,334.

[cmeyvin]

Nice your system should keep u happy for years to come