Raid-1 Disk Mirroring options
 

I know several of you are also PC junkies so maybe you can give me some input. I am currently backing up my hard drive (160gig drive) to DVD disks. But I need to find something more efficient and always running. I would like to add another 160gig drive and implement raid-1 disk mirroring. I know his can be done with software or controllers, but not sure where to start. Cost IS a factor, cheaper is better, but it must be reliable. So those of you with experience in this area, give me some ideas. Thanks.

So you want a second harddrive and a second disk drive but for a DVD right

Um, no, if you re-read the message, I have a DVD burner, I want to create a raid array for data redundancy.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1051826249503

for your 160gb hard drive......



http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...869&CatId=1454

for your raid controller


complete solution for 80 bucks

You do not want to run software raid, it is slow and a pain in the *** when you have a disk failure.

If this is important data to you then don't go cheap (like the above recommendation). You can get a good qaulity Serial ATA Raid card from Adaptec for a reasonable price.
http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/products/raid/

If you do it right and don't be a Jew, you can save yourself a lot of grief and time down the road if/when you have the disk failure.

So tell me some more oh guru, with Serial ATA cards, with my exisiting hard drive work (EIDE), do I need to re-install my operating system, etc?

It is unlikely that your MOBO supports ide raid.
You will have to get an ide (not sata) controller raid card from somewhere online or local store. Bestbuy should have one. You want raid 0 or 1 capabilities minimum.
you should not need to reinstall your operating system. Here is a cheap one with good reveiws.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16816132004

Rosewill PCI IDE Silicon Image RAID Host Controller Model RC-200 - Retail $11.49

You could spend more but it is cheap.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ubCategory=410

I am no Guru. :lol:

I just assumed you had Serial ATA. There are EIDE raid adapters out there, I just don't see one from Adaptec (a very well known SCSI/HDD adapter company).

I just recommend buying a quality raid adapter for reliabilty and ease of use. Keep in mind that if you have a hardware raid card go bad, you will loose your raid configuration and render your disks unsuable until you rebuild the raid configuration on a new raid adapter (assuming you saved the configuration to a floppy).

Yes you will need to completely rebuild your partitions, then format, then reinstall the OS.

When ever you build a new raid array, you wipe out any existing partiions/data on the disks. SO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE COMPLETE BACKUP up your data.

Not nescessarily true. Raid card comes online before O.S. No reformatting nescessary. If raid card fails, install new raid card and rebuild mirror. If a drive fails, install new drive and rebuild mirror. All is done before O.S. boots in raid card config. utility. Badger is right on spending extra money for a card, you get what you pay for and Adatec is the best I.M.O.

Yes, the raid utility is started during the POST and before the O.S. boots. The RAID management software controlls the partitions on the drives attached to it, not Windows.

If a raid card fails where is the configuration held? On the raid controller or saved to another medium like floppy or CD. If you simply re-insert a new raid card in your system and attach the drives that were configured with the privious RAID card, how is the system going to boot off the new RAID controller if it does not have the configuration. If you build a new configuration the same way you did with the previous card you will loose your data.

In some cases maybe, especially with older systems, but if the card fails, simply attach the primary drive back to the board and run as standard setup, or install new card, and rebuild mirror with new raid card config. utility.

I recently built a comp. w/o raid. Later used raid config utility to create mirror, after 10 or 15 min. mirror was done. Booted computer, no reinstall.

Must use raid card utility, not mirror options in X.P

Only if mirrored not striped.

He said on the cheap, and that what I gave... A cheap HD for mirroring and a cheap raid card to do the work....You can pick and choose from there... but It'll get the job done.

I am pretty sure me and Badger were talking about whether there would be data loss, or reinstallation if the raid card failed, not the price. But if you like, the card I gave the link to was only 11 bucks, and had good reviews, although I try not to buy the absolute cheapest.

But it will work very easily and inexpensively. If it was SATA it would be even cheaper. (SATA drives are cheap)

Thanks guys this gives me enough to go on.