Re: RAID, SCHMAID.......

On Wed, 01 Mar 2006 03:53:23 GMT, sublimeone
<davidpatrickwelch--@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

No. That's not a very compelling argument for raid.

i've learned that it's not so i'll work with two separate drives. Should i
partition the c: drive into c: and d: (c for apps/games d: for the os) and
then a separate e: for media?

Almost always yes. Some tips:

Don't make C: too big. But you do want to allow for growth and always
be running with more than 20% free space in any volume. Be as
disciplined as possible about putting user data of every kind
elsewhere.

When it is a manually configured PC I like to have C: imaged or cloned
so if there is a problem you can be back up in minutes. I also like
to keep logs of what was installed or updated and keep them with & in
the system images so I know exactly what's where & done when. It
helps in troubleshooting, & routine as well as non-routine restores.
Furthermore you need to back up these images elsewhere. Just having a
system image somewhere is not a backup - it's a point-in-time snapshot
which can go poof like anything else.

C: & the C: image set is always being altered as needs change or
updates come out, and its purpose is solely to save the time to
reinstall & reconfigure. IMHO it doesn't make sense to try to
coordinate that with your personal data (a different animal entirely).
For one thing system restores via images are destructive. So D: and
above are user data which are backed up through a different, more
traditional file type backup approach with some retention. Really I'm
suggesting you give thought from the beginning about using partitions
as well as folders to help organize how you generate, backup & restore
all your data. This sounds obvious, but so many ppl make a mess of
things esp with today's big drives.

It's at this point some ppl start asking about a NAS or have a file
sever online. The idea is consolidation, organization, and online
duplicates of important files. It's typically unnecessary for a
single user but can often be of value for even small home networks.
Stay where you are now, though. Sort out your needs on a single
machine first. I'm just planting a seed that may never need to take.

I like to reserve E: as the first optical drive, but that's just an
old habbit/personal preference. As I do that, take advantage of
labeling & drive letters to make things easy to remember & navigate.
Sounds obvious but little things help.

Give some thought to having temp files & folders or the files you
"chew on" on the second disk (or projects divided among the disks) for
performance considerations. Through planning you can reduce being
bogged down by Disk IO with certain kinds of multitasking, etc. This
is where you can get some extra peppiness outside of or in addition to
what raid or 10K+ drives or other new drives bring to the table.

There was prior reference in this thread to using the second drive for
backups. Having just a second copy on a second media is insufficient.
Furthermore any online media is subject to a host of potential data
jeopardizing problems. So maybe instead of a second drive you want 2
second drives in drive trays or enclosures. Maybe you want more than
that kind of minimal protection, i.e. Grandfather-Father-Son, etc.

IMHO these types of considerations, plans, & work habits are far more
important and contribute far more to productivity (& your sanity) than
ATA Raid 0 or SATA II 3gbs. They are also technology agnostic. These
decisions you make can be applied to any workstation storage type.
They hopefully will stay with you as core computing practices & will
evolve over time.

So much for your "is raid0 worth it" type question.

Good luck.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: RAID, SCHMAID.......
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