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hard drives? Do I really need 2??

N

Noobtastic

Banned
Im used to having 2 hard drives, one for games and one for everything else. 🙂

However, do I really need this?

Is it bad to bad to have 2 of the same harddrive.

I like 150 gig hd's. I dont need alot of space, but 2 150 or 2 120 gigs are nice.

Is that bad?

This will be my first time building....and im attempting to make eveything as perfect as possible.

Also, if you could list a good hard drive set up tha would be awesome.

 
If you don't think you need it, then just grab a 250 and partition it. And nothing is bad, and there is no such thing as excessive. ;-)
Tas.
 
More hard drives give you RAID options (RAID 5 gogo 🙂), and in case 1 drive fails, you'll still have the other drive. However, more drives means more power consumption, more cables to manage (and that might block airflow), and less upgradeability.
 
Originally posted by: t3h l337 n3wb
More hard drives give you RAID options (RAID 5 gogo 🙂), and in case 1 drive fails, you'll still have the other drive. However, more drives means more power consumption, more cables to manage (and that might block airflow), and less upgradeability.
Click to expand...

Yep. I just had a two month old Hitachi die on me, but everything is still up and running. Yeah RAID 5.
Tas.
 
well... raid array does have some advantages, though raid 5 is a brutal overkill for 98% of the people on these forums.
I'd suggest, either one big drive or two smaller one 2x120gb and run them raid 0, unless you really need some fault-tolerance then run raid 1.
 
Coming from someone who regularly assists people with data recovery when their hard drives fail, please do not use Raid 0 unless you implement a very solid backup plan. All data is lost if one drive fails in a Raid 0 array.

Raid Tutorial
Raid 0 disadvantages
1) Not a "True" RAID because it is NOT fault-tolerant
2) The failure of just one drive will result in all data in an array being lost
3) Should never be used in mission critical environments
 
im scared of RAID

i just have a simple two drive set up

one with OS and programs the other with media and games n stuff

if it dies it dies. cant afford RAID anyway i dont think😱

if i wanna re-install xp, can i just move all i wanna keep to the drive i keep media and games on

and then jus reinstall, move it all back and it'll work? (of course i ll have to re-install the games, but ill save the save game file)
 
RAID 0 made HUGE improvements on my loading times and Windows startups. 2 simple WD Cavier SE SATA drives, Windows took only an extra minute or work to get them to work right, no problems since. I could've just bought one 10K 36gb drive for 180, but for the same price I got 160gb and just as much if not better speed. Definitly worth it IMO.
 
if you ask me it's best to either have a partition or a hard drive for OS, then a second hard drive, partition, or RAID array to have everything else on. With the frequency that Windows dies, it's best to have some way to quickly reinstall.

Norm
 
Originally posted by: cevilgenius
if you ask me it's best to either have a partition or a hard drive for OS, then a second hard drive, partition, or RAID array to have everything else on. With the frequency that Windows dies, it's best to have some way to quickly reinstall.

Norm
Click to expand...

Well, im not familar with raid....or anything you said.

You see, its my first time building so its all new to me.

I have spent 3 months searching for parts but everytime im ready to build something cheaper and better comes out.

ITS SO OVERWHELMING!
 
Originally posted by: Noobtastic
Originally posted by: cevilgenius
if you ask me it's best to either have a partition or a hard drive for OS, then a second hard drive, partition, or RAID array to have everything else on. With the frequency that Windows dies, it's best to have some way to quickly reinstall.

Norm
Click to expand...

Well, im not familar with raid....or anything you said.

You see, its my first time building so its all new to me.

I have spent 3 months searching for parts but everytime im ready to build something cheaper and better comes out.

ITS SO OVERWHELMING!
Click to expand...

In which you get what you need or can afford. And should your needs change, or you come into more cash, then you upgrade. That's the beauty of it. And everyone is going to have their preference of doing things as well.

If you want something just to start out, grab a 160, and throw everything on there, or just partition it if you feel like tweaking some and messing around with it. If you need help with any of that, we can walk you through it. Just let us know what you need help with, or any questions you have.
Tas.

 
One drive is enough for most people. Partitioning helps a little bit in case one partition gets damaged, but the only reliable way from losing valuable data is to back it up periodically onto cd-r/dvd-r/etc.

I'd never keep anything valuable on a hard drive for an extended period of time - they're not made to last forever 🙂

I typically choose one hard drive in my systems because one drive uses less power and creates less heat than two.

Also, ignore RAID 0 all together if this is your first computer build.
 
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