My HDD situation - what would be best - data and backup

[hondaf17]

I just installed W8 on an Intel 330 180 GB SSD.

I have 3 1TB HDDs.

1 HDD will be external for backup.

2 HDDs are then available for my PC. I do not need 2 TB of storage, so I thought I'd set these up to be exact clones of one another, so that if one dies I have a backup in the computer to go along with my external. Is this a good set up? How best would this be accomplished?

I've heard people suggest RAID but I've never done RAID, have no idea what it is, and have no idea how to set it up in my BIOS.

TYIA,

 

[tracerbullet]

New SSD = in the PC = Windows (or Linux, Mac, whatever) and programs, games, etc.
One 1TB = also in the PC, for file storage
Two 1TB = external for backups, find an NAS that lets you RAID 1 them for mirroring

That's my preference, I've got a similar setup, works great.

Something like this for NAS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822155019 There's probably better options, but something like that.

 

[whitequark]

RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) is a term used to describe a few different ways of keeping your data secure or splitting it up onto multiple disks, there are different RAID systems the most common being:

• RAID 0 [Striping - No Redundancy]
• RAID 1 [Mirroring]
• RAID 5 [Striping With Parity]
• RAID 10 (RAID 1 + RAID 0) [Mirroring Striped Arrays]

What you would be looking for is RAID 1, where by every time you write a block of data to disk1, the exact same block is written to disk 2.

Also, your motherboard might have on onboard RAID controller and if it does that is the best route to go, although it will require some setting up in the BIOS. If not, you can use Windows to do the Mirror for you, from the disk management console.

• Open Run Box
• Type diskmgmt.msc
• Hit Enter

 

[Amnesia1187]

I just installed W8 on an Intel 330 180 GB SSD.

I have 3 1TB HDDs.

1 HDD will be external for backup.

2 HDDs are then available for my PC. I do not need 2 TB of storage, so I thought I'd set these up to be exact clones of one another, so that if one dies I have a backup in the computer to go along with my external. Is this a good set up? How best would this be accomplished?

I've heard people suggest RAID but I've never done RAID, have no idea what it is, and have no idea how to set it up in my BIOS.

TYIA,

Rather than using RAID as others are suggesting, I think something like FlexRaid (http://www.flexraid.com/) or DrivePool (http://stablebit.com/) would work great for you.

RAID will definitely be faster, but I think either FlexRaid or DrivePool are more user friendly and there are less risks since it's done at a file level rather than a block level. It's all set up within windows rather than at the bios.

It largely depends on what your goal is though. If you are looking for improved performance, while still having onboard redundancy, RAID is better, if you just are worried about a backup, and want to do it as easily as possible, I think DriveSpace or FlexRaid would be more than adequate.