RAID or not

[Osprey]

I have a HDD failure ... and DELL are supplying free replacement HDD.

Looks like I am going to have to do a clean install of OS (a pain) .. Dell advise no other way around this.

 

Currently the config is 2 x 250GB in a RAID 0 (striping) config.

PC came this way.

 

 

Should I keep at RAID 0 ... or should I consider configuring as 2 separate drives.

 

I do not do any gaming ... do video capture & editing, general office applications .... and a reasonable amount of picture editing with Photoshop.

 

 

M/C is a Dimension 9200 2.4GHz 4 GB RAM

NVIDIA Geoforce 7900 GS

[Dalo Harkin]

RAID is more used in servers TBH and high performance machines.

 

RAID 0 is the fastest (but as you have found out if something goes wrong with one drive then you lose all the data anyway)

 

I would use one HDD for the OS and programs and then use the other HDD for storage.

If your DATA is extremely valuable to you then you could always configure RAID in mirrored mode (1) which stores any data you put on the drive to both drives at the same time (if one breaks then you have not lost anything) and when you get a replacement drive you plug it in and then hit a few buttons and it transfers the data back over to the new drive leaving you again with the data on both drives

[Tootech]

I agree - RAID is an elegant solution for some problems, but for day to day computer it isn't really required.

 

Way I do it is to use a single drive for the OS, but I also store important data there too. The second drive I use as a backup drive, and have all my data copied there. It gets updated every month or so.

 

That way if either drive fails, most of the data is still safe on the working drive. May be a bit excessive, but it makes me happy;)

[Match]

That way if either drive fails, most of the data is still safe on the working drive. May be a bit excessive, but it makes me happy

 

me too ;)http://extremetechsupport.com/forum/../images/smilies/wink.gif

[Osprey]

me too ;)http://extremetechsupport.com/forum/../images/smilies/wink.gif

 

 

 

OK ... done the deed .... 2 x new HDD installed, as individual disks.

 

OS on disk 0

Paging file on disk 1

 

Currently 'my documents' are all restored onto Disk 0 .....

I would like to move them all to Disk 1 (thereby keeping Disk 0 for programs & OS)

 

Is there a neat/simple/correct way to do this, and have VISTA aware of it ?

 

For example if I double-click on , my computer on the left hand side are icons for Documents, Music, Pictures etc.

 

I would like them to still work, so is there a tool or process I have to follow if I wan to put them on a different disk to the OS.