What to do for storage?

[Sprocket7]

It takes 5 'painful' minutes for XP Pro to boot (I make coffee!) and almost as long to switch off. I got an assortment of HDD's and a 500GB ext. HDD to back up the data. But the drives are giving me gip now so they need replacing a.s.a.p. But what to do?

I thought I got it sussed - 2 WD Black 640's and a RAID of sorts. Then 'Rustic' pm'd me about velociraptors to hold Windows and apps. WOW! Sounded great. But would a Raid set up suffer because of the different HDD sizes? And which Raid? I'd like to speed up Windows and Adobe apps. inparticular but I would also like some data security if possible (in addition to the normal backup).

Fritzman's walk-through post with pictures was clear as could be - but for Intel Matrix - shame.

I need your help guys before my drives give up. Budget is around £250 for 3 drives. Suggestions please.

[neonblingbling]

First off, sorry because I do not know much about UK (?) vendors nor how much parts cost there... Here is a list of prices I'm looking at:

WD Velociraptor 150GB - $180
WD Velociraptor 150GB - $230
WD Black 1TB - $100
WD Green 1TB - $90

£250 is about $400.

I am not quite sure how much storage space you need for 'current' work, and how much you need for 'long term' storage. Theoretically, I would use the Velociraptor to hold OS, Apps, and maybe current files. Then, you could put your data on the other, larger storage drives. Black are more 'performance' orientated, while 'green' are supposed to be more tree-huggery. I'd say go with blacks to store your data just so things are a tad bit faster. I would get two drives of the same size, and do nightly backup.

Also, I would personally say no to RAID for you. Here is a run down of RAIDs you may consider:
RAID 0 - 2 or more drives that 'split up' data. Since each drive just has to write/read its fraction of data, the process goes faster. However, if one drive dies, all data is lost.
RAID 1 - One drive is an exact duplicate of another. There are minimal speed differences, but you have complete redundancy. I would rather do nightly backups so I could 'undo' changes from the current day.
There are other forms of RAID, but I think they will not be available in your price range.

[Surfrider77]

I am assuming a 5 minute boot is exaggerated, but most on the forum would agree windows "rots" over time. If you wanted to save cash, I would just back up all of your important data onto your 500G external and then do a format and reinstall of your system drive. It usually speeds things up considerably if you havent done so in a few years. Worth a try before dumping the cash.

[Sprocket7]

:beer: Guys. A 150GB Velicraptor is £130 after tax on this side of the BIG POND, while the 640 Black's are each around £65 incl tax, so within budget. On this basis I'm looking to begin building a new PC on a priority needs basis while simultaneously spreading the ultimate cost and enjoying the benefits along the way. A larger screen, Antec case and psu are also on the cards this week. Then a new mobo, cpu, graphics and memory for phase two in the autumn - least that's the general idea.....

Current work could just fill one Black drive and I could put 74.5GB of Windows and apps right now on to the 'Vr'.

The important data is already backed up on the external drive. This was originally purchased a year back as a bargain with a view to it eventually becoming a backup device.

Neonblingbling
RAID 1 sounds the better of those RAIDS mentioned for me but are you saying it's not required with regular backups despite so many posts espousing RAID's virtues on the forum? And if RAID 1 is the way to go, how to go about it? There seem to be several methods. Can I follow Fritzman's excellent picture guide on the mobile even though I do not have Intel Matrix?

P.S. As for the '5 minute boot' :eek: - I can boil a litre of water, make tea and visit the bathroom and be sitting in front of the monitor before it finishes loading - so reckon it's very close!!! No joke.

[fritzman]

Hi bud. I'm unsure of what sort of raid offerings are available with your board, but I would possibly consider setting things up on a Dell Perc 5i card. Though designed for SAS drives primarily, they are cheap as chips on ebay with the 1>4 cables for SATA drives and a battery backup unit, and you could then set up real hardware raid0/raid5.

One of those combined with 4 x 640 Blacks would be smokin!

[ou_phidelt]

:beer:
Neonblingbling
RAID 1 sounds the better of those RAIDS mentioned for me but are you saying it's not required with regular backups despite so many posts espousing RAID's virtues on the forum?
I would hope not. RAID 1 is for redundancy and does not replace proper back-up procedures.
P.S. As for the '5 minute boot' :eek: - I can boil a litre of water, make tea and visit the bathroom and be sitting in front of the monitor before it finishes loading - so reckon it's very close!!! No joke.

Personally I would get a 150GB VR for OS/APPS and a second drive for data, whatever size you need.

[cyberfish]

RAID 1 - One drive is an exact duplicate of another. There are minimal speed differences

Read speed should be close to double. Data can be read from both drives concurrently.

Write would be slightly slower than single drive (needs to be written to both drives, which can happen at the same time, but there is RAID overhead).

[Neuromancer]

Is the "5 minute boot time" long before or after you get to windows login screen.

If before, you have hardware issues that need resolving. If after you have too many startup applications.

Try removing some stuff from starting up with windows.

LAstly, more RAM helps windows load faster.

[Sprocket7]

5 mins begins when I push the case button ad ends when the HDD light quits. This is with 2gb of 800Hz ram but since posting I intend to use 4GB 1066Hz RAM with CAS5 latency which should make a difference. Sorry for not replying sooner -weather too good to stay in!