• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

Raid 1 Configuration Question

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.
R

rallyfan1986

Member
​
Joined
Aug 22, 2007
Hi, I'm fairly new to computers, so if my questions seems a bit stupid... thats why!

I'm looking to setup a raid 1 configuration in my computer, I currently have 1 hdd, with two partitions (C and D), I have the windows and program files on the C drive, and all my music and videos on the D drive.

My question is, with a raid 1 configuration, will it back up all the information on both partitions, effectively creating an exact copy of my current hard drive, or will it only back up one of the partitions.

thanks in advance
 
rallyfan1986 said:
Hi, I'm fairly new to computers, so if my questions seems a bit stupid... thats why!

I'm looking to setup a raid 1 configuration in my computer, I currently have 1 hdd, with two partitions (C and D), I have the windows and program files on the C drive, and all my music and videos on the D drive.

My question is, with a raid 1 configuration, will it back up all the information on both partitions, effectively creating an exact copy of my current hard drive, or will it only back up one of the partitions.

thanks in advance
Click to expand...
You can't RAID two partitions that are on the same HDD.

If you have two drives that are exactly the same in a RAID1, they are called "mirrored". What you write to one, writes to the other. This does not create a "backup" but rather saves you in case of a HDD physical failure (the drive dies).

:welcome: to the forums!! :D
 
Thanks for the quick reply,

What would you recommend I should do to keep a constant back up of all my data? As I have all my university work, and music on my computer, which I really don't want to loose!
 
rallyfan1986 said:
Thanks for the quick reply,

What would you recommend I should do to keep a constant back up of all my data? As I have all my university work, and music on my computer, which I really don't want to loose!
Click to expand...
I would highly recommend keeping a backup of either your "My documents" or entire computer in case of hardware/software failure.

You can purchase an external drive for next to nothing and would be a VERY wise investment. ;)
 
I was thinking about something like an external drive.

Is there any sort of software that makes a constant back up, for example if I save a document into my documents on my computers hdd, it will automatically copy it onto the removable drive.

Sorry about all the questions
 
As far as software, I do all my backups manually.

What I do for backups is the following, hardware wise:
-Important documents go on my RAID5 array.
-Once a week I'll burn new files to two sets of DVD's with the data on them. One is stored in my CD binder, the other is kept at a relatives house.
-Once every week I'll back up the data to an external drive, which I keep put in a fire and water proof safe elsewhere in the house. When I run out of storage on the external drive, I'll just buy another one and do the same thing with all the new data.

It's not the cheapest way to store your data, but it sure is safe ;)
 
wow, that seems a bit extreme for what I was wanting to do! but I guess you wont loose and data that way.

I really just wanted something that backs up all my stuff automatically, or making a copy of my D partition. You know what students are like, i would probably forget to back up my stuff manually, then I would have a hardware failure.

I might need to get on google and do a bit of searching around
 
rallyfan1986 said:
wow, that seems a bit extreme for what I was wanting to do! but I guess you wont loose and data that way.

I really just wanted something that backs up all my stuff automatically, or making a copy of my D partition. You know what students are like, i would probably forget to back up my stuff manually, then I would have a hardware failure.

I might need to get on google and do a bit of searching around
Click to expand...
Most external drives come with software that you can setup to automatically backup your entire computer or specified folder automatically. You can even setup daily backups with the windows built-in backup program ;)

I highly recommend the Mybook series by Western Digital.
 
Thanks very much for your replies, I'll start looking around now for an external hard drive :)
 
You can also use a regular drive (internal), and use a program like Ghost or Acronis that can copy the entire drive in dos. I use Ghost and copy all my partitions to one IDE drive. The drive only needs to be as big as all the physical data so I only have to use an 80 gig that copy's all five partitions. If anything happens I can actually boot this drive if necessary as it copy's the mbr as well. Just to be safe I disconnect the power molex between backups.
I have seen many externals that loose their data or just cannot be seen by windows after a while.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

BruceUSA
Storage Raid 1?
Replies
4
Views
343
BruceUSA
BruceUSA
Neuromancer
NVME 4x 4.0 suggestions
2
Replies
27
Views
506
Woomack
W
T
New config. advice
2
Replies
30
Views
701
shalena20
S
E
Fans and negative static pressure compensation
Replies
5
Views
413
Nebulous
Nebulous
F
Raid 1 - Need help rebuilding raid
Replies
3
Views
551
FishFloat
F
Back