RAID 1 setup questions

edbert

Alright, so my mom bought a computer a year ago (Dell Studio Desktop 540). It has two 640Gb hard drives and she was told that one would back up the other. The system Dell has in place currently is horrible and when she asked if it could be setup a different way she was told no. Right now it basically copies what is on one hard drive to the other without overwriting the old information, so in no time the 2nd hard drive is full. She has to go in and manually delete the old backups so that it will continue to backup the system. She may be able to change it in settings, but Dell has been less than helpful on that front.

Here is my question, if the BIOS allows it, can I setup the two drives in a RAID 1 so that it is constantly backing up anytime changes are made? Along those same lines, is there any way to preserve the data on the main hard drive and just setup the second hard drive in RAID 1 and continue from there or will I basically have to start from scratch with the hard drives? We have an external hard drive that we can create a copy of her current hard drive(suggestions on software to create an exact copy so everything is just as she left it would be great). This is an unexplored area of computer building for me, so I will take all the education I can get.

I have googled answers and even checked Dell's website for it but I keep getting conflicting answers, so I thought I would try the Polk think tank.

Thanks!

ryanjoachim

If you change the raid configuration, i'm 90% sure that you'll have to reformat at least the 2nd drive.

I'm too tired to comprehend the rest of your post, but after I get some caffeine in me i'll take another look.

nadams

RAID should not be used as a "backup!"

I highly doubt your consumer Dell system will support RAID anyway. Windows backup is actually fairly good, and you can have it delete old backups once the storage is full. I'd look into that.

petrym

RAID 1 is a mirror, not a backup. You didn't mention an Operating System so that's a whole other aspect to address. (Win XP can't do it) You may have to get a hardware card if you want a mirror.

I use Hiren's Boot CD and use the Acronis backup utility to make backups
http://www.hiren.info/ main page
http://www.hirensbootcd.net/ I download from here 'cause I can't find a link an the main page

I personally run Win 7: two 500 GB drives mirrored at the hardware level on a Intel DP55WG Board. C: drive is 100 GB, System Space 100 GB, the rest is a Data drive. Data backed up daily on my server.

edbert

nadams wrote: »

RAID should not be used as a "backup!"

I highly doubt your consumer Dell system will support RAID anyway. Windows backup is actually fairly good, and you can have it delete old backups once the storage is full. I'd look into that.

Sorry, I probably butchered a few terms when it comes to RAID and I was more just typing fast than thinking.

I am definitely going to check out the current setup to see if there is anything that can be adjusted so that it will work more effectively and automatically instead of the manual process that it is now.

I did forget to mention that the computer is running some version of Vista.

Sounds like I need to educate myself on RAID a little better to fully understand it. I appreciate the info and after I get a look at the computer tonight I will post an update on if I can make appropriate changes with the current setup. If not, I would love some ideas on how to fulfill the requests that she has for computer backup.

Thanks again!

bdaley6509

Get yourself a Windows Home Server box (acer makes a good cheap one). Among other things, it will backup all your computers automatically, and you can restore them at anytime with a boot cd. It's really a cool product.
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-AH340-UA230N-Home-Server/dp/B001WGX15W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1259165246&sr=8-1

unc2701

I just saw a HP home server for $199, I think... lemme look for that.

Anyhow, as others have said: raid is not backup. It's better than nothing, but only one kind of failure (single drive failure) is covered.

With her existing hardware, you could dump the Dell backup and use Crashplan. This is a differential backup, so it only updates the things that change with each backup, so it takes longer to fill up the backup drive.

http://www3.crashplan.com/consumer/index.html

unc2701

Doh, sold out:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16859105503

edbert

unc2701 wrote: »

I just saw a HP home server for $199, I think... lemme look for that.

Anyhow, as others have said: raid is not backup. It's better than nothing, but only one kind of failure (single drive failure) is covered.

With her existing hardware, you could dump the Dell backup and use Crashplan. This is a differential backup, so it only updates the things that change with each backup, so it takes longer to fill up the backup drive.

http://www3.crashplan.com/consumer/index.html

I will have to check this out later. I am really hoping that it is just an easy fix and I don't have to make any major changes. I just want her to be able to turn it on and work and do everything she asks of it. Adding a home server for her isn't really feasible, but I like the idea of it for myself. I will check into Crashplan if the Dell backup stuff doesn't seem to work like I think it should.

Thanks!