yet another storage suggestion thread

[KevinG]

I just ordered a new system, with details here:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1272877

I'm now thinking about the disks I need for this system. My current system consists of the following:

Twin 300Gig drives in Raid 1 (redundant):
C: 30 gigs (Windows XP)
D: 50 gigs (Programs, anything that wants to go do C:/program files gets redirected to D:/program files)
E: 176 gigs (Data)
F: 24 gigs (Media)

Another 200 gig drive (Backups)
Another 300 gig drive (Backups2)

On the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of each month, at around 3 in the morning, acronis drive image wakes up my computer from standby and does an incremental backup of C:, E:, and F: to the 200 gig drive. Every 6 months I move those backups to an external USB drive which I then take off-site (to my office).

I don't back up the D: drive since just above everything there should be easy to re-install.

The other 300 gig drive (backups2) is really just backups of things that I can't find another place for...and I want it faster than the external USB drives. It also has my WUBI installation of Ubuntu.

Anyway, onto the question. I'd like to go XP, Vista64, Ubuntu for the new machine. My current partitioning scheme has worked well. In retrospect, I need a little less "Data" and more "Media".

I'm thinking of going with two 320 gig drives in a Raid 0 with the following partitions:
50 gig (XP)
50 gig (Vista)
100 gig (Programs for XP)
100 gig (Programs for Vista)
200 gig (Data)
And a Raid 1 partition
70 gig (Media)

And another 500 gig seperate harddrive with
30 gig (Ubuntu)
the rest for Acronis backups of the 320 gig drives.

Thoughts? Should I skip the Raid 0 completely and stick with Raid 1 (and use 500 gig drives?)

Also, this is going on a Gigabyte-p35-Ds4. Should the raid go on the giga-raid, or the intel chipset, or does it not matter?

Thanks.
-Kevin

 

[unhappy_mage]

What's the distinction between "Data" and "Media"? Why have two partitions for them?

I'd say go with whichever you're comfortable in terms of the disk setup - but don't forget the backups. You mention that incremental backups are taken on the first, second, and third of every month. Why those days? Why not, say, once a week?

I'd suggest buying larger drives than 320 GB. Looking at my crystal ball, I see that ZipZoomFly has 500GB drives (WD) for $100 shipped. That's a pretty good price per gigabyte. Play around with the widget if you feel like finding a bargain. It's kind of finicky, but a refresh or three usually fixes it.

 

[KevinG]

What's the distinction between "Data" and "Media"? Why have two partitions for them?

Media contains my photos (which are very important, and can't be replaced) as well as audio, and video, but it was mostly about the photos. I like the idea of keeping them separate since that allows me to back them up whenever I want. The Data drive is pretty much where all of my day to day tasks take place. And, certainly in my next build there is a real difference because I'd like to keep the "Media" on a redundant raid, and stripe everything else (or at least that's what I'm asking about in this thread).

I'd say go with whichever you're comfortable in terms of the disk setup - but don't forget the backups. You mention that incremental backups are taken on the first, second, and third of every month. Why those days? Why not, say, once a week?

Backups won't stop, that's for sure. The reason it was only done monthly is because that's what I was comfortable with. Remember that I'm backing up already redundant disks. If I move to RAID 0 I would re-assess my comfort level with monthly backups.

I'd suggest buying larger drives than 320 GB. Looking at my crystal ball, I see that ZipZoomFly has 500GB drives (WD) for $100 shipped. That's a pretty good price per gigabyte. Play around with the widget if you feel like finding a bargain. It's kind of finicky, but a refresh or three usually fixes it.

That is a nice price...Thanks for pointing that out!

I'm still hoping for some more replies with my thoughts on going raid 0 for the windows partitions. I guess my big concern is that if I lose one of the 2 disks, I won't be able to boot, nor have any easy way of restoring a backup so that I can boot...

Also, what about the giga-Raid versus intel raid question? Thoughts?

Thanks!
-Kevin

 

[KevinG]

Also, what about the giga-Raid versus intel raid question? Thoughts?

Answered my own question with a google search. Seems intel is the way to go.

 

[[LYL]Homer]

Why not this? Simplify?

150 gig (XP)
150 gig (Vista)
200 gig (Data)
And a Raid 1 partition
70 gig (Media)

 

[KevinG]

Why not this? Simplify?

150 gig (XP)
150 gig (Vista)
200 gig (Data)
And a Raid 1 partition
70 gig (Media)

Mostly because that means I'd be backing up all of my applications (that I already have backed up on the CD/DVD they came on). That's the same reason that my automated backup strategy doesn't bother backing up the current D: drive. Why bother? I suppose it would save the time to actually re-install everything.

I guess I'm asking what is typical? Is what you suggest here typical?

Thanks.

 

[[LYL]Homer]

But aren't you going to run into random issues because of registry entries (or lack thereof) if you had to reinstall Windows but not your apps?

To me OS/Apps go in one place and data in another. Just sayin'.

 

[KevinG]

No, this has never ever been a problem.

Worst case scenario (and this has happened) is that I install an app, need to revert back to a previous version of the OS (for an unrelated reason) and end up having to re-install that app (which would happen if that app was in the backup or not, since I reverted to a previous backup).

Since I have a backup on average 15 days old...this rarely is an issue, and in the meantime, I get a really nice separation between my OS and everything else (and don't clutter my backups with stuff that is already backed up, and doesn't change).

 

[KevinG]

Ordered 3 500 gig drives from zipzoomfly...thanks for the pointer! Still have to figure out the RAID configuration.

 

[KevinG]

I'm now considering the following two configurations:

Option 1:
Drive 1 and Drive 2 using Matrix raid as follows:
50 GB (Vista Raid 0)
100 GB (Vista Programs Raid 0)
50 GB (XP Raid 0)
100 GB (XP Programs Raid 0)
300 GB (Data Raid 0)
200 GB (Media Raid 1)

Drive 3
8 GB (Windows Swap [both vista and xp])
8 GB (Ubuntu swap)
30 GB (Ubuntu)
454 (Backups)

Option 2:
Drive 1, 2 and 3 in a RAID 5
50 GB (Vista)
100 GB (Vista Programs)
50 GB (XP)
100 GB (XP Programs)
350 GB (Data)
350 GB (Media)

Drive 4 (which I had earmarked for the Tivo) 500 GB
8 GB (Windows Swap [both vista and xp])
8 GB (Ubuntu swap)
30 GB (Ubuntu)
454 (Backups)


So, the real question comes down to this: Raid 0 and 1 and rely on the backups, or Raid 5 and put another disk in for backups?

Thoughts?

Thanks.
-Kevin

 

[KevinG]

So, I couldn't pass up the 500 gig HD for $75 bucks or so at Best Buy (from the HotDeals forum) So, I'm back to having an extra 500 gig drive (maybe for the Tivo?)

But, anyway, this makes me lean toward the RAID 5 solution. All parts should be here within 2 or 3 days. Please tell me if I'm about to do something stupid before then!

Thanks!
-Kevin