privately upgrading from single drive to dual drive in RAID?

I'm doing a bit of research - I'm getting an M1730 as a replacement for a dead M1710 ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=340357) .. so I can't really change the spec of the machine until I get it. That said, since I am getting the machine for nothing, I am considering booting, running it for a week or so to make sure everything is good, and beeded in, and then taking the single 160 GB 7200rpm drive out, and keeping it somehwere safe, and then buying 2 x 320 GB 7200rpm drives, putting them in, and setting up the RAID.

I have looked at the 320GB drive prices... and it is something I could afford

I could get 2 of these:
Western Digital Scorpio Black 320GB 7200RPM SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD3200BEKT)
priced at: £58.99 with VAT (£67.84)
So 2 of them for £135.

my questions are:
a> are there any guides out there of how to configure RAID, from scratch, or an M1730?
b> given that I back up sensitive/important data to my NAS, I am thinking RAID 0 for performance on my laptop - is that what experienced people would do? My NAS was my first RAID device, and I went with RAID 1 for safety (as I understand it).
c> Is there any point on partitioning after I set up RAID (C:\, d:\, etc.) or just leave it as 320GB C:\ ? (ok, actually +-297 GB given the discrepancy between marketing GB and HDD GB measures).

TIA

 

a) just google how to set up RAID m1730, there should be text and video guides. It should be fairly easy.

b) yeah as long as your important data is backed up in your NAS. If one disk fails on a RAID0 setup then you risk data loss.

c) depends.. if your gonna dual boot or like your OS and Personal files on different partitions. Its not gonna make a difference in speed.

 

You will also need to purchase the hard drive caddy for the second hard drive from dell. It is the frame that you mount the hard drive into to. (i think its not included)

 

thanks for the tip. I had already done that, because I needed it to backup some of the data, like favourites etc., from the old dead M1710.

 

Thanks for the advice. I was wondering if there was a sticky here re: the RAID setup. Will google once I have the machine.

After the death of my last machine, I am planning on configuring an automated file-system backup of folders to the NAS.

I think I may just leave it all as a single partition - simpler to set up, and I *think* the partitioning gives no real value.

 

Get a program like Veritas backup exec or Acronis TI and run Daily/weekly incremental backups

 

Thanks - automated backups will defintely be my friend

 

mine came with space in the hd caddy for 2 (but i only ordered one drive), i think that is standard

 

There are some great partitioning guides out there, and until you read them, I don't think your statement holds water. The most BASIC partitioning calls for a bare minimum of two: the smallest amount required for OS/patches/drivers (4GB-15GB) and then the rest for games/music/pictures. This way, if a virus/corruption is downloaded to the frequently used files, the partition can be formatted without having to reinstall the OS - the OS remains safe or 'quarantined' from the rest of the system. This is especially useful for people like me who frequent multimedia sites that are rampant with trojans/malware, and if I infect my system, I don't feel like formatting my whole drive every two weeks.

*Note: I know NOTHING about partitioning on a RAID-0 array, however. I didn't even know that was possible.

 

Fair enough, although I would lean to 15GB+ rather than 4GB, since I have seen the size that the XP "patches" and "uninstall" directories can get to, and would not want to run out of space.

What I am really after, I guess, is a guide to the RAID side of things. I guess, after that, I can play around with partitioning side of things.
Maybe c:\ 20GB OS, D:\ 50GB app's, E:\ 100 GB personal data, F:\ 50 GB sql logs, G:\ 100GB sql data.

then I can simulate my development environments, have a specific drive where I keep and from which I backup my private data, and, as you pinted out, a single drive for OS.

 

There's a guide on this forum [by the way] for reducing XP installation to 3 GB. 15 + GB is overkill. If you're going to run a RAID-0 array, might as well scoot the OS installation to as small a partition as possible so that the games/videos/data you want the RAID to speed up is as close to the rim of the platter as possible for fastest read times.

I say this because I plan on doing what you're doing - I have a 120 GB Seagate, and a 320 GB Scorpio lying around. When I sell my seagate, I'm getting a second scorpio for a RAID-0.

 

Nice thinking re: the physical disk location. However, I am running Vista 32 Bit... and will be running Vista Ultimate 64 Bit when I go to the RAID setup.

fropm this article: ( http://www.rustylime.com/show_article.php?id=346)

Here, the chap recommends even more: ( http://devguy.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=3678)

 

Didn't know you were using Vista - my apologies! That changes everything.

 

No apologies necessary - your comments made me think throughh what I am doing, which is good. Thanks!