General Raid 1 and backing up questions..

[adcavalier20]

I know I just made a backing up data thread, but I originally PM'd these questions to Chaz, and he told me to post them so others who may have similar questions can also benefit from it.. I also appreciate the answers in the other thread, but Chaz I'd also lvoe your opinion

1. If I order the mobo you suggested in the thread that supports Raid 1, and just buy one HDD for the time being, there is no reason why I couldn't set up Raid 1 at a later date? What else would I need to buy aside from the second HDD.

2. Also, even though I want to do Raid 1, I read I should still back up data somehow. I was thinking an external HDD would be best. Have you ever used Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost? Would those be better?

I'm not entirely sure what they do, but I would love to be able to (after the install) make a complete copy of my system and save it somewhere so I could just use that to reinstall Vista if I ever needed to for whatever reason. Or even every once in a while clone my HDD on to something else so I wouldn't have to re-download my programs or anything. Does that even make sense? Lol.

How do you back up your data?

[Charles P. Jefferies]

Originally Posted by adcavalier20

1. If I order the mobo you suggested in the thread that supports Raid 1, and just buy one HDD for the time being, there is no reason why I couldn't set up Raid 1 at a later date? What else would I need to buy aside from the second HDD.

2. Also, even though I want to do Raid 1, I read I should still back up data somehow. I was thinking an external HDD would be best. Have you ever used Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost? Would those be better?

I'm not entirely sure what they do, but I would love to be able to (after the install) make a complete copy of my system and save it somewhere so I could just use that to reinstall Vista if I ever needed to for whatever reason. Or even every once in a while clone my HDD on to something else so I wouldn't have to re-download my programs or anything. Does that even make sense? Lol.

How do you back up your data?

1. The Gigabyte P35-DS3R supports RAID, hence the "R" designation. You can check if the board supports RAID if you look at its specifications. Since the board has an integrated RAID controller, all you need to do is connect the two hard drives to the motherboard and that is all. No other equipment needed.

2. Haven't used either of those, I'm the type of person that plugs in an external hard drive every once in a while and dumps everything in My Documents over.

It's up to you whether you want to do RAID 1. Having a RAID 1 array doesn't mean you don't have to back up your data, it is still important to do that. It basically ensures that you're not doomed if a hard drive fails. RAID 1 gives data security.

[Patrick]

While I don't use norton ghost, I do use a program extremely similar called O&O diskimage. I use it to make compressed incremental images. It creates a base image, then whenever i make a new image of my drive, it comes out really small, since it just has the changes to the base image. Wow. I failed at explaining it...

[adcavalier20]

alright thanks man.

lol its ok halfhalo, thanks anyway. if i ever do run into anything where i need to reinstall my os, i could just use the original vista disc i order and then reinstall my programs and then connect an external drive and put my data back on the hdd?