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I am currently running 2 HD's. 120GB for all my programmes, and 40GB for storage.
I want to upgrade to 2x250GB.
I really don't want to format and reinstall everything, so would somebody please check out what I intend to do, and advise if it would work.1) Transfer all the data from the 40GB drive to the 120GB one.
2) Uninstall the 40GB drive (via Device Manager) and replace with a 250GB unit.
3) Transfer the entire contents of the 120GB drive to the newly installed 250GB slave, (Using Drive Copy v4).
4) Uninstall the 120GB drive and replace it with the second 250 unit.What other changes might I have to do with my system?, and is Drive Copy a reliable enough programme?
Thanks in advance.
Sounds like a well structured plan.
I've never used Drive Copy myself but I've heard from my peers that it's good.
I use Norton Ghost for tasks like that, but they're all good.You should have no problems.
You must have a lot of files to store to need all that storage space.
What would be a good use of a pair of such good drives (assuming your motherboards support it). A RAID 0 (Striping Array) where all information is stored accross both the drives equally. In effect you'd have one 500GB. You would notice improved HDD access times, but would loose the ability to seperate different aspects of your OS on each drive, which probably defeats the purpose of what you are trying to achieve, so just ignore me. LOL
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Thanks Andrew, your last point is exactly why I intend to perform the upgrade.
As you are aware RAID 0, which my motherboard does support, is dependant on both the drives being the same size.
Rather than just replace the 40GB with another 120, I thought I may as well go the whole hog.
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Be aware that if you lose one drive on a RAID array, you lose them all.
Half a Terrabyte, that's a lot of information to lose in one go.........
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That was weird...I must have some 6th sense or something. LOL
You sound like you know your stuff.
What's the spec of your machine. I see you have a Gig of RAM, I bet with your new hard disk config it'll be a beast!I'm running a RAID 0 Array accross two 80GB ATA133 Drives. I tell ya, the performance increase going from my single 80GB drive was sweet.
Can I ask, are you running standard IDE HDDs or are you on the new SATA? Sorry for all the questions, but I'm just currious. I'm thinking of changing my board for an SATA supporting one and am not sure as to the technology.
Glad my previous post could help.
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OS XP Home
AMD Athlon XP 2600+ CPU
1 gig DDR Ram
Maxtor 120GB HD (7,200prm) System
Maxtor 40GB HD (7,200rpm) Data Storage
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro Graphics
Creative Audigy Platinum Sound
Gigabyte KT400 series AGP8X/FSB333 Motherboard.I must admit, I am a little concerned with the prospct of losing vital data.
Having a backup on a seperate HD has got me out of trouble in the past more than once.Hooner has given me food for thought. I would welcome other opinions.
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>> A RAID 0 (Striping Array) where all information is stored across both the drives equally. <<
With RAID O information is shared across both drives. Speeds up performance but has no redundancy. As Hooner stated, lose one disk and you have lost the lot.
Your need RAID 1 (Mirroring) where data is stored across two disks. Lose one disk and the information is duplicated on the other. There is a performance hit on writing as everything has to be written twice.
See:
http://www.acnc.com/04_01_00.html
Stuart
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What I feel would benefit your situation is a RAID 0+1 configuration. You would need four identically sized HDDs though (expensive!).
Configure your array to stripe accross both your master drives for optimum bandwidth, then mirror to the two slave drives. Simple to setup but hideously expensive. You may want to assess what is more important to you...capacity or redundancy. I'd argue that having 500GB worth of storage (sat in wait for a problem) is a waste unless you require that much storage and also that your work is mission critical.
BUT...if you have the cash, get it done mate. :o)Performance will not be as hot as it would be with just two drives on a RAID 0 array as the Controllers would be dealing with four drives instead of two and there will be more traffic across the bus. However, it will still be better than a single drive system.
Ideally for optimum performance and redundancy you want RAID 5 but currently integrated motherboard IDE RAID do not support that.
You'll also need a seriously powerful PSU as I assume you'll have a DVD-Drive and ReWriter of somesort as well.
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I used to use GHOST, but since I change to SATA, it does not work no more. It seem does not recorgnize SATA drive.
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