Two new internal drives - best setup option?

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PSM

New Member
I recently had an issue with my current 500GB hard drive and almost lost some files, so I've decided to play it safe and just purchase two new 2TB internal hard drives for my desktop to keep each other backed up. The 500GB will remain installed as a third drive in case I forgot to back up any files from it but it won't really be used for much except access to old files I might have missed, or maybe a third-level of backup for really important files (you can never be too safe with backups, I've come to realize).

One of the 2TB drives will be the primary drive and the other just a backup of the main one but I was thinking: is there any reason I can't or shouldn't install Windows and all of my software on both hard drives so that I literally have another one to just boot the system from and run everything off of if I ever have an issue with the main one? Is there any downside to this aside from taking up some extra space on the second hard drive for the OS and software?

Also, if I do this, are there any options for actually mirroring the two drives somehow so that new files are backed up onto the other one automatically, or will I always have to click and drag to back them up? I know some sort of RAID setup would probably work, but I know very little about RAID (just started doing some research on it) and I don't know if it would affect my "installing Windows and software on both drives" idea.

Thoughts?

PS - If anyone has any advice on which drives I should go with, I'm always open to suggestions. I'm researching those right now, as well.
 
PSM said:
I know some sort of RAID setup would probably work, but I know very little about RAID.
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Look others may say Raid is a great idea and all (starting with Raid 1)
But personally I say no, just copy or create backup archives or something. But forget Raid, its another entagled mess if things ever go wrong again ;)

That's all I wanted to say, all the other stuff I'll leave to those who know about best pricing and performance options
 
Yeah, after some more research, it really seems like the simplest way to do things (in terms of backup and if I ever have an issue) is to just backup manually from one drive to another. I still think the Windows/software install on both makes sense (at least I haven't found any reasons why it doesn't), but in terms of the setup and backup, I'll just do it manually with click and drag. :)
 
Fatback said:
I would go with 2 500 GB hard drives. The bigger the hard drive the more chance it has of failing.
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I'm gonna need 2TB over the next year or so, though. We recently purchased an HD video camera for my band (shows, behind the scenes, etc) and it chews up space like no other. In the past two months I've gone through a couple hundred gigs of space. The whole point of having two of them is so that I don't have to worry about failures, though, so as long as I keep current with the backups, should I be worried about something?
 
PSM said:
I'm gonna need 2TB over the next year or so, though. We recently purchased an HD video camera for my band (shows, behind the scenes, etc) and it chews up space like no other. In the past two months I've gone through a few hundred gigs. The whole point of having two of them is so that I don't have to worry about failures, though, so as long as I keep current with the updates, should I be worried about something?
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Well if you need that much space then it's fine. I was just letting you know that 1TB hard drives have a slightly higher failure rate then the usual 500GB-750GB hard drives. Just make sure you keep all of your stuff backed up you should probably set you computer up to do a back up at least once a week. If you could I would do one for ever 2 days or so. I wouldn't worry about it too much most likely you will be fine and the drives will last a long time.

Also make sure you get a Western Digital Caviar Black or a Seagate 7200.12. Those are probably the 2 most reliable hard drives out right now.
 
Fatback said:
Well if you need that much space then it's fine. I was just letting you know that 1TB hard drives have a slightly higher failure rate then the usual 500GB-750GB hard drives. Just make sure you keep all of your stuff backed up you should probably set you computer up to do a back up at least once a week. If you could I would do one for ever 2 days or so. I wouldn't worry about it too much most likely you will be fine and the drives will last a long time.

Also make sure you get a Western Digital Caviar Black or a Seagate 7200.12. Those are probably the 2 most reliable hard drives out right now.
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kimsland said:
Well they keep advertising these things, I'm sure the whole world will go Terrabyte minimum oneday (or more)

The only other option is a backup Server for about $10K :D
Actually here's some backup software: http://www.backuptoserver.com/
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All great info, guys. Thanks for the advice, especially on which hard drives to go with. I'm researching them right now as I'll have to buy them today or tomorrow most likely (I hate having this computer down at the moment). My current one is a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 and it's always been fine up to now. I still think it's probably fine as the most likely culprit based on the symptoms is a corrupted Windows file or something (seeing as how I have been able to access the drive without issue now and backup my files), but that doesn't mean I trust it with anything important at this point. And it's just not big enough anyways, so I'll just hold onto it for now.
 
PSM said:
All great info, guys. Thanks for the advice, especially on which hard drives to go with. I'm researching them right now as I'll have to buy them today or tomorrow most likely (I hate having this computer down at the moment). My current one is a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 and it's always been fine up to now. I still think it's probably fine as the most likely culprit based on the symptoms is a corrupted Windows file or something (seeing as how I have been able to access the drive without issue now and backup my files), but that doesn't mean I trust it with anything important at this point. And it's just not big enough anyways, so I'll just hold onto it for now.
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I have a Seagate 250GB 7200.10 which has over 8000hours on it and is still running good. I still have a western digital caviar blue 320GB for backups just in case my Seagate decides to go AWOL.
 
kimsland, I like the looks of that Backup Server software. Chances are, there will only be a few main folders (My Documents, etc) that will have important files changing on a regular basis I'll need to backup, so it sounds like a good option for making file backups easier. I might also use it to back up pictures and less space-consuming files (basically non-video) to the server for our website, since we get 150GB of space and don't use too much of that at the moment.
 
actually strictly speaking the safest place to store your data is online at a paid private Server (not that I'm suggesting you do this with personal photos anyway)

The 2 x 1 TB Drives should be good, hec they'll be brand new, it would be very unlikely they'll fail (Although there's always one bad apple in the bunch)
The biggest issue would be running a manual Defrag :D

Oh, I like Cache: 64MB
 
Hmm, the more I'm reading and pricing, the more two 1TB hard drives are looking like the better option. I'm just not seeing the reliability or positive reviews I'd like from the rather expensive 2TB drives right now and $400+ is a lot to spend on two newer drives that don't have overwhelming reviews. I may or may not go through the 1TB drives rather quickly, but worst case scenario by the time I do, they'll have cheaper, more reliable 2TB or larger drives available to upgrade to.

Right now I'm looking at either:

Seagate 7200.12 1TB - $89.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148433

or

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB - $94.99 free shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284

Thoughts on one or the other? Or maybe even one of each? Pricing and specs are so similar it's really hard to make a choice. That Western Digital has a TON of reviews, mostly very positive. The only thing I'm reading about it that I don't like is that it's supposedly very loud, but I'm not getting any reviews on this about the Seagate.
 
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PSM said:
These appear to be my five options for 2TB internal hard drives. Any opinions?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010150014 103530090 1035313499&name=2TB
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Either one of the western digital should be good. Both of the Seagates are slow only 5900RPM. I have never trusted HITACHI hard drives.

If you won't my Opinion I would go with 4 of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148433 or 4 of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136317 1 for you OS and the other three for you files.
 
Fatback said:
Either one of the western digital should be good. Both of the Seagates are slow only 5900RPM. I have never trusted HITACHI hard drives.

If you won't my Opinion I would go with 4 of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148433 or 4 of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136317 1 for you OS and the other three for you files.
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Any reason I should go with the WD Green you suggested this second time over the Black you suggested the first time? After doing a bit more research, the WD Black is really looking like a good option, and it's got a lot more positive reviews (and a better percentage of bad reviews) than the Seagate 7200.12. I can even spend $15 more each and go pick them up right down the road at Best Buy rather than waiting for them to ship from Newegg. The only reason I see this being worth it aside from the wait time is that if one of them is DOA from Newegg, I'll have to pay shipping and wait that much longer anyways versus just driving to the store.

Thoughts? By the way, I just noticed the WD Green is a 5400 RPM drive, not 7200.
 
PSM said:
Any reason I should go with the WD Green you suggested this second time over the Black you suggested the first time? After doing a bit more research, the WD Black is really looking like a good option, and it's got a lot more positive reviews (and a better percentage of bad reviews) than the Seagate 7200.12. I can even spend $15 more each and go pick them up right down the road at Best Buy rather than waiting for them to ship from Newegg. The only reason I see this being worth it aside from the wait time is that if one of them is DOA from Newegg, I'll have to pay shipping and wait that much longer anyways versus just driving to the store.

Thoughts? By the way, I just noticed the WD Green is a 5400 RPM drive, not 7200.
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I would defiantly go with the WD Black over Green if you don't mind paying a little more. Black is faster then green but both of them are 7200RPM but the Green was designed to give up performance for quietness and efficiency. If you don't mind spending the extra money I would defiantly pick them up locally that way if there is anything wrong it will be an easy return.

Also don't forget your Sata cables and make sure you PSU has enough sata power connectors.
 
Fatback said:
I would defiantly go with the WD Black over Green if you don't mind paying a little more. Black is faster then green but both of them are 7200RPM but the Green was designed to give up performance for quietness and efficiency. If you don't mind spending the extra money I would defiantly pick them up locally that way if there is anything wrong it will be an easy return.

Also don't forget your Sata cables and make sure you PSU has enough sata power connectors.
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Yeah, I might head over to Best Buy during lunch and pick them up. It's gonna take a while to get everything up and running, drives formatted, new OS and all my software installed, files transferred, etc, so the sooner I can get started the better.
 
PSM said:
Yeah, I might head over to Best Buy during lunch and pick them up. It's gonna take a while to get everything up and running, drives formatted, new OS and all my software installed, files transferred, etc, so the sooner I can get started the better.
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Yea it is probably going to take an hour for each of those 1tb hard drives to format. Another hour to get you OS up and running. Then what will seem like an endless life time of installing programs.

I know the feeling all to well I do the same thing about 10 times a week.
 
Fatback said:
Yea it is probably going to take an hour for each of those 1tb hard drives to format. Another hour to get you OS up and running. Then what will seem like an endless life time of installing programs.

I know the feeling all to well I do the same thing about 10 times a week.
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Haha, yeah, but at least I'll be set in terms of future backups. :good:

On a side note, any thoughts on the "installing Windows and software on both hard drives" idea I had? Is there a downside or problem with this I'm not thinking of? It seems like it would make sense so that if there ever was an issue or hard drive failure, I could literally just swap cables and be up and running. The only thing I would need to keep on top of would be Windows and software updates, which I could do like once a month on the second hard drive.
 
I just picked up two of the 1TB internal Western Digital Caviar Black drives at Best Buy. I paid $30+ more than I would have through Newegg, but I can now start the install tonight before heading to the studio and if anything's wrong with either one, I can just bring it down the road to replace it (at least for the first 30 days) instead of taking weeks for shipping back and forth.

I really would have liked to have 2TB drives instead of 1TB, but after a lot of reading, there really are no great reviews on any one particular drive so far, and only a few options available. I guess by the time I run out of room with these, there will be more 2TB options and reviews out anyways, so I can always add more, larger drives down the road.

The only thing I'm hesitant on with these drives I bought are that I'm hoping they aren't TOO loud because the case sits pretty much right next to my head on my desk.
 
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