Hard Drive setups

[dragonfliet]

I'm just curious how people are running their hard drive setups around here. Because the most important thing to me is simple reliability, I have my hard drives set up in a simple RAID 1. This works just dandy, but we all know that 7,200rpm HDDs are relatively slow.

I'm curious who's running RAID 0 (and how does the threat of lost data not keep you up at night) and SSDs for boot drives (and how easy/frustrating it has been to have to deal with that partition, and Steam not wanting to split games across drives) and who would keep what they're doing or change it up. I won't be doing any changes until September or so, when I'll probably end up doing a pretty massive upgrade, but I'm certainly interested in seeing what people are doing.

 

[Firefly]

I use a pen and paper and write everything down.

 

[Bi()ha2arD]

SSD for OS, 1TB for games and 4TB for music/photos/movies on a homeserver/nas type of thing i build connected with gbit lan. Also offline backups of the 4TB

 

[SleepyHe4d]

120 GB SSD - OS, installed programs, installed games.

600 GB HDD - Downloaded pictures, videos, ect. through internet browser... PORN

2 TB HDD - Anime, Movies, Music, TV shows, Programs, Documents, Home videos and pictures

2 TB HDD - Ran out of space on first 2TB drive, more anime and PORN mainly


I have no backups so I really want to set up a Raid 5 or something, but I don't really trust the RAID system, but at the same time I can't really afford enough for a full offline backup. Also that would be annoying to have to do every once in a while.

So yeah, maybe Raid 5 eventually.

Oh yeah, another thing, Raid system doesn't protect against corrupt files and stuff like that, so an offline backup would be better. I've had a corruption problem before so maybe it would be better if I just stayed away from Raid and went with offline backup.

Thoughts?

I have my hard drives set up in a simple RAID 1.

Fuck Raid 1. Just keep them separate and do a backup every month or something.

I'm curious who's running RAID 0 (and how does the threat of lost data not keep you up at night)

I used to run RAID 0. Had never lost data before so it didn't bother me. Then I had a corruption problem and it was hard to recover data because of the RAID 0 bullshit. It would have been a lot easier if they weren't RAIDed, because then I could have just plugged the drives into another comp and recovered some files. Still though, even though it was a huge hassle, I recovered some stuff I wanted. Haven't tried RAID since then.

SSDs for boot drives (and how easy/frustrating it has been to have to deal with that partition, and Steam not wanting to split games across drives) and who would keep what they're doing or change it up.

SSD has been the least frustrating thing so far in my experience with drives. With Steam I have hardly any games installed at a time, when I'm done with a game I normally just uninstall and keep the save files. Also I don't have any other huge programs installed like Photoshop and stuff. Having said that, it's already full to 70gb/120gb. I think I can keep it that way though since I hardly play more than 1 game at a time, and right now I have like 2 or 3 games installed that I never play.

 

[Renegade Retard]

SSDs for boot drives (and how easy/frustrating it has been to have to deal with that partition, and Steam not wanting to split games across drives)

I've been running an SSD boot drive with zero problems. Here is the guide I followed on how to do it: http://www.overclock.net/t/664738/how-to-setup-ssd-boot-drive-with-secondary-hard-disc-optimization.

Apparently I don't have the storage needs of some of the folks here. My set up:

- 64 GB boot SSD, only runs OS and drivers
- 320 GB primary internal HHD drive
- 64 GB backup internal HHD drive (automatically backs up all my critical documents and photo files)
- 2 TB external network drive for automatic system backups, redundant backups of the 64 GB, files that I wish to share with my laptop, and archiving

So, my critical files (tax documents, work documents, pictures of my family, etc) are on 3 separate drives - 2 internal, and one network. About once a year I'll copy those drives to removable thumb drives. That way, if I I have massive system failure, I still have those. OS's and games can be replaced.

 

[SleepyHe4d]

I've been running an SSD boot drive with zero problems. Here is the guide I followed on how to do it: http://www.overclock.net/t/664738/how-to-setup-ssd-boot-drive-with-secondary-hard-disc-optimization.

Oh geez...

Err, I would recommend against using that guide. Basically the guy "teaches" you how to create folders and then how to change Windows default User folder location to a secondary drive, therefore losing all benefits of having that folder on the SSD. My User folder takes up 5 GB of the SSDs space, WELL worth having the benefits of instant loading Firefox/browser caches and other small files in the APPDATA folder. Derp.

So what's the point of messing with the registry, to change where the user folder is located? I understand now that you can choose where you are installing your programs too.

the user profile is what your moving in this case and benefits are endless

benefits are endless

/massive facepalm of epic proportions

 

[Renegade Retard]

As someone who wasn't sure what to do with a separate boot drive, the guide worked well for me. If you would like to link to a better guide or write your own, then by all means do.

And btw, you have all your installed programs on your much larger SSD. I didn't want that. I wanted only my OS on the SSD. Absolutely you would get much better performance with your user folder and application on the same SSD as your OS. That was not the option I wanted.

Again, if you know of a better solution, then share it. If you think his guide sucks, then perhaps you can point use derps to one that meets your approval.

 

[Bi()ha2arD]

get SSD, install windows, install apps you use frequently and want to load and work fast on SSD.
Install other stuff on HDD.
Store data on SSD.
Done.
I personally don't store any data in the /users/ folder anyways. So keep that on the SSD to have faster caches for appdata.

 

[SleepyHe4d]

Yeah, basically what he said. You don't need a guide, treat it like a regular drive, but for high-priority data.

1. Install OS and other high-priority programs and data on SSD
2. Install low priority programs and data on HDDs
3. Don't use the "User" folder for personal crap, which I would never do anyways, and I don't think anyone else should either.

The User folder has too much stuff worth having on the SDD imo.

Another thing, before someone or some guide tells you to also move the page file and/or any other system files over to an separate drive, don't waste your time doing that either. The SSD excels at that kind of data manipulation and it would take 100 years for it to wear out from that stuff.

Also, the only reason why I'm able to install everything on it is because I don't have much installed and I haven't ran out of space, which would force me to choose what programs that I want to have high-priority speed on.

Heck, I've only used 50GB (I'm not sure why I said 70 before, maybe I uninstalled some thing(s) ) which wouldn't even have filled up your drive yet.

 

[Renegade Retard]

You've only used 50GB? Including your OS???

And I thought I was light. I have 50GB on my 60 GB SSD, and I basically just have Windows 7 and drivers installed on it (plus a few smaller apps that I forgot to re-assign). I could have gotten a bigger SSD, but couldn't justify the cost until they come down a bit more in price. Yes, I agree that the SSD excels at data manipulation, but only if it's large enough to store everything.

 

[DeathBooger]

2TB hard drive and dropbox for critical stuff. I wish dropbox offered more storage capacity. I'd rather pay them monthly and have storage remote in case something crazy happens like a fire. My next build will have a SSD for the OS and programs. I'll probably add a NAS too, but I'll always opt for remote storage when I can.

 

[Bi()ha2arD]

Microsoft SkyDrive is 25 gigs for free iirc.