Hello,

 I do digital photo editing and use a raid 0 for speed and performance. Backup is performed every day that I do any editing, and once a week with Acronis software, to an external drive incase of drive failure. I don't need the redundancy of raid 1 because none of my images are kept on my array, they are backed up to one of two 500gb internal drives, one of several external drives, and ultimatly burned to DVD's for off site storage.

Thanks for the reply!  It seems that a person has to make a choice whether they will back up their operating system and App Programs periodically (i.e,, as you appear to be doing with an external drive & Acronis) OR "on the fly" with RAID 1 "r edundancy", right?  

You can always install 2 extra hd's and run them in raid1 while keeping the os on your primary disc.

 

So you would have 1 primary drive and 1 mirror. 

 

This way you would keep the utility partition and recovery partition in case you need them.

 

It depends on what you need it for.

 

Good luck,

 

Mike

yes you are on the right track.

 

Everyone will have their own preferences, but putting the OS/apps on a mirrored set of drives (RAID 1) is a very safe and common method used, while storing your data on another drive.

 

Just remember to back up your data as often as you can afford to lose it.

 

 

Excellent. That's the way I'm leaning.  Now all I have to do is figure out how to proceed.  My XPS manual says my computer will support 2 Serial ATA drives, one IDE hard drive and 2 CD/DVD drives.  I plan to pick another 74 GB 10K and a large capacity IDE drive for the storage.  Then it's lots and lots of reading.  Thanks! 

FYI: you have a few other options in regards to how to proceed... Outside of Raid Array 1 or 0 you can add an external drive via firewire 400/800/USB or eSATA... Of course eSata is better BUT your PC only allows 2 drives! So if you have an extra $50 and a open pci express X1 slot then swing by newegg and pick up the Siig Raid Controller.. Now you don't need to use the RAID option but it allows you to add in two external eSata II drives to your PC.. I just got it since I'm running 4 HDD eSata and 2 HDD via USB for backup.. You can always pick up a barebone drive (like the raptor) and drop it in an external case like the Vantec eSata II case... Just some other ideas..

 

BRY

Okay, I installed another 74G SATA and have set up a RAID 1 volume...or so I thought.  Using Intel App Accelerator I created the RAID volume, then performed the migration and got a message saying it had completed successfully, but it didn't request a reboot - strange?.  But now, whenever I reboot, the RAID BIOS 'CTL-I' screen comes up and it shows the RAID (Mirror) as "Degraded" status , but bootable.  The original hard drive shows "Normal" status.  The new drive status shows as "Missing".  If I do nothing and let the system boot up, every time Intel App Accelerator pops up and begins rebuilding the RAID volume, message "RAID VOLUME REBUILDING.  Your RAID volume is currently being rebuilt.  Data redundancy is being restored."  This takes about 30 minutes and finishes okay, no error messages.  But is it really doing anything?  Is this normal?  Can't be, right?  I did not format or partition the new drive before the migration.  RAID was already enabled in BIOS before I added the new drive.  I'm sure I've missed a step(s).  Any ideas on this are greatly appreciated and most welcome.  I'm not giving up.   On the bright side, I was able to add a 500G ATA-100 data drive which works fine!        

Sounds like you may have a bad drive.   Boot up to the Diag Partition and check it out.  

 

Normally once the RAID 1 is setup the only time you should get the degrade message is when a drive failed.   I had it happen on my, XPS gen2 and just replaced the drive and then did a re-build.   Nothing lost so RAID 1, for me is the only way to go.

 

Thanks for the response!  I'd like to try what you suggest, but could you give me a quick overview of how to do it?  

A little more info:  I broke the array via RAID BIOS and was able to view the formerly "missing" drive with all the files on it.  I proceeded to format this new "bad" drive, clearing it, re-establishing a new array and re-migrated.  Everything is identical as before: same messages, sequences, etc.  I then tested each drive by unplugging it in turn, then booting up.  With the original base drive plugged in and the new drive unplugged, the systems boots, although it warns of a missing RAID drive, as expected.  No problem there.  But when I tried this with the new drive on and the old drive unplugged, the boot fails, telling me there is an OS loading error.  I realize that if the system can't see the drive on a RAID boot with a "missing" drive, it won't be able to boot from it, but I  just wanted to confirm my understanding.  When I get this RAIDed correctly, shouldn't I be able to boot up with either disk using a test like this?   Anyway, I'm obviously able to write to the new drive, but it's not RAIDed correctly, somehow.   Wow, I sure hope this new drive is not bad.  It's OEM, but supposedly new (non-refurb) with mfr warranty.   Just got it at Fry's last Friday.   

I also found on Dell's Tech Support a step-by-step Troubleshooter that seems to address this issue.  At least the screen prints look identical to what I'm seeing on the RAID BIOS boot up (Degraded-Normal-Missing). 

I think you can hit F12 on power up to get to boot menu.  From there Diag should be an option assuming you have not removed the Diag partition.  

 

When you break a RAID 1 you should have 2 drives that are exactly the same and either one should be able to boot up.

 

Are both drives the same make and model ?   Best if they are.   When I set mine up I did it that way.

Success!  The Dell Support Troubleshooter did the trick.  Turns out all I needed to do was disable RAID in the BIOS, set each SATA drive to AUTO and reboot.  The computer proceeded to find all the hardware and then had me reboot again to check if all drives were seen in BIOS, which they were.  Then all I had to do was turn RAID back on in BIOS and reboot.  The RAID volume showed as degraded but BOTH DRIVES WERE NOW NORMAL!!!! As expected, the Intel App Accelerator came up to start the auto rebuild of the RAID volume.  When it finished, I rebooted and now all three (RAID volume and both disks) are showing as NORMAL.  Happy, happy.