Getting a second 1TB HD have some questions

[Techguy1]

I'm planning on getting another 1TB hard drive, right now I have a 1TB WD Black. Should I get the exact same one for the second hard drive?

The other thing I was wanting to do was to combine my current hard drive with the new one. How can I do that? I'm not sure but I think its something to do with using RAID. Never done it before so would like some clarification on that before I get another hard drive.

Thanks!

Hard Drive I have now and the one I am planning to get.
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00FJRS6FU

 

[bobs616]

I think you might want to read up on RAID and the various types and what you need to use them. If you want for example a simple mirror raid the second hard disk needs to be the same size or larger. Also most forms of RAID need hardware support (from your motherboard or a SATA card if you have one) though there are software RAIDs too usually just for mirroring. I personally have not found RAID worth the hassle, but then I've moved on to SSD (except for video storage) and I don't worry too much beyond backing up important stuff. You might think about a larger second drive there is often very little price difference these days between 1 vs. 2GB. If you want to have the two drives look like 1 larger drive you'll need hardware raid and yes you should have the same drive for both in that case, but consider just getting a 2GB drive and cloning your 1GB drive to it if you really want everything in one volume.

 

[giantbucket]

get this instead:
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=15_1086_210_212&item_id=042241

or even this
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=15_1086_210_212&item_id=042242


keep the WD Black for backing up data onto. there's no real benefit of WD Black other than 5yr warranty. speeds will be the same as those Seagates above. heck, i have a WD Red 3.5" 2TB (which is around 5900rpm) that gives faster read/write speeds than a WD Black 2.5" 750G (which is 7200rpm)

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there Techguy1,

It really depends on your preference. As long as the drive is with 7200 RPM, you will not really notice any performance difference.
What would you need this raid for? Some RAIDs, like RAID 0, give you extra performance in expense of data security. This means that if one of the drives fail, you will not be able to retrieve the data. RAIDs like RAID 1 provide data redundancy(makes exactly the same copy on the other HDD). Though, in this way you kind of loose 1 HDD as you only operate with one of them while the data is mirrored on the other. There are some other RAIDs, RAID 10 for example, that combine the previously mentioned 2 types but they require more than 2 HDDs. If you decide to go with setting up a RAID, I would agree with bobs616 and say that it may be a good idea to do some research before that.
Also, it is advisable to use drives that are specifically designed to operate in a RAID environment(like WD Red when talking about WD). Keep in mind that this does not mean that you will not be able to set up a RAID with WD Black or any other 7200/5400 RPM drive.
To sum it up: Unless you want some really fast HDD speed(really demanding editing tools or whatever) or you operate with really important data, I don't really see a point in setting up a RAID. If you get a new HDD, you can just use it as a boot drive or run the heavier games/programs and use your old one for secondary storage(backing up data and storing media lets say). In case you need some performance boost, you can consider getting a SSD as well.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[Techguy1]

Hi there Techguy1,

It really depends on your preference. As long as the drive is with 7200 RPM, you will not really notice any performance difference.
What would you need this raid for? Some RAIDs, like RAID 0, give you extra performance in expense of data security. This means that if one of the drives fail, you will not be able to retrieve the data. RAIDs like RAID 1 provide data redundancy(makes exactly the same copy on the other HDD). Though, in this way you kind of loose 1 HDD as you only operate with one of them while the data is mirrored on the other. There are some other RAIDs, RAID 10 for example, that combine the previously mentioned 2 types but they require more than 2 HDDs. If you decide to go with setting up a RAID, I would agree with bobs616 and say that it may be a good idea to do some research before that.
Also, it is advisable to use drives that are specifically designed to operate in a RAID environment(like WD Red when talking about WD). Keep in mind that this does not mean that you will not be able to set up a RAID with WD Black or any other 7200/5400 RPM drive.
To sum it up: Unless you want some really fast HDD speed(really demanding editing tools or whatever) or you operate with really important data, I don't really see a point in setting up a RAID. If you get a new HDD, you can just use it as a boot drive or run the heavier games/programs and use your old one for secondary storage(backing up data and storing media lets say). In case you need some performance boost, you can consider getting a SSD as well.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

It seems that maybe RAID isn't what I was looking for. I wanted to get another hard drive to be able to have more space for my steam games, movies etc (since I have almost used up my current 1TB) but I want the new one to be able to merge with my current HD, So I dont have two separate locations for installs. My setup right now is that I have my OS installed on my SSD and all my other programs, games etc on my 1tb wd black.

If I need to clarify something let me know, Thanks

 

[giantbucket]

you can use JBOD which combines various disk sizes into one large disk - but it's risky in that if ONE drive fails, the whole enchilada is gone. but it's an interesting way of using up random old drives.

 

[bobs616]

I mentioned one of the easiest ways, buy a 2GB or larger drive and clone your old drive to it making it your primary drive, if you want keep the old drive in the system and use it for backup (or you can even make it an external drive) but if it's more than 2 years old I wouldn't bother.