Need help with a storage/backup setup

[woodbeam]

I have a total of three drives, two mechanical and one SSD. One of the mechanical drives is the same size as the SSD, while the other is larger.

My idea is to use the SSD as the boot drive, and partition the larger mechanical drive into two: one for storage of non-essential files and one for backing up the boot drive. The smaller mechanical drive will mirror the larger's backup partition in RAID 1.

Unfortunately, I'm using Windows 7 Home Premium, which doesn't have RAID setup functionality. My motherboard's BIOS RAID functionality only recognizes entire drives, not individual partitions, so that can't do it either.

So I have two questions: is there some software that can do this for me, and is this setup plan a good idea in the first place? I've never used a RAID setup before, though I think I understand the concept. I thought I'd ask before really going for it.

Thanks in advance.

 

[USAFRet]

No need for all that RAID stuff.

Macrium Reflect will do a full disk image, differential, on whatever schedule you desire.

Creates an image of the SSD to a folder on that other HDD.
And, create an image of the smaller HDD to another folder on the larger HDD.
Whatever schedule you desire. I have mine set up to create an image of the C drive every night at 3 AM.

Done.

 

[SBMfromLA]

It would have helped had you given the sizes of all your drives. When I was a newbie, I used to create all sorts of partitions... for this and for that... thinking it would be better.. but over time I've learned they're just not really worth it. It's always better to just have the extra physical drives.

With three drives... I would just skip on trying to create any RAID-type backups and make image copies of your C drive to your largest HDD with compression. If you want, you could consider Relocating your media files (Videos, Photos, Music) off your C drive and onto one of your other drives... that would make backups run faster and keep your C drive lean and smaller.


Without knowing the sizes of your drives.. it's hard to give you an accurate suggestion on how to set up your system.

 

[woodbeam]

USAFRet, thanks for the recommendation, but I already have backup software (though Macrium Reflect seems better than what I've been using; I swear I tried Reflect earlier at some point and found some problem with it, so I didn't end up using it as a permanent solution, but I might switch to it now that I've given it another look).

My main goal with trying RAID is mainly of convenience, really. Without RAID, I'd have to regularly backup twice: once to the small drive and once to the partition on the large drive, while with RAID I'd essentially be doing both backups in a single step, unless I'm misunderstanding what RAID is. This isn't necessary for redundancy of course, but it'd be nice, so I'd like to try for it unless it's just that difficult or if there's some problem with that idea I'm not aware of.

SBMfromLA, here are the drive sizes as you requested, I hope they're helpful:

Main drive - 250 GB SSD
Large Storage/Backup drive - 1 TB HDD
Small Backup drive - 300 GB HDD

The SSD and small HDD aren't actually the same size like I said in my original post, but it's close, and it doesn't really matter anyway. Just wanted to keep things simple in my description.

 

[SBMfromLA]

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/257159-32-raid-substitute-backup

 

[USAFRet]

My main goal with trying RAID is mainly of convenience, really. Without RAID, I'd have to regularly backup twice: once to the small drive and once to the partition on the large drive, while with RAID I'd essentially be doing both backups in a single step, unless I'm misunderstanding what RAID is. This isn't necessary for redundancy of course, but it'd be nice, so I'd like to try for it unless it's just that difficult or if there's some problem with that idea I'm not aware of.

Macrium has an automated schedule for disk imaging.
My C drive was backed up about 5 hours ago, while I was in dreamland.
Completely automated.

You really don't want to do a RAID 1 with the SSD and a partition on the HDD. You'll be throwing away most of the speed benefit of the SSD.

 

[woodbeam]

Macrium has an automated schedule for disk imaging.
My C drive was backed up about 5 hours ago, while I was in dreamland.
Completely automated.

You really don't want to do a RAID 1 with the SSD and a partition on the HDD. You'll be throwing away most of the speed benefit of the SSD.

I'm not trying to do RAID 1 with the SSD and a partition on one of the HDDs, I'm trying to do it with the smaller HDD and the partition on the larger HDD. The idea is to have a backup software backup the SDD to one of the HDDs automatically, and that backup will be mirrored by the other HDD in RAID.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/257159-32-raid-substitute-backup

Thanks for the link, it was informative. I think I see the possible benefits and downsides of RAID more clearly now. The setup I'm trying to make would protect me from hardware failure, which I already thought was the case (unless all 3 drives fail simultaneously of course, in which case I'm screwed regardless), and it was nice to see that confirmed by people more knowledgeable than me. However, it seems like the risk of software failure is greater than I knew. Possible issues with the software behind RAID itself are mentioned in that thread, and they're frightening. I think, barring further comments that convince me otherwise, just having two entirely separate backups is probably safer than having one backup that's mirrored in RAID, at least for someone with my lack of expertise. My setup idea would have benefits, but it doesn't look like they'd outweigh the risks.

 

[SBMfromLA]

Macrium has an automated schedule for disk imaging.
My C drive was backed up about 5 hours ago, while I was in dreamland.
Completely automated.

You really don't want to do a RAID 1 with the SSD and a partition on the HDD. You'll be throwing away most of the speed benefit of the SSD.

I'm not trying to do RAID 1 with the SSD and a partition on one of the HDDs, I'm trying to do it with the smaller HDD and the partition on the larger HDD. The idea is to have a backup software backup the SDD to one of the HDDs automatically, and that backup will be mirrored by the other HDD in RAID.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/257159-32-raid-substitute-backup

Thanks for the link, it was informative. I think I see the possible benefits and downsides of RAID more clearly now. The setup I'm trying to make would protect me from hardware failure, which I already thought was the case (unless all 3 drives fail simultaneously of course, in which case I'm screwed regardless), and it was nice to see that confirmed by people more knowledgeable than me. However, it seems like the risk of software failure is greater than I knew. Possible issues with the software behind RAID itself are mentioned in that thread, and they're frightening. I think, barring further comments that convince me otherwise, just having two entirely separate backups is probably safer than having one backup that's mirrored in RAID, at least for someone with my lack of expertise. My setup idea would have benefits, but it doesn't look like they'd outweigh the risks.

I'm glad I was able to help. If you want, I could explain how I have my system setup... just to give you an idea. I have four physical drives: 1 SSD, 3 HDD (Drives C, D, E, F)
Drive C: Windows
Drive D: Program Files (games, misc programs, Outlook Files)
Drive E: Media Files (Music, Photos, Videos), Documents, Archives (backup install programs, drivers)
Drive F: Downloads, Image/File Backups

 

[woodbeam]

After more testing with Macrium Reflect, it's definitely better than what I've been using and I'll be sticking with it. No idea what drove me away from it before. I've recreated my existing backup plan with it, which is this: full backups the first day of the week, with daily differential backups every day afterward. Backups are kept for one week, and then the cycle starts again.

Here's what's looking like my final structure:

Drive C (SSD): Windows, Program Files, Documents
Drive D (1TB HDD): Media Files, Downloads, First Backup of Drive C
Drive E (300GB HDD): Second Backup of Drive C

Everything look good?

 

[USAFRet]

After more testing with Macrium Reflect, it's definitely better than what I've been using and I'll be sticking with it. No idea what drove me away from it before. I've recreated my existing backup plan with it, which is this: full backups the first day of the week, with daily differential backups every day afterward. Backups are kept for one week, and then the cycle starts again.

Here's what's looking like my final structure:

Drive C (SSD): Windows, Program Files, Documents
Drive D (1TB HDD): Media Files, Downloads, First Backup of Drive C
Drive E (300GB HDD): Second Backup of Drive C

Everything look good?

Yup.
That is not much different than my setup. I also have the C SSD imaged to another PC (the house server).
So, for the C drive, there are 3 copies.
The C itself, another drive in this system, and another PC on the LAN.
Other stuff gets copied/imaged on their own schedule.

All automated, and no RAID needed.

 

[woodbeam]

Great. Thanks again for the recommendation of Macrium Reflect. Even if my original plan didn't work out, that alone made this thread worth it to me, and I'm satisfied with it. Thanks to SBMfromLA as well for the link to that thread, it was helpful. I'll pick the last reply in this thread as the solution and consider this closed. Thanks again.