Backup, RAID, UPS

[Halo]

Is your computer fully backed up so if it crashed RIGHT NOW you wouldn't sweat it?  This is reminder 45,345 about needing to do that.

Using various procedures I was content with my setup.  Until the hard drive totally wiped out and yes, I did lose a few things I wish I didn't.

No sense dwelling on that other than the ofte repeated reminder I just offered.

But thought I would mention the local computer shoppe guru talked me into two things I hadn't previously considered:

RAID (two simo disks, Google it for details)

and

Uninterruptible Power Supply.

Gotta say my Windows 2005 Media Edition (XP Professional with media boost) has never been smoother.  Naturally starting from scratch with a clean hard drive helps immensely. 

The guru emphasized the UPS is not just a backup for a power failure, but constantly smooths the power input all the time.  He said he notices his working various times during the day for little power fluctuations that people often don't notice, but the computer does.

The UPS is not much larger or more expensive than the usual surge protector, and doesn't add to the usual tangle of power cords and connections. 

Just a few hopefully helpful hints if you haven't already considered them. 

Oh yes, Aces High plays better than ever!

[Fulmar]

All I found about Simo disks is that its a CD/DVD scratch reparer.  What does that have to do with RAID?  And with UPS's I wear by them.  I run an old APC BackUPS 520 for my Linux firewall box/modem.  I have my APC Smart UPS 1400 as my main rig and a smaller Belkin unit that runs my dual monitors.  They were all free of course.  Courtesy of customers dropping them off for recycling at Batteries Plus.  All I needed to do at the time was us my employee discount to put new batteries in them.  The APC Smart UPS 1400 used to be about $600-700 back in the day when they were new.  I have 2 more spares lying around and have given about 3-4 more out to friends.  I liked that perk of working there.

But its good to know when they kick on that they're regulating the current and making it all good.  They've come in handy a few times but I've never had them truly tested for their full run time yet.

Just remember to check on your batteries.  Life span is about 3-5 years on them.  At the end of their life its good to open up the unit and physically see them as when an SLA battery goes bad, they can swell up like they have massive tumors and they become impossible to remove.

[OOZ662]

All I found about Simo disks is that its a CD/DVD scratch reparer.  What does that have to do with RAID?

I believe he may have meant "simultaneous" in a sideways way.

[Fulmar]

I believe he may have meant "simultaneous" in a sideways way.

lol ok

[Getback]

I believe he may have meant "simultaneous" in a sideways way.

 

Through me too for a second.

[68Wooley]

I'm curious - what kind of RAID are you running? Unless you've more than 2 disks, it'll be RAID 0 or RAID 1.

RAID 0 might give you a slight performance increase, but its doing nothing to help with your ability to recover from failure. In fact its probably worsening the situation.

RAID 1 will provide redundancy, but is unlikely to improve performance.

Are you sure the performance increase you're seeing is not just down to having a clean XP install?

I'm not saying RAID isn't a good idea, but be sure its configured correctly to provide what you are looking for.

[Fulmar]

I'm curious - what kind of RAID are you running? Unless you've more than 2 disks, it'll be RAID 0 or RAID 1.

RAID 0 might give you a slight performance increase, but its doing nothing to help with your ability to recover from failure. In fact its probably worsening the situation.

RAID 1 will provide redundancy, but is unlikely to improve performance.

Are you sure the performance increase you're seeing is not just down to having a clean XP install?

I'm not saying RAID isn't a good idea, but be sure its configured correctly to provide what you are looking for.

RAID 0 literally doubles your chances of having a hard drive crash since you now have two hard drives and if one goes, they lose all your data together.  RAID 1 is the best for data storage, but you're losing disk space.  If you have 2 x 100gb HD's, you'll only have 100gb of storage.

I run RAID 0, but I follow necessary precautions.  I back my files up on an external 500gb drive and I also burn most data on to DVDs (sometimes 2 DVD's if it is ultra-senstive).

[Bino]

Here's a great intro to RAID page, on the Adaptec site...

http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/_common/br_host/_education/talk_about_raid.htm?nc=/en-US/_common/br_host/_education/talk_about_raid.htm

[2bighorn]

RAID 1 will provide redundancy, but is unlikely to improve performance.

With quality controllers, read performance is nearly doubled, write remains the same.