Partition drive before RAID?

[BlackScarlet]

I have an 80G C:\ drive, and a 250G that I plan to RAID with. I'd like to set up RAID to backup my C:\, but since that would only take up 80G of my 250, I have all that extra space, so is there a way to partition 80G out of this 250 for RAID and use the other partition for independant data?

If so, how?

 

[gguerra]

Simple answer is NO. The RAID controller (or BIOS) will treat both drives as one. So they are dependent of each other regardless of what RAID implementation you are using. Why do you want RAID?? If it for redundancy (auto backup) there are other ways to achieve this using backup software. The only other reason would be to gain speed (striping). I would leave the 80gb as is, split the 250 into two partitions (i.e. D: and E Use D: as extra space to store whatever. Leave your important data on C: and do automatic differential backups from C: to E: using Ghost or Acronis. The reason for differential is it will backup only what has changed and once the drive starts filling up you can delete the oldest backups.

 

[BlackScarlet]

Why do you want RAID?? If it for redundancy (auto backup) there are other ways to achieve this using backup software. The only other reason would be to gain speed (striping). I would leave the 80gb as is, split the 250 into two partitions (i.e. D: and E Use D: as extra space to store whatever. Leave your important data on C: and do automatic differential backups from C: to E: using Ghost or Acronis. The reason for differential is it will backup only what has changed and once the drive starts filling up you can delete the oldest backups.

Well I want raid so that if my C drive fails unexpectedly I have another drive I can instantly use as a boot system drive, instead of having to reinstall and configure windows and all my programs again.

In my experience of backup software it takes a long time and program resources to synchronize, raid handles it all immediately?
What I'd really like to do is switch my boot drive from my 80 to my 250 to give my system a bit more room, really. but that would require me to buy another 250 if i wanted to back it up, so i may as well just use my 250 to backup instead of buying another one.

If I used sync software would it allow the backup to be used as a boot drive?

 

[gguerra]

n my experience of backup software it takes a long time and program resources to synchronize

I would have to disagree. It does not "sync" it merely backs up any data that has changed since the last backup. Only the very first backup will take a while depending on the amount of data on your 80gb. Now unless you download huge files and want to back that up (and it still would not take that long or slow your PC down) the time to backup would be less than 5 minutes and be completely automatic. I use Acronis here at work and it backs up daily at 12:00 pm when I leave to lunch. It usually backs up in 3 minutes or less and unless I looked for it I would not notice it. So huge files like downloads or whatever you should store on the D: drive and manually back them up if you need to.

If I used sync software would it allow the backup to be used as a boot drive?

That would require a good drive and as far as restoring you could do that from the backup on the 2nd partition of your 250gb to the 1st partition, set it to active and away you go. You would lose whatever is on D:

When backup with Acronis two ways of backing up
1 Disk or partition
2 Files and Folders

Then you can choose Full Backup, Differential or Incremental

It will let you create a boot cd which has the same capabilities as the full software and is used in case of hard drive failure

You can then schedule it to happen automatically (time and day, weekly monthly etc) and as long as your PC is on it will work

As far as RAID you would need RAID 1 (mirroring) for the two drives to work in sync. To restore your boot drive disconnect your master and use the slave as the master and you would have to disable RAID on your PC to use the 250 as a boot drive,

As far as using your 250 instead of the 80 as your boot drive that is easy and all you need is software such as Ghost, Acronis, Drive Image etc. I use Ghost to clone drives and Acronis to do the daily backup