Hard Drive Configuration Ponderings

[Will Rickards]

So I got two 250GB SATA drives (7200.8) from woot.

I have existing in the computer:
1. 36GB fujitsu 15k RPM scsi drive (18GB used or so)
2. 120GB maxtor PATA drive used for data (110GB out of 120GB used)
3. 160GB seagate PATA used for backups (in removable tray)
4. 30GB IBM 75GXP (linux which I never really use)

I'm debating whether to do
A) Replace #2 and #3 with one each of the 250GB drives
B) Replace #2 with both new drives joined together as one volume
And keep #3 for backups until it is no longer enough space.

I think my current backups are 90GB or so. That is with the highest compression.
I backup weekly and do full backups. I'd like to get to a full backup weekly and daily incremental schedule and have some way of keeping last weeks backup. I always get nervous when I'm doing the backup now because I have to delete it first to have enough room. So for a couple hours I have no backup.

I thought about keeping the 120GB and 160GB drive and combining them into one volume for backups but then it wouldn't be removable. And really I don't like that idea. Maybe I could just keep them and use the 120GB for the incremental backups / last week backup archive.

What do you all think I should do?

 

[ddrueding]

Replace #2 with both 250GB drives.
Put #2 in a removable tray and alternate weeks with #3, so you have one in a safe place all the time.

 

[sechs]

If he uses a bigger drive for data, it won't stay small enough to fit onto that old drive.

 

[Mercutio]

I don't think of 250GB as a large enough amount of contiguous space to use for any kind of data dump. I'd probably make the two drives into some kind of volume for trivial data like internet downloads, movie files or mp3s - stuff that really DOESN'T need to be backed up.

My massed spaces are mirrored as arrays on two different computers, using a 2-drive 800GB RAID0 on one machine and a 3-drive 750GB RAID5 on the other. I'd prefer not to have an array at all but the capacities I need just aren't affordable in quantity right now.

 

[Will Rickards]

I knew the drives where small when I bought them but I needed something and couldn't talk the wife into buying what I wanted so....

I'm leaning towards A as this is probably a temporary solution anyway.
It is double the space I have now. It should take me a while to fill that.

I'll have to do some stress testing on the drives first as they are refurbished.
Any ideas on programs to do this? Just use a benchmark?

 

[Mercutio]

Spinrite?

 

[sechs]

I prefer to use the manufacturer's utilities.

 

[Bozo]

http://www.nu2.nu/bst/

Bart's HD test.


Bozo :joker:

 

[Santilli]

http://www.granitedigital.com/catalog/pg51_hot-swapinternalsystem.htm

http://www.granitedigital.com/images/satahotswapinternalrock.jpg


I Really like the removeable SATA drive setup. Very easy to use, trays aren't all that expensive, and, you can hot swap, if you want.

Greg

 

[Will Rickards]

Yes you said so before when I was looking for one and decided on a cheap PATA one. But I'll definitely consider them now. Heck I would buy it now but the credit bill this month is a bit high already... dual tuner tivo ... so maybe I'll wait till next month to buy it.

 

[Santilli]

Will,
Sometimes a solution gets better with age, or circumstance.;-)

I'd ebay the ATA drives, if you can get decent money for them, and use the swap feature with the new bigger drives for backup.

Greg

 

[Will Rickards]

I bought that sata drive carrier thing from granite digital.
I wasn't 100% pleased.
It had what looked like a used contact on the back. See Pictures.
And the mating of the internal sata data connection is not in as far as I'd like.
And there is no drive activity indication, both lights are on all the time.
But it works fine so far.

I actually kept both old ata drives in the computer.
So I have 4 drives in the lower part of the case and one in the removal bay.
I removed only the 30GB 75GXP that is still running but had no data on it.

So I have
SCSI - Fujitsu 36GB 15K RPM
SATA - 2 x 250GB Seagate 7200.8 drives (one in removal bay, one as primary data drive)
PATA - Seagate 160GB 7200.7? (old backup drive)
PATA - Maxtor 120GB (old data drive - now blank)
PATA - BenQ DVD burner

I think I might take the 120GB drive out and send it out to the in-laws as a backup drive and set them up with acronis true image.

 

[Will Rickards]

So my computer has exhibited a couple problems since I added those two drives and I think I know what the problems are but just wanted to run it by all of you to confirm.

1st Problem:
When I start the computer, it sometimes hangs at the bios screen and doesn't do the hard drive detection. If I hit the reset button it comes up without issue. I think the problem is my power supply is unable to cope with all those drives spinning up at the same time. So this weekend I'm going to take out the 120GB and see if that makes a difference. My computer configuration other than the hard drives is here. The key part is an Antec TruePower II 430W power supply.

2nd Problem:
My scanner is an epson perfection 1260 photo. It connects via usb. I used to have the cable hooked to the back of the pc but it was just long enough to reach and didn't have enough slack for me. So when I put the hard drives in, I switched it to connect to the usb ports on my dell 2001FP monitor. But my computer doesn't seem to see it. I'm thinking this is either related to the power problem or that scanner just doesn't work through usb hubs and needs to be connected to the back of the PC. What do you think?

Third Problem:
My UPS has been beeping at me. I replaced the battery on approximately 2005.06.08. A year and a half ago. I'm not sure what the UPS is reporting, a bad battery or something else. But whenever it beeps I just shut everything down, turn off the ups, then turn on the ups, then the computer. And it is fine for another few days. You think this is related to the power supply problem? Or the battery? Or the UPS? I think it is the battery. I really should look at the lights on the UPS to see what kind of fault it is reporting.

 

[Mercutio]

A normal PC with a 400W+ CPU should be able to handle four drives, even if one of the drives is a 15k SCSI drive. Some motherboards *do* have a staggered startup option. You should look for that.

Issue #2: Yes, there are devices that just don't work properly when plugged into a USB hub for one reason or another. Basic troubleshooting for USB crap is to pretty much always start by attaching to device to a root hub. Also I have seen USB devices that don't work properly with one particular hub but are fine on others.

Third, yes you should probably find out what it's beeping about. That is a good idea.

 

[Will Rickards]

1st problem was fixed by taking out the hard drive.
2nd problem was fixed by reattaching the usb headers to the motherboard.
I must have unplugged them to route wires when I put the new hard drives in and forgot to reattach them. Now the scanner works fine when plugged into the dell monitor.
3rd problem still occurs and seems to be a bad battery message. I'll order another battery.