Arcmanov's rig evolves...

[Spazosaurus]

That space should be automatically re-created once the re-image is complete.

[Arcmanov]

I feel YOU hadda come by me and do it yes. 

I'm kidding...I've never used RAID...at all (except in work), so this will
really be a wonderful little project for me to introduce myself to the
trials and tribulations of it...and learn a little something along the way.

Lets see if it's all it's cracked up to be.

[Spazosaurus]

I myself have played with all manner of server controllers but never a desktop one.

If you know server though, desktop should be a walk in the park.

[Saxito Pau]

Captain Awesome, we shall train him the ways of RAID and let him rejoice therafter...

[W1nTry]

Say NO to RAID-0

[Spazosaurus]

lol @ no to raid 0.

I fully agree...when you talking about production environments where data loss/downtime is to be minimal.

In the case of a home machine where os/app performance is the main requirement, raid0 ftw.

[W1nTry]

lol @ no to raid 0.

I fully agree...when you talking about production environments where data loss/downtime is to be minimal.

In the case of a home machine where os/app performance is the main requirement, raid0 ftw.

The reason I say NO to Raid 0 is because a long time ago I did exactly that, Raid-0 for 'performance' on my then new system. Asus mobo, Athlon XP, Radeon 9800XT, good stuff... guess what? the mobo died and I lost everything, cause RAID-0 ain't generally friendly across mobos... also at the time there was a long discussion between myself and one of the GATT guru's of the time (I believe it was Beomagi) about the negligible difference in performance. And to be honest, looking back there isn't Much difference unless you do mass moves of large contigous blocks of data... SSDs on the other hand benefit GREATLY from RAID. So even with RAptors capn, I still say NO to RAID-0

[Saxito Pau]

I see nothing wrong with RAID-0.

You all know I have two threads on RAID-0 and in both cases I had a 'standalone' 3rd drive for backups to compensate for the data loss scenario.

I really not seeing what the fuss is here, especially when you getting a 500GB for about $450 locally.

[MessiaaH]

I running Raid0 for OS/Games and Raid5 For data for ah while now.
I recently migrated from Raid0 300GB Raptors to Raid0 3*40GB SSD.

Acronis FTW, arcman check it out, acronis is a life saver.

And when it comes to booting ur machine, and loading levels in games, etc etc etc, and general use of d machine, i does see ah significant increase in performance using raid-0, and like saxman say, yuh have something else for storage/backup, nothing important shud be on your raid 0, i coudl come home any day, and click d format button, (Redirected MyDocs/Desktop/Pics/Favs etc). So if my Raid0 goes foobar today, i back up and runing with eveyrthing before d day is done.

And d jump to SSD was sweet, my netbook spoil meh, so had to do it for desktop, and i cant see myself going back.

[W1nTry]

A dedicated RAID card is another matter altogether. If you're gonna do it, do it right, I could condone RAID-0 on a card vs. software/onboard.

[MessiaaH]

i use a dedicated raid card for my raid 5, that way if my mobo goes foobar, my data safe. But for OS use i juss use d onboard, since i dont care if my OS and Games goes foobar, cuase all d important stuff on my storage array.

So i have

3*40GB SSD -> Mobo
2*300GB VelociRaptor -> Mobo
4*750GB 7200rpm WD -> Areca Raid Controller

[Arcmanov]

Well, well, well...

Unfortunately, I'm sorry to report that the experience has been nothing short of harrowing.

Oh, the backup/restore part went quite smoothly.  Windows Restore detected the RAID volume
quite easily.  I was pleasantly surprised by that.  The drama started when it was time to boot Windows.

I spent the better part of SEVEN HOURS trying to get Windows to boot from that RAID volume.
Windows would attempt to load...then BAM!!!  BSOD immc.  I then tried every backup/restore
app, utility, and technique known to man, and they all produced the same result.

As I think back now, I remember that the mobo pdf DID advise against  migrating an existing
installation to the array, but I was like 'damn the torpedoes' and steamed on anyway.

At about 4:48 am, I well and truly gave up.  Ended up doing what I tried to avoid in the first place:
reinstalling Windows.  Thank god I backed up all my Steam games, and other pertinent folders,
so the recovery process is a far cry from if I had to do everything from scratch again.

Lessons learned the hard way I guess.

The main lesson here?  Proper backups is key.

I'll make sure and grab a copy of the latest Acronis.  Too bad I don't have an identical machine to test
out the 'Universal Restore' option. 



Of course, the upside to all this, is that my system is now faster than a pack of hungry cheetahs.
Power on to desktop takes 45 seconds, and program install time has been reduced to a fraction
of what it was before. MS Office 2010 literally installed in about 6 minutes.  That one shocked me.
Windows installation was about 18 minutes from booting flash drive...to initial desktop.  Niceness.

...and the WEI index jumped to a healthy 6.2.  Up from 5.5...




You know what they say:  'experience is a muthaf@#ka' 


Stay tuned for the next episode, of 'Arcmanov's rig evolves...'

[Arcmanov]

OK, so I obtained the Acronis, and installed it.  Then I created a restore disk.
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that you can use the restore disk to
recover from Windows 7 system images as well, and it came in handy today,
because the HDD (C: drive too) in my download PC failed... ...yeah, jus so.

As luck would have it, I made a system backup of that drive last week.
It was a simple process of booting from the Acronis rescue disk (which I
created on USB), choosing the Windows 7 image, then destination drive,
and boof baf.  PC back online in about 25 mins.

...and this is after I tried the Windows 7 image restore.



Let me save everyone the trouble right now and say it....

The built-in backup/restore in Windows 7 is downright ATROCIOUS,
and should be avoided at ALL costs.  It is VERY fussy about restores.
It seems that you cannot restore to a smaller drive, even though your backed-up
data might be smaller in total than the drive you're restoring to.  Absolute rubbish.

Acronis True Image Home is de healing.  When a 3rd party app can do the job better
than Windows' own built-in utility, AND with its OWN IMAGE, then you know said
utility is to be left alone.


Yeah...if i had four hands, I'd give Windows 7 backup restore FOUR THUMBS DOWN!!! 

[Spazosaurus]

Couple times I used built in image backup it didnt give me any problems, then again I was always backing up and restoring to and from the same drive. Boot win7 disk ad restore.

The one stupid thing I found is that the image HAS to reside on the root of the drive that holds the backup image otherwise windows does not see it.

For all my other heavy duty imaging needs I normally use Norton Ghost but Arc that glowing recommendation cannot be ignored.

For my main PC though, it just feels better to me to do a fresh install after a crash. No technical reason i dont use images on it just is my personal quirk.

For server though I at least have a software mirror on two drives. Performance is definitely not as good as hardware raid but I found it is easier to manage and much more tolerable to 'Murphy's Law' type events.

[Arcmanov]

Remember that Acer AL2216W LCD that failed on me a while back?

Well thanks to the power of Google and ebay, I'm happy to report that it's back in business. 



...and I very nearly threw it away.

I have to give Saxman all the credit for persuading me to try and fix it, because I'd just about given up on it.
It turns out that this power board's failed capacitors were the culprit.

Simply changing that board resolved the 'not powering on' problem.

Maybe, you might have a LCD sitting in a corner with a similar issue, you never know, a replacement part
like this just might get it running again.


So now I have a great secondary monitor. 

Thanks again Sax.

[W1nTry]

Arc, I sent you an email regarding a monitor, hit me up.

[Spazosaurus]

Nice work there Arc and Sax. How hard was it to replace though?

[Eroo]

Yeah I would like to know also how hard it was. Did it involve soldering?

Also I remember back in the day of CRTs I was always warned never to open because they stored enough current to knock out or possibly kill a person. Is this true and if so does it apply to LCDs as well?

[Berzerk]

ooo good info. gotta hit up sax oui

[SPK]

Also I remember back in the day of CRTs I was always warned never to open because they stored enough current to knock out or possibly kill a person. Is this true and if so does it apply to LCDs as well?

That is true with regards to CRT displays - usually had voltages averaging around 25kV. Definitely not something to joke around with. You should know how to discharge them before working with a CRT's innards.

With that said, I'm not sure what specific voltage levels are present in LCDs, but I will wager that it will be MUCH less. That's due to the difference in technologies implemented to generate the image. (CRTs used such a high level of voltage due to the use of electron guns. LCDs don't have those guns present.)

In any case, still take all precautions to make sure you don't electrocute yourself.