XP pro 32, 64 or Vista 32 or 64?

[KSoD]

But at the same time you lose half of your storage. Compared to my method which you have all your storage and it is safe and secure. Until the disc fails. But if you use 1 HDD for nothing but storage of files then it should not fail anytime soon.

My HDD that i use for storage is nothing but Extended partitions. It has my downloads, family pics, among other things on there. Files that i dont access at all times yet they are there when i need them. Compared to teh other drives which are my 2 system HDD's.

The 1 HDD is nothing but OS's. 4 partitions with XP/Vista/PCLinuxOS/Ubuntu on it. The other is my music drive which is accessed quite a bit and my Emulators.

So you see while my drive isnt accessed much i dont have much to worry about in terms of failure. I get all my storage and dont lose any to a RAID Array.

The choice is yours. I prefer never to use Raid as it is a waste of time and space. Because you dont know if XP upon install with have the drivers for the RAID array. Then you have to get them slipstreamed in. The you get XP isntalled only to find out Vista doesnt have the drivers either. So then you have to go back and get Vista to recognize your RAID array.

Just so much work which can be avoided with some thinking ahead. Plus those files you cant lose. Back them up on DVD's as well. It may take several to do so. But in the end if you due have a failure in ALL your drives, heaven forbid, you will still have that info.

 

[ingeborgdot]

Well, how about this. Use 2 320gb hdd and partition it in half. One side for xp pro and the other for vista. Do a raid 1 on these two hdd and with my other two hdd that aren't accessed much just use them separately to not lose any hdd and have external backups for them. I don't mind giving up 320gb on my os side to have some added security to not have to reinstall if a disc goes bad. I know what you are saying about losing a whole hdd but I have done raid 1 before on other computers and it has been a big time saver of not having to reinstall the os and apps. Just put in the new hdd and the os goes onto the new hdd without any work from me.

 

[KSoD]

Having you OS's in RAID will not prevent a re-install. To do that use Acronis or Norton Ghost and make a Image. That way when things go bad you ahve a image that you can just put back on at any time with just a few clicks. Plus it will already be updated as of when you created the image and have any software that you already preloaded.

The reason why a RAID wont protect you is because when something goes wrong on the first disc, die to drivers or whatever. It will be mirrored on the 2nd disc. So no matter what you will have to re-install. As you said yourself RAID 1 is mirror. So what happens on the first will happen to the second.

Like i said if you choose to that is fine. But it is simple and easy to make a image and just put that on when your OS fails. I have about 30 or so images of XP adn another 12 or so of VIsta already. It is all personal preference. I cant make the decision for you. I can just show you other options.

 

[ingeborgdot]

Ok, I see what you are saying. If something corrupts it but if the hdd just goes bad it will work the way I explained, right?

 

[KSoD]

Yes if just hte HDD goes bad then the way you explained it everything will work. But as i stated if a application or some other piece of software damages it then it wont since it will be mirrored onto the RAID array.

You can do both if you wish. Create your RAID Array and make a Image. That way no matter what happens you will be covered.

 

[ingeborgdot]

If I am going to dual boot using xp 64 and vista 64 what things do I really need to know?
Hardware?
Software?
How do I find out what works?
Also, is there any special way that you install your other hdd. If choose no raid and do it your way do I need to do anything when formatting the drives?

 

[ingeborgdot]

If I would happen to use 32 bit for my os, is 3gb or 4 just wasting money?

 

[KSoD]

If I am going to dual boot using xp 64 and vista 64 what things do I really need to know?
Hardware?
Software?
How do I find out what works?
Also, is there any special way that you install your other hdd. If choose no raid and do it your way do I need to do anything when formatting the drives?

Hardware isnt such a big concern. Most hardware can do either. It is the CPU that matters most. Make sure yours in 64 Bit compatible and you are set.
Software you will have to make sure that the software you use is either using a 32 bit installer or a 64 bit isntaller and runs at either 32 or 64 bit. 64 Bit can not do anything with 16 bit apps.
No special way to isntall hard drives. Put in it. Plug it in. Power it up. RAID configs require more but for just general usage no special needs.

If I would happen to use 32 bit for my os, is 3gb or 4 just wasting money?

If you use 3GB you will be fine. But if you use 4GB you will see only 3 or 3.5GB being used and recognized.

 

[EricB]

64 is a lot faster. especially for video encoding. if many companies got into it, it could be even faster.

I'd follow mak's advice and don't do raid. I tell people that, then month later they are crying about their crashed hdd's, because they didn't want to listen. if you are going that route at the very least get some seagate scsi drives with and adaptec controller, which are 10x times more rugged than ide. never raid ide drives.

 

[J9Darkwing]

I use two 10k, 74gig raptor hard drives in raid 0 for my OS and (thanks to people here on the forum) have found Acronis to replace my old ghost 9.0 to backup the OS. In my experience XP does not come with raid drivers that work so you'll have to go through the whole 'raid drivers floppy disk' thing. Vista on the other hand has never had an issue with raid and has worked in raid from day one. Do what Mak said and put your important must have's on dvd. If you insist on raid the use raid 0 and image your OS.
If the software you intend to install isn't 64bit, and most software isn't, then it won't make much difference if you run 32 or 64 bit unless you want 4 gig of ran. Hopefully that will change with time and the forward thinking person would go with the 64 bit.