Hard Drive BackUp Concepts

Anyone who uses a computer for anything other than playing games is probably creating files that they really do not want to lose to an unexpected hard drive failure. Here is the benefit of our experience on the subject.

For years tape drives were thought to be an absolute necessity for backing up the hard drives. Unfortunately, the only tape drives that ever worked reliably were "DAT" drives and they were just way too expensive for average, non-corporate, users. All the other tape drives had one aggregating characteristic. The tapes could ONLY be replayed on the actual drive that they were created on... and then... only sometimes! There were always high error rates when trying to do a restore from tape drives.  If your house was broken into and someone stole your computer (with the tape drive installed on it) you would not be able to use your tapes to re-create all your data, since you no longer had the drive that was used to create the tapes! We stopped using tape drives years ago.

Many folks are using this concept today. It is relatively low cost and it is very reliable. The disks can usually be played back on almost any other computer or drive.

But, here's the problem with this. No one that I know really goes to all the trouble of recording everything that they should and never when they should be doing it! It's just too much trouble for most folks. And, it sure doesn't "save" very much data... only 650MB on a CD and only 4.7GB on a DVD. Most of today's hard drives are well over 100GB in size and getting larger. Here at the BAT Cave, we are now using hard drives that are 400GB in size.

Even if you do practice this concept - when a data loss occurs, how do you find the particular disk that has the data you want. Remember, after a few years, you could easily have HUNDREDS of CD's laying around. Most of them will not be organized very well.

Although we do, occasionally, use CD's to back-up a particular set of files or a particular customer's work, we do not use this method as a general policy.

At one time, several years ago, RAID was a concept that could only be used with SCSI hard drives. Then, a company called Promise Technology pioneered a way to have RAID technology applied to regular IDE Hard drives. This brought the cost of the technology down to where most folks could afford it. The trouble is... most folks don't know how to use it and really SHOULD stay away from it!!

There are several different types of RAID:

Well, I didn't actually invent this concept all by myself, but since I am using it and am promoting it to my customers... why not name it after our company? Here's what we do at ColorBAT.

I have heard of people who try to use some of the RAID concepts described above as a method of handling large, RAW, digital camera files a little faster. That is fine, as long as you are willing to dedicate 3, 4 or 5 hard drives for every ONE that you actually would otherwise be using. I don't do that because I have never found it necessary to seek that kind of performance speed. In most cases large file handling is regulated by the speed with which Photoshop can perform the processing which has little to do with the read/write speed of the hard drive and is actually a factor of the CPU performance more than the hard drive performance. If large files are truly a problem for you, try using a "server" motherboard with dual Zeon CPU's. But, even then, you're still back to Photoshop's ability to utilize the dual CPU's.

All hard drives on our systems... and on systems that we build for our customers... are installed in front-removable, fan-cooled, caddies (see the picture below). That way, when ever there is a problem with a hard drive, anyone can easily get to it without having to take the case apart. The fan-cooling helps to extend the life of the hard drive. Today, we are using nothing but SATA hard drives. The old, IDE (ATA) hard drives are on the way out. The new SATA (serial) hard drives are faster, and more reliable with less data corruption. We always format the hard drives in NTFS. It is a lot more stable than FAT32. I tend to shy away from super hi-speed RPM drives since the higher the speed the more likely the bearings are to mechanically fail.. sooner rather than later. We are now using hard drives running about 7200 RPM. I also tend to shy away from MAXTOR hard drives for a whole host of reasons that are too lengthy to go into here. Seagate, Quantum, Western Digital are all OK. I leave my personal workstation powered "on" 24/7. I have the Power Settings (in Control Panel) adjusted to turn the monitor and hard drives off after 30 minutes. But, the computer stays "on" to handle a bunch of chores that run in the background.

Since most motherboards will only support up to (4) IDE devices or, now with the new motherboards,... up to (4) SATA devices plus (2) IDE devices,... we are currently using special motherboards that will support up to (6) SATA drives and (2) IDE devices. Then, if we need still more SATA drives, we use a SATA PCI Controller Card.

About SATA Controller Cards & Hard Drives

First, let me say that you can easily run the older, IDE, hard drives, and the newer, SATA, hard drives on the same computer. They are totally compatible and work together well as long as you have the correct controller necessary for each type.

The specification for SATA provides for two levels of SATA technology. There is SATA I and SATA II. SATA I (now being phased out) was intended to be a faster (than IDE), but cheaper-built, hard drive intended for consumer use. It was released first by the manufacturers. SATA II was intended to be a faster (than SATA I), MORE RELIABLE, hard drive intended for professional use. SATA II was first released in 2005.

As a result of these two levels of performance, there are SATA I and SATA II Controller Cards. And, since the industry in now in the process of phasing out PCI slots on motherboards in favor of PCI-X (sometimes called PCIx1) slots, the SATA Controller Cards are being made in several different configurations by several different companies.

The newest motherboards, provide for on-board control of 4 to 8 SATA devices plus 2 IDE devices. Typically, the IDE connector is used for the CD-ROM/DVD drive and the 4 to 8 SATA connectors are used for the hard drives. However, if you have an older motherboard that only had 2 SATA connectors or maybe none at all, or if you just need more SATA hard drive in your computer, then you'll need a SATA Controller Card to be installed in your computer.

SIIG (www.siig.com) makes some popular SATA Controller cards in several configurations. In late 2005 they begain phasing out their SATA I Controller Cards in favor of their SATA II Controller cards that are backward compatible with the older SATA I hard drives. While SIIG used to make a 4-connector SATA I controller Card, they are not currently making a 4-connector Card for SATA II. They are, however, making a SATA 2 Controller Card with 2 ports that sells for about $80.00 and fits into a PCI-x1 motherboard slot. While you can still buy some of the older SATA I Controller Cards that fit into the old PCI slots, I recommend against it at this time. If you're going to be making these type of changes, go for the newer technology even if you have to up-grade to a newer motherboard.

If you need a SATA II Controller Card that has more than 2 ports on it, you will have to go for a controller card that is intended for use as a RAID controller and then configure it to treat each hard drive that is connected as a stand-alone hard drive. That is easy to do. To the best of my knowledge, no one is currently making a simple (no RAID) SATA II controller card with more than 2 ports.

While Promise Technology makes 8-port SATA II RAID Controllers, I like the product by one of their competitors, a company called Broadcom (www.broadcom.com). They make a 4-port SATA II RAID card (#BCMBC4410) that sells for about $130.00 and an 8-port version (#BCMBC4810) that sells for about $200.00. Both cards require a PCI-x1 slot... plus Windows 2000, 2003, or XP operating system. The Windows 2003 Operating System is used on corporate servers.

With the Broadcom 8-port controller card and a motherboard that offers at least 4 built-on SATA connectors, you could have up to (12) 400 GB hard drives in a single computer! That's more then even I need!! <grin>

Today, Gigabyte offers a motherboard (965P-DS3) that supports Pentium Core 2 Duo CPU's and also has (6) on-board SATA connectors ports at 3.0 GB/s data transfer. The board supports 8 GB of DDR2 800 SDRAM and uses PCIe x16 for video. It also has (3) PCI-32 bit slots and (3) PCIx-1 slots for accessory boards. We are currently using this Gigabyte board for most of the systems that we are currently building for our clients. However, we are constantly looking at the new boards being released by all the major manufacturers and switch motherboards whenever we think a better product is now available.

Many folks today are opting to use external USB-connected hard drives. That's OK, but such devices are considerably more expensive than internal hard drives, and present some compatibility issues on older operating systems. One more reason to up-grade your operating system to Windows XP Professional. We have not yet starting using Vista as our first choice. (Aug 2007)

In addition to the following "concept" for data protection, all of our ColorBAT workstations ALWAYS have an uninterruptible power supply attached to the computer. After all, what good is all the data protection in the world if a nutty automobile driver can hit a telephone pole, cause a power failure, and wipe out your computer in the process?

For more information about SATA hard drives, CLICK HERE

The C: Drive

Data corruption and loss frequently starts with a shortage of RAM. We are now using 4GB of RAM on all of our computers. RAM is the single most important factor in permitting you to do multi-tasking on your computer. Multi-tasking is when you have more than one application open at a time.

We typically use an 80GB hard drive for a C: drive. An 80GB hard drive provides plenty of room for the operating system and all the applications, plus plenty of unused space. However, with the new Vista operating system now coming into play, we will probably be moving up to a 120GB C: drive. A little extra space is always needed on a C: drive since the C: drive is frequently used as a spooler for the ink jet printers that might be connected to the computer as well as a place where a lot of different programs store their temporary files while they are working. The temporary files for Photoshop can be "pointed" to any hard drive installed on the computer. Try to pick a data hard drive (that doesn't have too much data on it.... Photoshop temp-files can get VERY large... 2 - 4 times larger than the base-file that you might be working on) so if Photoshop crashes (as it frequently does) it will not corrupt your C: drive. Also, you don't want to be exercising the C: drive with Photoshop constantly reading/writing to it up-dating its temp-files while you're working. Such exercise is just a corruption-accident waiting to happen.

Data files are NEVER, NEVER stored on the C: drive... NEVER!!!! In fact, if the computer has internet access and uses an Email browser, we "point" the Email browser to one of the data drives as a place to store all the Email messages. Then, since it usually is not possible to point the address book to a different hard drive, we typically, "export" a copy of it to a data hard drive about once a month. We also save a copy of the FAVORITES folder to one of the data drives about once a month. That way, if a C: drive failure ever occurs, we have all of our Email messages safely off on a data drive as well as a reasonably current version of the Address Book and the Favorites Folder.

After the computer is built, and all the  software is installed and all the drivers are installed, THEN, I use a utility called Acronis* to create a mirror disk of the C: drive. The mirror disk is stored in a caddy drawer that is a duplicate for the caddy drawer that holds the original C: drive. In other words, I have two, identical, C: drives. If the (working) C: drive ever becomes corrupted or mechanically fails, the replacement caddy drawer with the mirrored C: drive can be installed in seconds and the computer can be back up and running. The failed C: drive can then be examined at my leisure to determine what the problem is and what I want to do about the problem. Sometimes all I have to do is re-format the corrupted drive, and then create a new mirrored C: drive using the Acronis utility.

As an extra, double, protection for the C: drive, I also use Acronis to create a back-up "image file" of the C: drive. To do that, Acronis takes ALL the files on the C: drive... operating system files, application files, EVERYTHING,... and compresses all of that (about a 2:1 compression ratio) into ONE BIG, single, file and stores the file on one of the data hard drives. Now, if the C: drive is ever corrupted, acting funny, or even refuses to boot, I can use the Acronis CD-ROM to boot the computer and with that back-up file, I can re-format the C: drive and restore EVERYTHING to it in about 20 minutes. All the applications with all their preference settings, all the drivers,... EVERYTHING is restored!!

All drives that are used for data storage are always installed in matching PAIRS using the same front-removable caddies described above. Our ColorBAT BackUp Concept calls for TWO hard drives instead of 3, 4 or 5 hard drives that are used with the better RAID concepts. One of the pair is designated as the "working" drive and the other as the "back up" drive. We are currently using 250GB and 400GB hard drives for data storage. We never partition hard drives. That is "old" thinking that no longer applies.

All day while we are "working", we read & write to and from the designated "working" hard drive. At the end of the work day, we run a little utility called Save-n-Sync**. It synchronizes the two hard drives so that each drive has identical data. And since each hard drive is fully "on-line", if a failure were to occur with either of the two hard drives, the other one is instantly available. By synchronizing the two drives at the end of each work day, the backed up data is never more than one day "old". If I accidentally corrupt one drive by causing a system crash while the drive is being used, the other drive still holds all the data, nice and safe! The utility, Save-n-Sync, requires about 15 minutes to synchronize the two drives since the only data that is actually being written are the new files that were just added to the "working" drive during the day.

Since each hard drive is fully backed up every 24 hours, we can now run our hard drives until one actually fails in use. We used to automatically replace our hard drives every two years as a hedge against unexpected failure. Now, we don't have to do that. When a hard drive actually fails, I pull the caddy out of the front-removable drawer, and replace it with a new drive of like or larger capacity. Then I run Save-n-Sync to copy all the data from the remaining good drive over to the new, replacement, drive.

On my personal workstation, I now have a total of 6 hard drives. I have two pairs of two-each hard drives, plus a C: drive, plus an extra data drive (currently without a back-up) that I use for VHS to DVD conversion work. Since a DVD is always burned immediately after the conversion, there really isn't a lot of need for backing up the "VIDEO" hard drive. However, I intend to up-grade the VIDEO drive to 400GB and add a back-up 400GB drive with it so that I'll have more space and be able to store data on these drives other than just video files. The two pairs of data-protected hard drives contain the critical data that I cannot afford to lose.

Here is what my personal computer looks like:

DVD-RAM Drive D: is my CD-ROM/DVD drive

BackUP_I (my E: Drive) is used only to back up my I: drive. It is 400GB in size.

Disk_F (my F: Drive) is used as a main data drive. It is 250GB in size.

Local Disk G is just a spare drive for misc data. It is 160GB in size.

Video_2 (my H: Drive) is used to facilitate VHS transfers to DVD. It is 160GB in size.

Disk_I (my I: Drive) is used for the magority of my work on this workstation. It is 400GB in size.

BackUP_F (my J: Drive) is used only to back up my F: Drive. It is 250GB in size.

Video_1 (my K: Drive) is used to facilitate VHS transfers to DVD. It is 400GB in size.

Removable Disk L:  is a Removable card reader slot
Removable Disk M: is a different slot in the same card reader
Removable Disk N: is a different slot in the same card reader
Removable Disk O: is a different slot in the same card reader

The AVC Compliant DV Tape Recorder/Player is not a real device. Instead, it is a "virtual" device, and part of the software installed on the computer. I do NOT use tape back-up.

The Mobile Device is my HP iPAQ hand-held PDA device that is usually connected to the computer for synchronizing purposes.

Notice that I have "shared" on our internal network disks C:, F:, and I:. All other disks are NOT shared. The shared disks are for read-only purposes. This is all done to keep our protection from virus invection as high as possible and still allow us to move files back & forth between our various computers.

Pictured above is a lesser expensive, largely plastic, hard drive caddy. They are available for both ATA (IDE) and SATA hard drives. They are available in both beige and black color. And, individual, extra, removable, drawers are available for use. Always get a type/brand of caddy that includes BOTH a Power LED and an Activity LED. Being able to visually monitor the Activity LED is worth less until your computer starts to act up, then it's priceless when you are trying to trouble shoot things. These caddies run around $35.00 each (August 2007)

Note: SATA I hard drives do NOT have individual Activity Light capability. But, SATA II hard drives DO have the Activity Light capability. If you get a SATA caddy that has the Activity Light, it will not work until you install a SATA II hard drive.

For more information on how to set up a home-network with a wireless router & hardware-based firewall... and how to protect your main computer from Email-introduced virus infection,
CLICK HERE