TMG-L Archives

Archiver > TMG > 2001-10 > 1002033113


From: Terry Reigel <>
Subject: [TMG] OT- OS Choice & RAID-1
Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2001 10:31:53 -0400


Off Topic - Please delete if you are not interested in technical stuff about computer innards.

Well, I guess it's off topic, but it's really running TMG with a fairly large dataset that's my "excuse" for buying a new computer. I know there are some people with experience on these issues on the list, but perhaps it would be best if you reply to do so off list.

I'm talking to a local shop about building a new system - a 1.7G P-IV w/ 512 M RAM. My supplier is strongly urging me not to buy XP - primarily because it's new and bound to have problems. He's suggesting installing my current copy of Win98 SE instead. I'm drawn by his argument, given MS's track record, but would on the other hand like to get improved stability. Anyone have any thoughts?

Also, he's suggesting a pair of 40G HDs running in a RAID-1 mirrored configuration. This would replace my current practice of using a second smaller drive and a Bat file with Xcopy to manually make backups of data files only, as an intermediate backup between copies I make to CD-R. Anybody have any knowledge or experience with RAID-1 on a workstation? How much trouble is it? Do disk utilities like Norton and PartitionMagic work with them? Any idea of what percentage of HD failures occur on the drives themselves as opposed to the elements that would be shared in a RAID system? It seems like my current manual system provides a bit more independence, and hence reliability, though still being subject to common risks like power surges, and also the risk of the user failing to use it often enough.

Any thoughts welcome.

Terry Reigel

This thread: