Two weeks ago, I purchased two WD Black Caviar 1TB drives after the third
(count them) Maxtor external drive gave out on me within a 1 1/2 year period;
this time wiping out all of my work, music, pictures, documents, etc. I
managed to regain 2/3 of it back by using a restoration software I purchased.
I moved the restored files onto one of the newly purchased drives that I had
setup using Raid 1 (Mirroring). For whatever reason, it did not work. Busy,
I thought nothing of it and was just going to use my backup software to make
copies of the first drive to the second on a daily basis. Then, earlier this
week I saw a "recommended update" from Microsoft for Raid. So I downloaded
it and installed it, then rebooted. When my computer came back up, my two
drives disappeared. No need to panic, I performed a system restore which
brought the drives back, but ALL of the files from disk one had disappeared.
Then I began to panic. I used me restoration software again, but this time
there was absolutely nothing to be extracted from the drive. Then for
whatever reason, I restored my computer back to the point when I had
downloaded the updates causing the drives to disappear again. Frustrated, I
went back again only to find that the drives would no longer appear.
Finally, I gave up and did a fresh install of Vista64. Still the drives did
not show up. After installing all of the updates and what not, I decided to
go into disk management and there they were as raw data waiting to be
formatted. Now, I don't know exactly what happened here, but the fact that
these two formatted 1TB discs were now raw leads me to believe that this was
not an error on my part, rather something to do with the Windows Raid update
I had installed on the computer.

If I seem relatively calm, it's because I've had a couple of days to get
over it. However, you better believe that some ears should have been burning
and the snowcaps melting in Redmond prior to writing this comment. At this
point, I have lost everything. Not only burned a multitude of times by
Maxtor (whom I will never purchase again) but by the very operating system
that I have until now been 100% faithful too. Microsoft, you are making it
very hard for me to justify my allegiance. With the upcoming release of
Windows 7 (which I've already tinkered with and enjoy oh so much better than
Vista) I am in process of ordering all new parts to build a new computer this
next week. Perhaps I should re-think that and bite the bullet and go for a
Mac. It can't be that much worse could it?

Why RAID is (usually) a Terrible Idea
http://www.pugetsystems.com/articles?&id=29

RAID Explained
http://www.pugetsystems.com/articles.php?id=24




"whiwo" wrote in message ...
Two weeks ago, I purchased two WD Black Caviar 1TB drives after the third
(count them) Maxtor external drive gave out on me within a 1 1/2 year period;
this time wiping out all of my work, music, pictures, documents, etc. I
managed to regain 2/3 of it back by using a restoration software I purchased.
I moved the restored files onto one of the newly purchased drives that I had
setup using Raid 1 (Mirroring). For whatever reason, it did not work. Busy,
I thought nothing of it and was just going to use my backup software to make
copies of the first drive to the second on a daily basis. Then, earlier this
week I saw a "recommended update" from Microsoft for Raid. So I downloaded
it and installed it, then rebooted. When my computer came back up, my two
drives disappeared. No need to panic, I performed a system restore which
brought the drives back, but ALL of the files from disk one had disappeared.
Then I began to panic. I used me restoration software again, but this time
there was absolutely nothing to be extracted from the drive. Then for
whatever reason, I restored my computer back to the point when I had
downloaded the updates causing the drives to disappear again. Frustrated, I
went back again only to find that the drives would no longer appear.
Finally, I gave up and did a fresh install of Vista64. Still the drives did
not show up. After installing all of the updates and what not, I decided to
go into disk management and there they were as raw data waiting to be
formatted. Now, I don't know exactly what happened here, but the fact that
these two formatted 1TB discs were now raw leads me to believe that this was
not an error on my part, rather something to do with the Windows Raid update
I had installed on the computer.

If I seem relatively calm, it's because I've had a couple of days to get
over it. However, you better believe that some ears should have been burning
and the snowcaps melting in Redmond prior to writing this comment. At this
point, I have lost everything. Not only burned a multitude of times by
Maxtor (whom I will never purchase again) but by the very operating system
that I have until now been 100% faithful too. Microsoft, you are making it
very hard for me to justify my allegiance. With the upcoming release of
Windows 7 (which I've already tinkered with and enjoy oh so much better than
Vista) I am in process of ordering all new parts to build a new computer this
next week. Perhaps I should re-think that and bite the bullet and go for a
Mac. It can't be that much worse could it?

You don't install drivers from MS update unless the drivers are for MS
hardware, you obtain drivers, and then only *if necessary* to cure a bug or
give greater functionality from the hw manufacturers sites
A mirror raid is not a replacement for a data backup
"If it aint broke dont fix it"

"whiwo" wrote in message
...
Two weeks ago, I purchased two WD Black Caviar 1TB drives after the third
(count them) Maxtor external drive gave out on me within a 1 1/2 year
period;
this time wiping out all of my work, music, pictures, documents, etc. I
managed to regain 2/3 of it back by using a restoration software I
purchased.
I moved the restored files onto one of the newly purchased drives that I
had
setup using Raid 1 (Mirroring). For whatever reason, it did not work.
Busy,
I thought nothing of it and was just going to use my backup software to
make
copies of the first drive to the second on a daily basis. Then, earlier
this
week I saw a "recommended update" from Microsoft for Raid. So I
downloaded
it and installed it, then rebooted. When my computer came back up, my two
drives disappeared. No need to panic, I performed a system restore which
brought the drives back, but ALL of the files from disk one had
disappeared.
Then I began to panic. I used me restoration software again, but this
time
there was absolutely nothing to be extracted from the drive. Then for
whatever reason, I restored my computer back to the point when I had
downloaded the updates causing the drives to disappear again. Frustrated,
I
went back again only to find that the drives would no longer appear.
Finally, I gave up and did a fresh install of Vista64. Still the drives
did
not show up. After installing all of the updates and what not, I decided
to
go into disk management and there they were as raw data waiting to be
formatted. Now, I don't know exactly what happened here, but the fact
that
these two formatted 1TB discs were now raw leads me to believe that this
was
not an error on my part, rather something to do with the Windows Raid
update
I had installed on the computer.

If I seem relatively calm, it's because I've had a couple of days to get
over it. However, you better believe that some ears should have been
burning
and the snowcaps melting in Redmond prior to writing this comment. At
this
point, I have lost everything. Not only burned a multitude of times by
Maxtor (whom I will never purchase again) but by the very operating system
that I have until now been 100% faithful too. Microsoft, you are making
it
very hard for me to justify my allegiance. With the upcoming release of
Windows 7 (which I've already tinkered with and enjoy oh so much better
than
Vista) I am in process of ordering all new parts to build a new computer
this
next week. Perhaps I should re-think that and bite the bullet and go for
a
Mac. It can't be that much worse could it?

Thank you for that bit of information. Apparently, I was the 3% loss of data
mentioned in the article. Alright, so I'll use my Syncback software that I
had always used, which works flawlessly and back up to both hard drives.
I'll break down and go ahead and purchase a new external hard drive. Any
recommendations other than Maxtor because they suck. They overheat, have
poor lifespan, and a one year warranty practically guaranteed to be useless
since that's about the time they give out. Frankly, if someone wanted to get
into that business, they would offer a really solid external drive with large
capacity and a 5 year warranty at a premium price. The catch? They could
also offer free restoration services if it fails during that time frame. Now
that would be backing up your product. I can't afford a server at the
moment, which is probably the direction I need to go. I'm thinking about
using the Mozy service in conjunction with the aforementioned strategies.
Right now on Comcast and their slow speeds that wouldn't be realistic, but I
have AT&T coming in Monday to install their U-verse service and a 18mb
connection. Then, it may be practical.

"Carey Frisch [MVP]" wrote:

Why RAID is (usually) a Terrible Idea
http://www.pugetsystems.com/articles?&id=29

RAID Explained
http://www.pugetsystems.com/articles.php?id=24




"whiwo" wrote in message ...
Two weeks ago, I purchased two WD Black Caviar 1TB drives after the third
(count them) Maxtor external drive gave out on me within a 1 1/2 year period;
this time wiping out all of my work, music, pictures, documents, etc. I
managed to regain 2/3 of it back by using a restoration software I purchased.
I moved the restored files onto one of the newly purchased drives that I had
setup using Raid 1 (Mirroring). For whatever reason, it did not work. Busy,
I thought nothing of it and was just going to use my backup software to make
copies of the first drive to the second on a daily basis. Then, earlier this
week I saw a "recommended update" from Microsoft for Raid. So I downloaded
it and installed it, then rebooted. When my computer came back up, my two
drives disappeared. No need to panic, I performed a system restore which
brought the drives back, but ALL of the files from disk one had disappeared.
Then I began to panic. I used me restoration software again, but this time
there was absolutely nothing to be extracted from the drive. Then for
whatever reason, I restored my computer back to the point when I had
downloaded the updates causing the drives to disappear again. Frustrated, I
went back again only to find that the drives would no longer appear.
Finally, I gave up and did a fresh install of Vista64. Still the drives did
not show up. After installing all of the updates and what not, I decided to
go into disk management and there they were as raw data waiting to be
formatted. Now, I don't know exactly what happened here, but the fact that
these two formatted 1TB discs were now raw leads me to believe that this was
not an error on my part, rather something to do with the Windows Raid update
I had installed on the computer.

If I seem relatively calm, it's because I've had a couple of days to get
over it. However, you better believe that some ears should have been burning
and the snowcaps melting in Redmond prior to writing this comment. At this
point, I have lost everything. Not only burned a multitude of times by
Maxtor (whom I will never purchase again) but by the very operating system
that I have until now been 100% faithful too. Microsoft, you are making it
very hard for me to justify my allegiance. With the upcoming release of
Windows 7 (which I've already tinkered with and enjoy oh so much better than
Vista) I am in process of ordering all new parts to build a new computer this
next week. Perhaps I should re-think that and bite the bullet and go for a
Mac. It can't be that much worse could it?

I have experienced problems with onboard raid, the mobo manufacturer Asus
admitted there had been problems, which they had thought had been cured by a
bios update, it hadnt.
In my specific case I found, when I broke the mirror, that data & some apps
were on one drive but not on its mirror drive.
I then purchased an dedicted hardware raid card (retail cost $350) which has
worked flawlessly for the last 2 years on a sys that runs 24/7
Its allso the case that a slightly iffy pwr supply can cause problems (or
cheap pwr supply, when compared to a high end one)
Just look at the price of a mobo with onboard raid and compare it to a
dedicated HW raid card, generally you will find the card costs at least 3
times as much as the mobo; which must be an indication of something.

"whiwo" wrote in message
...
Thank you for that bit of information. Apparently, I was the 3% loss of
data
mentioned in the article. Alright, so I'll use my Syncback software that
I
had always used, which works flawlessly and back up to both hard drives.
I'll break down and go ahead and purchase a new external hard drive. Any
recommendations other than Maxtor because they suck. They overheat, have
poor lifespan, and a one year warranty practically guaranteed to be
useless
since that's about the time they give out. Frankly, if someone wanted to
get
into that business, they would offer a really solid external drive with
large
capacity and a 5 year warranty at a premium price. The catch? They could
also offer free restoration services if it fails during that time frame.
Now
that would be backing up your product. I can't afford a server at the
moment, which is probably the direction I need to go. I'm thinking about
using the Mozy service in conjunction with the aforementioned strategies.
Right now on Comcast and their slow speeds that wouldn't be realistic, but
I
have AT&T coming in Monday to install their U-verse service and a 18mb
connection. Then, it may be practical.

"Carey Frisch [MVP]" wrote:

Why RAID is (usually) a Terrible Idea
http://www.pugetsystems.com/articles?&id=29

RAID Explained
http://www.pugetsystems.com/articles.php?id=24




"whiwo" wrote in message
...
Two weeks ago, I purchased two WD Black Caviar 1TB drives after the third
(count them) Maxtor external drive gave out on me within a 1 1/2 year
period;
this time wiping out all of my work, music, pictures, documents, etc. I
managed to regain 2/3 of it back by using a restoration software I
purchased.
I moved the restored files onto one of the newly purchased drives that I
had
setup using Raid 1 (Mirroring). For whatever reason, it did not work.
Busy,
I thought nothing of it and was just going to use my backup software to
make
copies of the first drive to the second on a daily basis. Then, earlier
this
week I saw a "recommended update" from Microsoft for Raid. So I
downloaded
it and installed it, then rebooted. When my computer came back up, my
two
drives disappeared. No need to panic, I performed a system restore which
brought the drives back, but ALL of the files from disk one had
disappeared.
Then I began to panic. I used me restoration software again, but this
time
there was absolutely nothing to be extracted from the drive. Then for
whatever reason, I restored my computer back to the point when I had
downloaded the updates causing the drives to disappear again.
Frustrated, I
went back again only to find that the drives would no longer appear.
Finally, I gave up and did a fresh install of Vista64. Still the drives
did
not show up. After installing all of the updates and what not, I decided
to
go into disk management and there they were as raw data waiting to be
formatted. Now, I don't know exactly what happened here, but the fact
that
these two formatted 1TB discs were now raw leads me to believe that this
was
not an error on my part, rather something to do with the Windows Raid
update
I had installed on the computer.

If I seem relatively calm, it's because I've had a couple of days to get
over it. However, you better believe that some ears should have been
burning
and the snowcaps melting in Redmond prior to writing this comment. At
this
point, I have lost everything. Not only burned a multitude of times by
Maxtor (whom I will never purchase again) but by the very operating
system
that I have until now been 100% faithful too. Microsoft, you are making
it
very hard for me to justify my allegiance. With the upcoming release of
Windows 7 (which I've already tinkered with and enjoy oh so much better
than
Vista) I am in process of ordering all new parts to build a new computer
this
next week. Perhaps I should re-think that and bite the bullet and go for
a
Mac. It can't be that much worse could it?

Thanks DL, I'll look into it and take it into consideration. I just find it
frustrating that these companies put out product (i.e. hard drives) that are
supposed to keep your files protected knowing full well they don't last
beyond the warranty (usually a year). I decided on the two external hard
drives as an alternate option, but it just seems like there is no perfect
solution short of backing everything up to DVD, which in this day and age
just isn't practical. I've got my wishlist at Newegg ready to go and will
definitely check out a separate raid controller as opposed to the onboard one
provided with my motherboard.

"DL" wrote:

I have experienced problems with onboard raid, the mobo manufacturer Asus
admitted there had been problems, which they had thought had been cured by a
bios update, it hadnt.
In my specific case I found, when I broke the mirror, that data & some apps
were on one drive but not on its mirror drive.
I then purchased an dedicted hardware raid card (retail cost $350) which has
worked flawlessly for the last 2 years on a sys that runs 24/7
Its allso the case that a slightly iffy pwr supply can cause problems (or
cheap pwr supply, when compared to a high end one)
Just look at the price of a mobo with onboard raid and compare it to a
dedicated HW raid card, generally you will find the card costs at least 3
times as much as the mobo; which must be an indication of something.

"whiwo" wrote in message
...
Thank you for that bit of information. Apparently, I was the 3% loss of
data
mentioned in the article. Alright, so I'll use my Syncback software that
I
had always used, which works flawlessly and back up to both hard drives.
I'll break down and go ahead and purchase a new external hard drive. Any
recommendations other than Maxtor because they suck. They overheat, have
poor lifespan, and a one year warranty practically guaranteed to be
useless
since that's about the time they give out. Frankly, if someone wanted to
get
into that business, they would offer a really solid external drive with
large
capacity and a 5 year warranty at a premium price. The catch? They could
also offer free restoration services if it fails during that time frame.
Now
that would be backing up your product. I can't afford a server at the
moment, which is probably the direction I need to go. I'm thinking about
using the Mozy service in conjunction with the aforementioned strategies.
Right now on Comcast and their slow speeds that wouldn't be realistic, but
I
have AT&T coming in Monday to install their U-verse service and a 18mb
connection. Then, it may be practical.

"Carey Frisch [MVP]" wrote:

Why RAID is (usually) a Terrible Idea
http://www.pugetsystems.com/articles?&id=29

RAID Explained
http://www.pugetsystems.com/articles.php?id=24




"whiwo" wrote in message
...
Two weeks ago, I purchased two WD Black Caviar 1TB drives after the third
(count them) Maxtor external drive gave out on me within a 1 1/2 year
period;
this time wiping out all of my work, music, pictures, documents, etc. I
managed to regain 2/3 of it back by using a restoration software I
purchased.
I moved the restored files onto one of the newly purchased drives that I
had
setup using Raid 1 (Mirroring). For whatever reason, it did not work.
Busy,
I thought nothing of it and was just going to use my backup software to
make
copies of the first drive to the second on a daily basis. Then, earlier
this
week I saw a "recommended update" from Microsoft for Raid. So I
downloaded
it and installed it, then rebooted. When my computer came back up, my
two
drives disappeared. No need to panic, I performed a system restore which
brought the drives back, but ALL of the files from disk one had
disappeared.
Then I began to panic. I used me restoration software again, but this
time
there was absolutely nothing to be extracted from the drive. Then for
whatever reason, I restored my computer back to the point when I had
downloaded the updates causing the drives to disappear again.
Frustrated, I
went back again only to find that the drives would no longer appear.
Finally, I gave up and did a fresh install of Vista64. Still the drives
did
not show up. After installing all of the updates and what not, I decided
to
go into disk management and there they were as raw data waiting to be
formatted. Now, I don't know exactly what happened here, but the fact
that
these two formatted 1TB discs were now raw leads me to believe that this
was
not an error on my part, rather something to do with the Windows Raid
update
I had installed on the computer.

If I seem relatively calm, it's because I've had a couple of days to get
over it. However, you better believe that some ears should have been
burning
and the snowcaps melting in Redmond prior to writing this comment. At
this
point, I have lost everything. Not only burned a multitude of times by
Maxtor (whom I will never purchase again) but by the very operating
system
that I have until now been 100% faithful too. Microsoft, you are making
it
very hard for me to justify my allegiance. With the upcoming release of
Windows 7 (which I've already tinkered with and enjoy oh so much better
than
Vista) I am in process of ordering all new parts to build a new computer
this
next week. Perhaps I should re-think that and bite the bullet and go for
a
Mac. It can't be that much worse could it?

Seagate, over here, have 5 year warranties, Sansung 2 or 3
Having said that I rma'd 3 Samsung drives less than 6 month old

"whiwo" wrote in message
...
Thanks DL, I'll look into it and take it into consideration. I just find
it
frustrating that these companies put out product (i.e. hard drives) that
are
supposed to keep your files protected knowing full well they don't last
beyond the warranty (usually a year). I decided on the two external hard
drives as an alternate option, but it just seems like there is no perfect
solution short of backing everything up to DVD, which in this day and age
just isn't practical. I've got my wishlist at Newegg ready to go and will
definitely check out a separate raid controller as opposed to the onboard
one
provided with my motherboard.

"DL" wrote:

I have experienced problems with onboard raid, the mobo manufacturer Asus
admitted there had been problems, which they had thought had been cured
by a
bios update, it hadnt.
In my specific case I found, when I broke the mirror, that data & some
apps
were on one drive but not on its mirror drive.
I then purchased an dedicted hardware raid card (retail cost $350) which
has
worked flawlessly for the last 2 years on a sys that runs 24/7
Its allso the case that a slightly iffy pwr supply can cause problems (or
cheap pwr supply, when compared to a high end one)
Just look at the price of a mobo with onboard raid and compare it to a
dedicated HW raid card, generally you will find the card costs at least 3
times as much as the mobo; which must be an indication of something.

"whiwo" wrote in message
...
Thank you for that bit of information. Apparently, I was the 3% loss
of
data
mentioned in the article. Alright, so I'll use my Syncback software
that
I
had always used, which works flawlessly and back up to both hard
drives.
I'll break down and go ahead and purchase a new external hard drive.
Any
recommendations other than Maxtor because they suck. They overheat,
have
poor lifespan, and a one year warranty practically guaranteed to be
useless
since that's about the time they give out. Frankly, if someone wanted
to
get
into that business, they would offer a really solid external drive with
large
capacity and a 5 year warranty at a premium price. The catch? They
could
also offer free restoration services if it fails during that time
frame.
Now
that would be backing up your product. I can't afford a server at the
moment, which is probably the direction I need to go. I'm thinking
about
using the Mozy service in conjunction with the aforementioned
strategies.
Right now on Comcast and their slow speeds that wouldn't be realistic,
but
I
have AT&T coming in Monday to install their U-verse service and a 18mb
connection. Then, it may be practical.

"Carey Frisch [MVP]" wrote:

Why RAID is (usually) a Terrible Idea
http://www.pugetsystems.com/articles?&id=29

RAID Explained
http://www.pugetsystems.com/articles.php?id=24




"whiwo" wrote in message
...
Two weeks ago, I purchased two WD Black Caviar 1TB drives after the
third
(count them) Maxtor external drive gave out on me within a 1 1/2 year
period;
this time wiping out all of my work, music, pictures, documents, etc.
I
managed to regain 2/3 of it back by using a restoration software I
purchased.
I moved the restored files onto one of the newly purchased drives
that I
had
setup using Raid 1 (Mirroring). For whatever reason, it did not work.
Busy,
I thought nothing of it and was just going to use my backup software
to
make
copies of the first drive to the second on a daily basis. Then,
earlier
this
week I saw a "recommended update" from Microsoft for Raid. So I
downloaded
it and installed it, then rebooted. When my computer came back up, my
two
drives disappeared. No need to panic, I performed a system restore
which
brought the drives back, but ALL of the files from disk one had
disappeared.
Then I began to panic. I used me restoration software again, but this
time
there was absolutely nothing to be extracted from the drive. Then for
whatever reason, I restored my computer back to the point when I had
downloaded the updates causing the drives to disappear again.
Frustrated, I
went back again only to find that the drives would no longer appear.
Finally, I gave up and did a fresh install of Vista64. Still the
drives
did
not show up. After installing all of the updates and what not, I
decided
to
go into disk management and there they were as raw data waiting to be
formatted. Now, I don't know exactly what happened here, but the fact
that
these two formatted 1TB discs were now raw leads me to believe that
this
was
not an error on my part, rather something to do with the Windows Raid
update
I had installed on the computer.

If I seem relatively calm, it's because I've had a couple of days to
get
over it. However, you better believe that some ears should have been
burning
and the snowcaps melting in Redmond prior to writing this comment. At
this
point, I have lost everything. Not only burned a multitude of times
by
Maxtor (whom I will never purchase again) but by the very operating
system
that I have until now been 100% faithful too. Microsoft, you are
making
it
very hard for me to justify my allegiance. With the upcoming release
of
Windows 7 (which I've already tinkered with and enjoy oh so much
better
than
Vista) I am in process of ordering all new parts to build a new
computer
this
next week. Perhaps I should re-think that and bite the bullet and go
for
a
Mac. It can't be that much worse could it?