I really like USB disk drives. At first I used them for backing up files from the C: drive on my desktop computer, but now I keep as little as possible on the internal drive; so backing up became a matter of manually copying from one USB drive to another. I knew there was a better way, but it took a while for the hardware to become affordable.
It’s called disk mirroring, otherwise known as RAID 1. With RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) mirroring, my two 500 GB disks appear in Windows as a single 500 GB drive. This is because everything that is saved to a single logical drive is automatically written to two physical disks. Another approach is RAID 0 striping, where two 500 gigabyte disks appear as a single 1 terabyte drive. This diagram shows how data is written with RAID 1 and with RAID 0.
The nifty product that makes this possible for home use is Western Digital’s My Book Mirror Edition. Here’s a review.
The current WD Mirror Edition model has two 1 TB disks, and it sells for $200 or less. It comes out of the box configured for RAID 1, and is formatted for Windows, which is exactly what I want. WD has a utility program for those who aren’t looking for data protection, and would rather have the full capacity of both disks, along with the performance advantage that comes with RAID 0. Move your mouse over the picture below to see WD’s RAID Manager options.
When 500 GB solid state drives reach the consumer market this technology will seem bulky and clunky, but for now it’s nice to have.
Hi Joan – I haven’t seen Jean in-person for a few years, but there’s a family reunion coming up next month. Yes, RAID kills bugs dead!
I know that lightning can make a door bell ringer go off. I suppose an electrical surge could also cause a phone to ring, but I doubt the source would be at the telephone switching station.
Hi Doug! How are you and Jeanie Beanie doing? Just wanted to comment that I know about RAID—they make a dang good bug spray! Just had a weird thing happen and thought, well, this is under tech. I’m using the Mobile Web on my Samsung Sway phone since we’re having severe storms and on radar storms from 2 back door cold fronts are meeting in Pottstown. We had a purple flash of lightning out front, then one out back and it made my phone beep. It didn’t shut off but I wonder if lightning near the tower would do it or just static electric from 2 storms in close proximity.