System config. ?

Can anyone give me tips on how I should configure my desktop. Unfortunately, I'm faced with starting my sytem from scratch (total reformat and re-installation). My system is as follows: I have 2 WD 80 gig drives set up in a RAID 0 configuration that I use primarily for Windows XP Pro and programs and I also have a 120 gig WD drive that I use for music and backing up my important data. The question to be answered is should I set up seperate partitions (i.e. one particularly for Windows/programs and one for my data) on the RAID drives to section off the OS/and programs or should I simply have everything on one partition and continue to use my 120 gig drive for backing up? The reason I ask is that I want a way to recover from total disaster more quickly and easily. Also, I want to start using Ghost (2003 I hear that is better than the new version Ghost 9.0) to take images of my drive in case I have another catastrophe. What I'm thinking is that I will install Windows (update it), install all of my critical programs, and then use Ghost to image the hard drive and store that image on a seperate internal HD designated for that purpose. If my system dies again, then I will simply use Ghost to access the image file of my system that I've stored on the 120 gig drive and tell Ghost to use that image to restore my system.Is this a good strategy or am I missing something? Any advice, or words of caution are welocome.

 

My strategy has been somewhat similar with very good results. I have two desktops, each with three hard drives (no RAID involved though). On each desktop, I dual boot XP from two different hard drives and use the third to store images of each OS along with current current backups of My Documents, e-mail, special folders, P2P, etc. My imaging app of choice is BootIt™ NG (http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html) as opposed to Ghost. Ghost is good if it works with your hardware. BootIt™ NG has better hardware compatibility, more features, and a much more generous license. I keep various baseline images: clean XP install (fully patched), clean install (fully patched with only my security apps installed), and about a ten days worth of daily images. With BootIt™ NG, I can create and validate images in 20-25 minutes and restore stored images in 10-15 minutes. What I do is overkill, but you should still be able to recover from a clean install, to nearly full functionality, in a short evening.

 

passing thru,
Thank you for your advise...I will check out that software, but I might have to give Ghost a try because I already own it.

I'm still interessted in hearing others' input on this matter.

 

You're welcome. Ghost 2003 is good. I own it as well .