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SATA or RAID



SATA and RAID aren't opposing standards. You can have SATA disks in a RAID array. SATA refers to how the disk physically connects to the computer, e.g., what the ribbon that connects the disk looks like and that you'll need a SATA driver. RAID is how you configure these, probably SATA connected, disks in your system.

There are like 5 or 6 standards you can use to set up a RAID array. The first one, RAID 0, is just for speed. It utilizes 2 disks like it's one disk that's a lot faster than either disk would be independently. In this configuration, any disk you lose causes you to lose all your data on both disks. Other RAID configurations make use of redundancy, where if one disk fails all the data is on other disks in the configuration. So, you can just keep going until you replace the failed disk. And, once you replace the failed disk, all the data can be easily populated back on it because it's right there on the other disk. RAID 1 is where there're 2 disks, both of them having the same data on them.



I thank you for the well-rounded answer, but I guess I'm just pretty dense when it comes to understanding that kind of technics involved in computers.

- 640GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive Included in price
- FREE UPGRADE! 1TB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive from 750GB +$50.00
- 1.5TB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive +$100.00
- 1TB RAID 0 (2 x 500GB SATA HDDs) - performance +$130.00
- 500GB RAID 1 (2 x 500GB SATA HDDs) - data security +$150.00
- 2TB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s - two 1TB hard drives #180.00
- 320GB 10K rpm & 640GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s - two hard drives +$280.00

Given the options above, based on the "build a PC" link @ HP.com, which hard drive would benefit me the most in terms of the video/photo editing which will be dominant on my PC. Obviously, I don't want to lose my work if at all necessary, and I usually store my end result on an external hard drive right now. Are you saying there's an option amongst those above where if one drive crashes, that I have an internal drive on-board with the ability to backup my data (pre-crash, of course)?
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