Partitioning vs. Imaging

[preAARP]

As I get ready for my first solo puter system build I am trying to decide whether to obtain some drive imaging software (Norton Ghost, Acronis, etc), or whether simply partitioning my drives (software may be needed also?) will assist in denying the chance to lose critical data to a system crash.

I will be using (2) 74GB Raptors in a RAID 0 array (plan to put my OS - XP Pro and games on these). I have considered getting a 3rd IDE HD to store everyting else.

I will use my system for mostly gaming, with some use of Word and Excel, lots of browsing of Forums (hehe), and, of course, the obligatory use of Emailing. My primary concern is not to lose everything when I screw things up and coerce a system crash (I seem to be particularly adept at this as I like to tinker...I'm good at crashing my PC...maybe should take 'CRASH' as my 'nick!). In the past my PC's vendors (HP, Micron, Hypersonic) have usually provided a 'Rescue Disk' which is good, but it still was time-intensive to then reload all OS, Software, Updates, etc.

I was wondering what those more experienced in these areas would recommend. I have read through many of the pages here ( and Tom's, Dev Hardware, etc.) to obtain info from which to make a more informed decision regarding my PC build so far but would appreciate any ideas about this...

 

[NightCrawler]

Two different things.

Using Acronis to backup data right now and it's pretty good. To partition I used Partition Commander by Vcom. You kinda need both softwares but should definitly get Acronis True Image 7 and maybe just use Windows XP's partition features if it supports RAID.

 

[AtTheGates]

I would partition and image. I picked up Ghost somewhere for $10 and used my dvd burner to create my own restore disk (it take too many CDs if you install much before the image). Never used RAID 0 before but I doubt you need any extra software to partition.
It may be a good idea to pick up a cheap hard drive. That way you can store an image on that drive and backup critical files to the drive more frequently than you would image.
Sounds like you will have a nice system.

 

[preAARP]

Thank you both (geez...that was fast!) for ideas. I thought it would be one exclusive of the other, but I can see both are recommended.

Using SEARCH fx now to see what one would partition.