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Hi Guys
I was looking at a Dell Desktop today and i have heard about SATA (Serial ATA) but what , in simple terms, does it actually mean? also the total drive capacity was 640GB (320x2) so does this mean that the two drives work in parallel (continous backup) or series (one fills up then the other) and does series work well, or does it become complecated to find things? Also what does RAID mean???
Hope you guys can help!
Cheers

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Ed


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Hey,

I'm not sure about your first question but with regards to RAID, have a look at Gordon's article at DSLR Tips about how you can use RAID to backup your photos.

Mark

Serial ATA (or SATA for short) is simply the interface used by modern hard disks to connect them (and potentially other storage devices) to the drive controller or motherboard.

Unlike the previous Parallel ATA (PATA) interface, the SATA plug and cable are much narrower, allowing a less cluttered inside to your PC. Also, while PATA could support two drives per cable, SATA only offers one. SATA can also transfer data more quickly.

RAID allows you to use two or more hard disks simultaneously either for better reliability, performance or both. There's several different types of RAID, and as Markh says, check out the backup article for details...

The different types of HDD's won't effect you if you are buying a prebuilt PC. They now have SATA2 i think, which uses the same interface but has some revisions (to my knowledge).

Just ignore it.

Also, PATA is sometimes called IDE or EIDE. I think they just do it to confuse us!

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HI Guys thanks for your replys, i now understand. But also if it says 2x 320GB will it come up as one 640gb drive or two 320GB drives????
Also does Dual HDD Configuration mean the same thing? If not please can sombody please tell me what it means!
Thanks

_________________
Ed


Canon 40D + Grip | Sigma 10-20 EX | 17-85 | Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 EX II | 50 F/1.8 | 430 EX II + Other Stuff
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For more thn you ever wanted to know check out this Wikipedia article. That also explains how two or more drives can become one and what total capacity you get.

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
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Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

It depends if its set up as a RAID config. If its set in RAID it can either be set to duplicate (backup) the drive, so its only 320gb, it could be set to split the data so that the HDD's so that it is a total of 640gb, however- if one of the drives fails or dies, you lose all your data. It could just be 2 drives, not set in RAID, so you will have 2x 320gb drives (and will show up like this).

send me a link to the PC and ill check it out for you.