Windows 7: Raid 1 vs Cloning

I just purchased a new computer and want to have a back up my sata 1TB drive. I purchased another 1TB and am wondering what is the best way to have a back up drive in case my current one fails...and it will. Add a Raid 1 card and my spare drive internally or clone my C drive to my spare one via USB2, esata or maybe the new USB3. I am looking for the easiest route so that if my drive fails I can get back up & running on my spare fairly quickly. Thoughts? Radi1 card, Win 7 back up, Clone-x?

Thx.

Why don't you just make frequent images - e.g. like this: Imaging with free Macrium Raid0 would be counterproductive. Only mirroring (Raid5) would help some but is shooting flies with canons.

Raid1 makes a mirror of a drive. So, if something fails, such as a file or folder is removed or permissions changed, then it would affect the second drive.

I'd go with WHS's suggestion and make frequent images, perhaps once a week.
That way, if something fails, the image is your backup.
Doing it that way, the image will not include your free space. So if you have 400GB of data on your primary disk, the image file would be 400GB (unless you use compression then its smaller of course).

Imaging programs come with a standard compression which reduces the data to about 50% +/-. A system partition will usually be in the 20 to 50GB (with a LOT of games) range. And I would always put the user data on a seperate Data Partition

Indeed.

Thank you. I will partition my drive into OS with a separate one for Data & use Macrium. Any recommendations on whether to add the 2nd 1TB sata drive internal or external? If external I was thinking about one of the new sata docking stations and then connecting it via USB3 & adding a new PCI express USB3 card.

Cheers!

If you have an internal bay and a slot on the board available, that would be the easiest and the cheapest. There is no real advantage of Sata3 over an attachment to the board directly - just more cost and less convenience.

The situation would be different if that were a laptop which has only 1 disk bay.

Great! Thank you once again!
Do you also know anything about Windows 7 sharing. I have posted a question & tried a couple suggestions but I can not get my PC to see my laptop or vice versa.

Wireless Laptop not visable on Homesharing

Not really. I am not a sharing expert. Maybe it has something to do with the one system having Home Basic (which I do not know either).

Cant help you out with the sharing, Im a bit fuzzy in that area too.

But for your other question about internal or external drive, external would make sense if that 2nd TB is for your backups. However, as mentioned, its an added cost for no real gain.

Internal would also make sense for the same reason. However, internals are not suited as backups because of the computer get stolen/damaged there goes your backup too.
But like the external, it too can be easily removed and stored away safe.