Can you have...

[Mr. Smith]

2 different drives in raid0?

I bought the deskstar same capacity as my WD (which works after formatting) - 250gig but was reading somewhere that you need 2 identicle drives? I was hoping for raid0 with what i have...

If not, if i bought another deskstar would i be able to have some sort of raid array? with all 3 drives - 2 deskstars one WD?

I gather I could have raid1 - would i have to format my hard drives and start again?

Which raid is best?

 

[PV5150]

Hi mate, it's recommended that you use 2 new and identical drives for RAID 0, purely from the point that using two identical drives potentially maximises your performance (but you don't have to, Windows just see's it as one big drive), and using new ones maximises the life span of your array. You need to remember that when running a RAID 0 array, that although it is the speed king (depending on stripe size and application), provides you with no redundancy (or fault-tolerance) whatsoever. That is, if one of your drives fail you lose the lot.

RAID 1 is usually implemented as mirroring; a drive has its data duplicated on two different drives using either a hardware RAID controller or software (generally via the operating system). If either drive fails, the other continues to function as a single drive until the failed drive is replaced. Conceptually simple, RAID 1 is popular for those who require fault-tolerance and don't need top-notch read performance.

RAID 5 requires 3 hard drives (should be new and identical, for the same reasons given above) uses an distributed parity algorithm, writing data and parity blocks across all the drives in the array. This removes the "bottleneck" that the dedicated parity drive represents, improving write performance slightly and allowing somewhat better parallelism in a multiple-transaction environment, though the overhead necessary in dealing with the parity continues to bog down writes. Fault-tolerance is maintained by ensuring that the parity information for any given block of data is placed on a drive separate from those used to store the data itself

 

[JN]

What PV said + if you run two different size drives in Raid0 afaik it will always size down the larger drive to the same size as the smaller one.

So...

100gb+60gb in Raid0 = 120gb total.

 

[FragTek]

What PV said + if you run two different size drives in Raid0 afaik it will always size down the larger drive to the same size as the smaller one.

So...

100gb+60gb in Raid0 = 120gb total.

Hrmmm, that I didn't know but it does make a bit of sense I suppose...

 

[JN]

Hrmmm, that I didn't know but it does make a bit of sense I suppose...

....i think :/

 

[FragTek]

I thought it only did that for mirroring arrays, and not striping arrays. Maybeh i'm wrong!

 

[JN]

I thought it only did that for mirroring arrays, and not striping arrays. Maybeh i'm wrong!

I'm unsure. As Raid0 splits the data evenly between the drives I would have thought that they'd need to be the same size, or you'd forfit a lot of performance. Dunno tho tbh...

 

[FarFarAway]

It's recommended apparently, but I don't think it's a requirement

Link

 

[MikeEnIke]

I'm unsure. As Raid0 splits the data evenly between the drives I would have thought that they'd need to be the same size, or you'd forfit a lot of performance. Dunno tho tbh...

I too have heard that if you have a 100GB and a 60GB your total Raid 0 will be 120GB, I can't be sure as I've never tried it, but I would assume it to be correct.

 

[Mr. Smith]

Nice info guys, thanks. Just a few last q's...

Basically how do you set it up and which would you recommend to me in my situation raid 1 or raid0?

Read on if you want to hear my ramblings!

Raid0 = speed king read/write - are you suggesting it could be risky for ME to use 2 different makes of drives of the same capacity (one is brand new, other is a couple of months old)? Or did you mean because of the fundamentals of raid0 (that there is no redundancy) I am merely facing the same risks as any other raid0 user? Also with my 2x250gb drives i would have full 500 storage?

Raid1

From Waffles:

"RAID 1- Mirroring and Duplexing: Provides disk mirroring. RAID 1 provides twice the read transaction rate of single disks and the same write transaction rate as single disks. 2 identical hard drives. 1 automatically backs up everything place on the first hard drive. Provides a small amount of fault tolerance."

I could live with the write speed if read speed doubled - I have read that raid1 doesn't require identicle drives (my asus manual for one) but Waffles says you do! It's a mixed result wherever I read about it! Also, 2x250 = 250gb storage as one drive is a copy of the other?

The position I am is - I have a 2month-ish old WD Caviar 250gb hd and a brand spanking new Deskstar 250gb hd. At the mo the deskstar has the o/s on and the WD is empty. Ideally I want to avoid buying more drives and make use of what I have!

My p5b has a raid controller and i know in xp there is the option to set up raid. - the link only shows how to do raid0. The asus manual states that you have to set up raid at the point of installing the o/s... Somewhere else i read stated you cant create a mirrored disk in xp...

 

[JN]

With Raid0 you double the chances of loosing all of your data basically. If one of your hard disks fail, you've lost everything. Even if you partition the disks.

Mixing disks will work, but if one disk is slower than the other, then the performance will be reduced.

With 2x250gb you will get the full 500gb.

 

[Mr. Smith]

With Raid0 you double the chances of loosing all of your data basically. If one of your hard disks fail, you've lost everything. Even if you partition the disks.

Mixing disks will work, but if one disk is slower than the other, then the performance will be reduced.

With 2x250gb you will get the full 500gb.

Thanks man, I really better get some work done - i'll give this a shot tonight!

 

[Mr. Smith]

Crap. I was using this guide and I didn't read it properly/don't understand - I rushed ahead now I have my system HD c:\ as a dynamic disk but I only left 8mb free... I did the same with the second HD but returned it back to a basick disk.

On these 250gig hd's, when i change them to dynamic how much free space do i need to leave for the 'striped volume' - is the striped volume the usable portion of the raid0? Looks like another format re-install is coming my way pls advise asap!!!

 

[JN]

Crap. I was using this guide and I didn't read it properly/don't understand - I rushed ahead now I have my system HD c:\ as a dynamic disk but I only left 8mb free... I did the same with the second HD but returned it back to a basick disk.

On these 250gig hd's, when i change them to dynamic how much free space do i need to leave for the 'striped volume' - is the striped volume the usable portion of the raid0? Looks like another format re-install is coming my way pls advise asap!!!

It sounds you are trying to set up raid using windows mate. Does your motherboard not support raid?

 

[Mullet]

Windows is the software RAID...you need hardware raid which would involve loading raid drivers before you install the OS. You should be able to pair sata ports on the bios as the raid pairing if going for a dual disc array.

 

[Rastalovich]

To confirm, if u used 100g and 60g, it will use the lowest sized drive as a marker, so u would be utilizing 2 x 60g, 40g from the one will be wasted.

With 2x250gb you will get the full 500gb.

Yep, I got 2x200 working sexilly as 400g

 

[Mr. Smith]

It sounds you are trying to set up raid using windows mate. Does your motherboard not support raid?

We have pretty similar rigs - I have the p5b deluxe - yes it supports raid but i dont know how to set it up! Fancy doing a guide for this popular oc'in mobo lol?

Status update - reformatted everything. Back to square 1. Again!

Doh! Great big hairy lesbian balls. I have to install the raid drivers before the OS. Great.

Ok! Help! What do i need to do? Create the raid driver on a floppy now, then... i have to reformat again and press F6 and install the drivers. Then which raid driver should i use? The intel ICH8R or the JMicron JMB363?

I officially suck - tomorrow i'm setting up the w/c loop lol - lets hope that goes better!

 

[FarFarAway]

What RAID you running?

RAID 0?

Stick one drive in each Intel SATA port (1 & 2 say).

Go into BIOS - think it's chipset features. Enable SATA RAID mode.

Upon reboot press F10 on boot (think the RAID menu comes up with F10 to enter), then set up the RAID 0 (striping)...add both your drives.

Go into windows setup - take the Intel RAID drivers disk and stick em in the floppy...hammer F6 continually till it asks you to select the RAID drivers and boom - windows should then recognise your RAID drive an installable

 

[Mr. Smith]

What RAID you running?

RAID 0?

Stick one drive in each Intel SATA port (1 & 2 say).

Go into BIOS - think it's chipset features. Enable SATA RAID mode.

Upon reboot press F10 on boot (think the RAID menu comes up with F10 to enter), then set up the RAID 0 (striping)...add both your drives.

Go into windows setup - take the Intel RAID drivers disk and stick em in the floppy...hammer F6 continually till it asks you to select the RAID drivers and boom - windows should then recognise your RAID drive an installable

Legend :worship:

I'll give it a shot later on - I'm just fitting my w/c kit today. It's not exactly going as well as I imagined lol - it all started going t*ts up when the tape I placed around where I was cutting the fan holes in the top of the case ripped up when the jigsaw caught - scratch city

Thanks for the support I'll let you know if it works!