Adding RAID storage triples boot time.

[VERTIGGO]

I have 4 1.5TBs on a Rocketraid pci-e card, and it takes a lot longer to boot XP because it has to initialize before XP even starts. My OS is on a 74GB raptor (not in the RAID).

Is there anyway to hide the RAID until I want it? As in making it a manual initialization or something?

 

[Idontcare]

The thread title is a little misleading because the raid card's ROM initialization time is not dependent on the specific raid level of the arrays involved.

My areca 1280ml card takes about 45s to initialize every time I boot my system; regardless whether I have any discs attached to it or an array configured.

It goes with the territory...if seeking fast bootup times do not look to discrete hardware raid cards.

 

[VERTIGGO]

thx. I still think there has to be a way, since I could technically unplug it every time I boot and then plug it back in. I don't need it to do anything before windows is booted.

 

[macrosszero]

You can always get an external esata raid with its own controller.

http://www.google.com/search?i...&q=External+esata+raid

 

[taltamir]

get rid of the controller... even if NOTHING is plugged in to the controller, having it plugged into the motherboard means it has to initialize, and that takes time.

 

[Nothinman]

I have 4 1.5TBs on a Rocketraid pci-e card, and it takes a lot longer to boot XP because it has to initialize before XP even starts.

If you move the initilization from BIOS POST to driver startup all you've done is move it, if the card takes that long to startup there's nothing you can do about it other than remove or replace it.

 

[VERTIGGO]

sure but the enclosures cost more than the drives at that point. it's ridiculous because the only difference is my pci-e card has a different method of connection; the hardware is the same

 

[pjkenned]

You have to understand that a raid card is like a mini-pc. You have ram/processor(s)/disks/OS and etc. What you are essentially waiting for is low level system boot of the pc + raid card OS + OS of the machine.

Then again, most people that use high-end raid controllers (or at least need them) probably reboot those systems every 30 days or so, so 30s 1 day a month isn't much.

If you don't want to see it boot, build a home server for your storage and stick the raid card in there.

 

[SunSamurai]

I dont get the fast-boot times thing. What does it matter? Doesnt normal operation in the OS matter a hell of alot more? Make a sandwich!

 

[pjkenned]

I think there are three categories that really care about boot times:
1. Notebook/portable users that constantly are changing power states.

2. Users who shut off PC's to save power and maybe noise.

3. I actually learned about this through a friend back in school. He overclocked a ton, and played games. Although he claimed everything was "100% stable man" he would sometimes just drop out of games for a minute or two. I was at his place one day and saw him frantically hit the reset button in the middle of a Counter-Strike game. He even had scripts set up to load everything up upon reboot so he could get back into the servers faster.

 

[Nothinman]

I think there are three categories that really care about boot times:
1. Notebook/portable users that constantly are changing power states.

2. Users who shut off PC's to save power and maybe noise.

Both of these people should be looking at hibernate and standby, not rebooting.

3. I actually learned about this through a friend back in school. He overclocked a ton, and played games. Although he claimed everything was "100% stable man" he would sometimes just drop out of games for a minute or two. I was at his place one day and saw him frantically hit the reset button in the middle of a Counter-Strike game. He even had scripts set up to load everything up upon reboot so he could get back into the servers faster.

He's just an idiot, the fixes for his problems aren't technical.

 

[taltamir]

Both of these people should be looking at hibernate and standby, not rebooting.

Yap, that is what I do.

He's just an idiot, the fixes for his problems aren't technical.

+1

 

[pjkenned]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

I think there are three categories that really care about boot times:
1. Notebook/portable users that constantly are changing power states.

2. Users who shut off PC's to save power and maybe noise.

Both of these people should be looking at hibernate and standby, not rebooting.

3. I actually learned about this through a friend back in school. He overclocked a ton, and played games. Although he claimed everything was "100% stable man" he would sometimes just drop out of games for a minute or two. I was at his place one day and saw him frantically hit the reset button in the middle of a Counter-Strike game. He even had scripts set up to load everything up upon reboot so he could get back into the servers faster.

He's just an idiot, the fixes for his problems aren't technical.

On the laptop side the reason for a full shutdown is to trigger the HD encryption/boot password, then the Windows authentication. Not a big deal on consumer laptops, but if you have sensitive data, shutting down in airports can be a good idea to get that extra layer of semi protection.

And on #2 I /agree.

 

[Nothinman]

On the laptop side the reason for a full shutdown is to trigger the HD encryption/boot password, then the Windows authentication. Not a big deal on consumer laptops, but if you have sensitive data, shutting down in airports can be a good idea to get that extra layer of semi protection.

Just use the encryption included with every OS out there. I'm not sure how Bit Locker works but NTFS has built-in encryption and Linux has dm-crypt which works with any filesystem.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: aeternitas
I dont get the fast-boot times thing. What does it matter?

It doesn't... except to the "right now" generation.

I guess there are unhealthier things to obsess over than boot times.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: aeternitas
I dont get the fast-boot times thing. What does it matter?

It doesn't... except to the "right now" generation.

I guess there are unhealthier things to obsess over than boot times.

Not going to disagree with the sentiment's expressed here, but I will add a counter-point from personal experience/frustration over it.

When I was attempting to dial in an optimized OC it was truly a frustrating pain in the ass process to have a built-in 1min reboot cycle time everytime I needed to restart the rig.

Yes eventually I just said screw it and I pulled the card and iterated my rig with the drive plugged into a standard sata plug on the mobo...but for some reason it just felt wrong, like pulling 6GB of your 8GB dimms while trying to get your CPU/FSB OC optimized. (not the same I know, but that is how it felt in the back of my mind)

At any rate, yeah for standard everyday stuff I hardly care that it takes an extra minute for my computer to reboot if I need it to (facking patch tueday...).

 

[taltamir]

When I was attempting to dial in an optimized OC it was truly a frustrating pain in the ass process to have a built-in 1min reboot cycle time everytime I needed to restart the rig.

Thats about right... or when you are reinstalling windows?
1. Install times are much shorter.
2. You have to reboot a ton of times AFTER install... multiple times for windows updates, and then once per driver and once per major program... you can choose to skip them, but if you do there is a risk of windows not boot up and you have to reinstall again.

but normal day to day? its a big meh, and I use sleep mode anyways... soon we will have a sleep/hibernate hybrid mode that should reduce the need to reboot even further. (computer goes to sleep AND saves the ram state... if the computer loses power while in sleep mode, it will come out of hibernation, if it comes out of sleep mode, it undoes hibernation.)