Defragging a RAID drive

[Narmer]

I have RAID 1 setup via the raid controller that came with my motherboard (an ASUS P7P55D-E Pro). Do I just defrag like normal or are there extra steps?

 

[Rifter]

I have no idea i have never run raid under windows but im interested in the answer. someone around here must know.

 

[corkyg]

The RAID array is seen by any good defrag program as a single lettered drive. No different. It may take a wee bit longer, but that's all.

 

[tweakboy]

Nice avatar corkyg and nice answer!

 

[Rifter]

Nice avatar corkyg and nice answer!

This is by far the most coherent answer i have ever seen you post

 

[Narmer]

The RAID array is seen by any good defrag program as a single lettered drive. No different. It may take a wee bit longer, but that's all.

Thanks.

 

[Nothinman]

Vista and Win7 both defrag on their own during idle time so it's not something you should care about. If you're running XP you should fix that before anything else.

 

[bad_monkey]

This is by far the most coherent answer i have ever seen you post

I've been on the forums for 1 day and I concur.

Vista and Win7 both defrag on their own during idle time so it's not something you should care about. If you're running XP you should fix that before anything else.

That cracks me up; however, I will always have a soft spot in my heart for XP.

 

[bigi]

The RAID array is seen by any good defrag program as a single lettered drive. No different. It may take a wee bit longer, but that's all.

No.

Depends on RAID type and/or controller. Crappy controller/software RAID = all drives may be visible, not the RAID unit.

Good controller (True RAID) = only the unit is presented to the OS.

 

[mvbighead]

No.

Depends on RAID type and/or controller. Crappy controller/software RAID = all drives may be visible, not the RAID unit.

Good controller (True RAID) = only the unit is presented to the OS.

I concur with Corky. ANY RAID controller, if configured properly, will show your RAID array as a single disk. So, if you're running two Seagates, two Maxtors, two WDs, whatever... the RAID disk appears only as what the controller labels its own volumes.

So, a chitty VIA based RAID controller appears as either a VIA SCSI RAID volume (or other such name), and a Silicon Image 3112 appears a a SI RAID/SCSI fixed disk device. The brand name of the drive is only visible if you use the manufacturer's tool to inspect each individual part of the software based array. As far as I know, VIA and Silicon Image are some of the cheapest software based RAID controllers out there, and I have used both of them. They work, and the drives themselves are not visible without using the tools available to inspect them. Windows just sees the RAID disk.