Fast, simple RAID question

[thatbox]

For RAID 0 (striping) do the hard drives have to be the same size? Or would, say, a 30 gig and a 100 gig work just fine together?

 

[bozo1]

Yes but you'd lose 70 gigs from the larger drive.

 

[thatbox]

Figures. Theres no way at all to make them cooperate and retain full capacity?

[Edited stupid spelling error]

 

[LED]

Theres no way at all to make them cooperate and retain full capacity?

No way...just grab 1 nother 100Gig HD and enjoy 200Gig RAID goodness

 

[Ketchup]

Nope, using a RAID array, your RAID array will only be as big as the smallest drive multiplied by the number of drives in the array. RAID0 is also fastest when you use two identical drives, but they don't have to be so. Are you familiar with exactly how RAID works? If you are, what I am saying should make sense to you.

 

[boyRacer]

Buy another 100... put XP on the 30... and everything else on the array... and you can play pron faster then ever... ... jk...

 

[thatbox]

Originally posted by: BoYRaCeR
Buy another 100... put XP on the 30... and everything else on the array... and you can play pron faster then ever... ... jk...

But then I'd have two 100s and a 30... which would in essence be three 30s. Why would i do that? Am I getting this correctly? Ive never worked with RAID before.

 

[bgeh]

no, he means that you will raid both of the 100 gb drives and use the 30gb drive as master drive

 

[thatbox]

Is there any way to get faster-than normal speed using two different sized drives without losing space?

 

[Barny]

Not with RAID. By using a 30G drive and 100G drive you are essentially creating 1 drive in the operating systems view. Any level of RAID would yield the same results. You are stiping data across 2 drives block 0 on drive A, block 1 on drive B, block 2 on drive A, block 3 on drive B ...... and so on. When the 30 Gig drive is used up, it can't stipe any more to the 100 Gig drive. You can't partition the 100 Gig drive into a 30 Gig RAID drive and a 70 Gig or whatever non RAID drive.

Barny

 

[thatbox]

If I used the RAID 0 setup until the drives were full, would there be a painless way to "de-RAID" them without losing any data? So I could have the speed until it got filled up, and then just have a normal configuration?

 

[Ketchup]

Sounds like you need to read a good article on RAID, thatbox. When you use RAID, you are taking two drives and making them one as far as your OS is concerned. With RAID 0, your computer reads from and writes to each drive sequentially, which is what makes it so fast. Once one drive runs out of space, you no longer have the ability to RAID them. Since both of your drives are recognized as one, the extra space is pretty much a waste. That's why you should use drives that are the same size.

If I were you, I would see two choices:get another 100 gig and boot off the 30, or you could get another 30 and use the 100 for storage.

 

[thatbox]

Originally posted by: thatbox
If I used the RAID 0 setup until the drives were full, would there be a painless way to "de-RAID" them without losing any data? So I could have the speed until it got filled up, and then just have a normal configuration?

How about that though?

 

[Fox2k]

Originally posted by: BoYRaCeR
Buy another 100... put XP on the 30... and everything else on the array... and you can play pron faster then ever... ... jk...

That doesn't make any sense. Isn't the point of raid to have relaible data backup and / or
fast disc access? If your OS is on a loner drive, which will be where most read/write action occurs, you're basically getting better file copying performance on your other drives, where you're doing nothing but downloading and deleting.

 

[Ketchup]

Originally posted by: thatbox

Originally posted by: thatbox
If I used the RAID 0 setup until the drives were full, would there be a painless way to "de-RAID" them without losing any data? So I could have the speed until it got filled up, and then just have a normal configuration?

How about that though?

No, for the third time, there is no de-RAID. It is all or nothing. If you don't want to waste space, then don't RAID them. If you are willing to sacrifice space for speed, then do it. De-RAIDing might be a great idea, but current technology does not allow it. No matter how many times you ask.