First RAID Setup: Need Help!

[StarsFan4Life]

So, I am receiving my new GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H (http://www.mwave.com/mwave/Sku...hmx?scriteria=ba24752) tomorrow. I want to know if I should go ahead and start fresh with a raid setup. I have two identicaly WD 250GB 7200rpm drives. I am looking for a RAID setup that will boost performance (load times for OS, games, apps, etc).

What do you guys suggest I do? Which RAID array do I want to use here? Any pointers or suggestions?

 

[DaveSimmons]

You're thinking of RAID-0, which makes game maps & levels load slightly faster but doubles the chance of losing all of your files. If either drive dies, every file is gone.

If you keep the drives separate you'll wait an extra second or two, but you can use one drive to back up the other, by copying save game files and using a drive image program to back up your OS.

I'd vote for the separate drives, but if you want the extra speed look up "RAID 0" in your mb manual and at wki.

 

[StarsFan4Life]

Great information, and I kinda knew that much about Raid 0 (which is what I wanted to use). I guess my next question is if I used a third drive (not RAID) and it is 1TB where I store all of my "sensitive" files (musics, movies, pictures, etc) then I shouldnt need to worry about "data loss". Correct?

 

[DaveSimmons]

Right, if you have 2 drives in RAID-0 plus a third for backups of the save game folders on the RAID you should be OK.

It might make sense to have the 1 TB drive be your boot drive, partitioned as C: = OS and D: = data, then have E: be your RAID array just used for installing games. That way when it dies you don't have to reinstall Windows, just all of the games.

 

[StarsFan4Life]

Dave,

I want the OS to be on there as well for faster bootups. Also, could I not just create an image for Raid0 and apply through ImageX next go around?

 

[DaveSimmons]

Your imaging software needs to support the RAID controller with its own drivers since it needs to run without Windows . You'd want to make sure this works before putting too much time into setting up Windows.

For Windows you'll need a floppy drive attached and drivers on diskette, or to "slipstream" the drivers onto a copy of the Windows DVD (google, wiki or search here for how to do it).