HDD ? RAID Boot drive Only for O.S.?

[rivbyte]

RAID Boot drive Only for O.S.?

I don't know what the difference is with using my WD RAPTOR as a boot drive for the OS and apps, then using my 500GB for storage.....OR someone telling me to RAID the 74GB, then put ONLY my Operating system on it. Isn't that the same thing?

Is there any way, (or do I even want to) Install the O.S. on the 74GB Raptor, then install programs to the storage Drive? Or do they all belong on the same drive? I'm trying to use more resources on my Photoshop and Studio Pinnacle Video Editing.
I presently have three internal hard drives.

Western Digital 74GB RAPTOR,
Western Digital 500GB HDD, and a newly bought
Western Digital 2 TB Caviar Green HDD, which will also be used for saving huge video files.

When I installed XP Home 32 Bit, a few years ago, I used the WD Raptor for boot drive for the O.S. and installed programs, and the 500GB for storage.

In using Pinnacle Studio 15HD, it installs different files all over the boot drive and the 500GB storage drive, and it’s very hard to know where all these needed files are, also need to increase resources when I use both Photoshop and Studio.

Someone mentioned to use ONLY the WD 74GB RAPTOR to boot my operating system by USING RAID, and use both the other two drives for applications, and storage….is this an accepted way to configure a system so the O.S. and programs works faster, and more efficient? Thank you!

I have not used the RAID option before, and wondered if it’s hard to do? I can’t wait to dump XP and get the Pro Win7, so I’m upgrading MoBo hardware first.


Now I'm thinking of just using my 74GB Raptor for an extra Storage HDD, then using the 500GB for my boot drive. BUT ….the consensus is that the Raptor is faster for apps and OS.

Thanks again?

 

[Blain]

That Raptor is old school.
Install everything on a 1TB Samsung F3R.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

Should just drop the Raptor and use an SSD instead. Or if you're upgrading to Z68 you could get a 64GB SSD for caching the 500GB HDD.

 

[RaiderJ]

I'd think the Raptor would be a faster OS drive over the other two, but maybe the newer drives with a higher platter density make up for the Raptor's spindle speed.

Personally, I dislike having multiple hard drives in my main system, don't really care to fiddle and worry about running out of space on my OS. I just run the biggest drive with a single partition for OS + storage. The difference in practical performance between the Raptor and the 500GB or 2TB might be minimal.

However, SSD's provide such a noticeable performance boost it's worth it I think. Planning to run a 96GB SSD for my OS, and have a 1.5TB for storage.

EDIT: Not sure why you would run a single Raptor in RAID mode. I don't see how that would be any better than running in IDE/AHCI mode - unless you plan to buy another Raptor and do a RAID 0? I think if that's the case then running the single drive in RAID would prevent a re-install since Windows can't handle the switch from IDE/AHCI to RAID, but it's possible that can be done with some driver/registry hacking.

If you're upgrading, I definitely like the idea of going with a Z68 board and using a 64GB SSD to cache a bigger drive.

 

[rivbyte]

Thanks for the chiming in guys!
Well, I was not going to RAID only the Raptor by itself without a partition on it,what I was confused about was to Install ONLY the WIN7 OS, then was not sure If I could install the programs on the storage drive, to save resources on the Raptor.

So the consensus is to dump the Raptor and install the O.S., (C and all programs on the 500GB, (partitioned or not) then use the 2TB for storage backup. If I do partition the 500GB, how much should I allow for the OS,and Programs?

I just would like NOT to keep freeing up resources when I'm working with a video editing program like STUDIO 14,15HD Ultimate, as well as Photoshop. The Studio program installs their different files all on the boot Raptor drive, which fills up too rapidly. I did make a Path to place the video files on the storage drive,but was told they all have to be kept together for faster archiving. I had some in the boot drive, and others on the storage drive.

Am I wrong to buy HDD's when the SSD'S are coming out?

 

[RaiderJ]

I'd do the 500GB and 2TB as single partitions - and maybe just install the video software on the 2TB so you don't have to worry about running out of space. Typically you'd install the software on the faster drive and leave the data on the larger drive, but if it complains about that then just stick it straight to the 2TB.

 

[FishAk]

That Raptor is old school.
Install everything on a 1TB Samsung F3R.

+1

For about $50, a single HE103SJ would beat 2 of those Raptors in RAID 0. The extra 900GB, not needed by the OS, could be used for backup. The speed of the OS would only be effected when backups are running.

Obviously an SSD would be best from strictly a speed perspective...