How do i setup Raid 0???

[Awakened2002]

I'm building a new pc next week. I'm going to be using 2 40GB or 60GB Western Digital hard drives. There will be no OS or anything else installed, new drives. What are the steps i need to get to get my pc up w/2000 PRO using raid 0?

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Skip steps 1 & 2 if your motherboard has onboard RAID.

1) Get a RAID card. Promise FastTrak cards are good for that.
2) Install RAID card.
3) Put each HD on separate channel of RAID card.
4) Boot, enter RAID card setup. Use auto or quick config to create "Performance" or "High-Speed" preset, which will make a RAID 0.
5) Install OS. Enjoy. 🙂

- M4H

 

[CurtCold]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire
Skip steps 1 & 2 if your motherboard has onboard RAID.

1) Get a RAID card. Promise FastTrak cards are good for that.
2) Install RAID card.
3) Put each HD on separate channel of RAID card.
4) Boot, enter RAID card setup. Use auto or quick config to create "Performance" or "High-Speed" preset, which will make a RAID 0.
5) Install OS. Enjoy. 🙂

- M4H

It's easy as that...

If you have XP, you'll need the 3rd party driver when you install the OS, mine was promise, other than that...simple

 

[ericboo]

If we are talking hardware Raid 0, either built into the motherboard or a PCI raid controller, you may have to format the drives on the raid controller like I had to, then boot from the install CD, press F6 when asked for additional drivers, and the finish the install. I tried formatting on the regular IDE channel and then installing and it would not work.

If you are using W2K software raid, I believe you do a normal install and then go into Disk Management.

Hope my useless dribble helped.

 

[Awakened2002]

Wow, thanks for the fast responses. I'll be using onboard raid, Epox 8K5A2+. Will the raid setup be in the bios?

 

[Awakened2002]

Should i go with 2 40GB drives ($107/for both) or 2 60GB drives ($140/for both)??? I usually backup stuff on CD-R's, so space isn't that big of a deal for me...but having extra never hurts.

 

[Lonyo]

Go for the 60gigs, because you can never have too much space.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Either in the BIOS, or it'll be in the boot screen somewhere, right after the initial memory count and POST. It'll probably ask for some sort of key combination - eg Promise FastTrak is <CTRL-F> to enter FastBuild.

ericboo - Good point on the "hit F6 during W2K setup". Thanks. But for software RAIDing, neither Win2K or WinXP can boot from a dynamic disk. You have to have a non-RAID bootdisk and then RAIDed data. ( And it's "drivel" 🙂 )

As far as the drives, size isn't as important as speed it seems, since you backup to CD-R frequently. The 40GBs should be more than enough - just make sure to nab good ATA100 7200rpm models. 🙂

- M4H

 

[airis2001]

for raid 0, do both drives have to be the exact same? I ahve 2 hd's both 38.4 gb, but differnt modles, could i put these on a raid 0 setup.
ari

 

[Awakened2002]

Another question for this setup. Will i have enough power from a 350Watt power supply? It came with my Enermax case that i got. It'll be powering 2 HD's, 1 CDRW drive, AMD 1800+ thoroughbred w/thermaltake smart fan 2, 4-5 case fans...

 

[MercenaryForHire]

airis2001 - you can run two non-identical drives in a RAID 0, but the different drive geometrey (heads, cylinders, etc) will probably impact performance a fair bit. And don't even dream of trying to run drives of different ATA or rpm speeds together. 😕

Awakened2002 - you should have tons of power there. Enermax isn't known for making crap PSUs, and you won't be taxing that 350w at all. I ran 300w with a T-Bird 1.47, 2 HDs, DVD, CDRW, LS120, 5 case fans, a Volcano 7+ and a gF4 Ti with no problems.

- M4H

 

[Awakened2002]

The PS that came with the case is an Powerup instead of an Enermax... anything bad about Powerup? I don't know why the didn't supply the case with Enermax PS's.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Ech.

Best thing I can say is "try it and see" ... I doubt you'll overload it, but if you start getting bizarre crashes and stability issues that aren't related to heat, go pick up a nice Antec 400w dual-fan. 😛

- M4H