Just ordered Second HDD

[Gamingphreek]

DFI Lanparty UT Ultra-D

I just ordered a second 160GB HDD to go with my first one (Just got a TV card) and im going to put them in a RAID-0 array.

Can someone just guide me through what all i need to do real quick before the drive comes? Do i need to download drivers for the Windows installation? Will i need to format? (Those sort of things)

-Kevin

 

[Rubycon]

Switching from a single drive to RAID0 results in data loss of the original drive. So you will need to use a program like ghost or acronis to back up your original volume. If your controller changes windows may not boot either - you may have to load in the raid drivers before the image or do a repair install (F6 method).

 

[Gamingphreek]

Alright so this is what i plan on doing. Correct as needed:

1. Install drive on Nvidia SATA Controller in slot 2
2. Upon bootup switch controller type to RAID
3. ??? Not sure how to create the array. Is it in the BIOS or is there a seperate BIOS (On my Asus board there was a completely seperate BIOS)
4. Start Windows Installation. Insert floppy with NVRAID Drivers.

Since this is going to be 320GB how do I get Windows to recognize all of it. Should i just make a SP2 Slipstream?

Finally, a person from another forum said that this isn't true RAID-0 and that it is actually JBOD. I was going to reply back but i wasn't 100% sure. JBOD is merely combining HDD's regardless of size. RAID-0 (Striping) is actually creating....space?.... in between the drives which combine the drives into one. In RAID-0 you need drives of the same size or it will default to the size of the smaller drive. What I think he meant is that the RAID controller on the Motherboard merely lacks onboard RAM dedicated to RAID unlike a standalone controller. Am I way off here, or what?

-Kevin

 

[Rubycon]

JBOD is spanning two drives into one volume. Striping is interleaving data of two drives into one volume. Striping increased STR both ways but if you lose one drive all data goes. JBOD does not increase performance and if you lose one disk the other will still have your data - which can be recovered fairly easy.

Just be sure to create an image if you value what's on your existing disk before creating an array!

 

[Gamingphreek]

Ok so I am definitely getting the full fledged RAID-0 array? (I thought that guy was wrong)

-Kevin

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Ok so I am definitely getting the full fledged RAID-0 array? (I thought that guy was wrong)

-Kevin

Two or more disks are all that's required. The NV controller likes a 4KB stripe size btw. At least with 150G raptors.