matching HDs for software raid?

[dboy]

I'm thinking about putting several drives (2 or 4 depending on what I scrape together) into a software raid0 in WinServer2003 on my HTPC. My question - do the drives have to be completely identical, or can I mix different models as long as they're the same size? I know I've got both WD and Maxtor 80gig drives in my computers around the house. If I move some data around and take some of those drives, I could make a nice storage space in my htpc. I'm trying to keep this as cheap as I possibly can and performance isn't too critical (it's a htpc, not video editing station!) so I wanted to just use window's built in raid abilities...

 

[nageov3t]

I recomend getting the same drives, but theoretically, as long as they have the same RPM, you should be good.

I "thought" that you could do RAIDs with different sizes, but the RAID would just truncate everything to match the smallest drvie.

 

[Zepper]

You want each pair to be relatively evenly matched performance-wise but size doesn't matter that much. Your array size will just be twice the smallest drive.
..bh.

 

[dboy]

Ok thanks... it's worth it to me to spend a little time swapping drives around to get a pair of 80s rather than an 80 and a 40 for my raid, but I didn't wanna do that if it wouldn't work anyway!

Thanks!

 

[HKSturboKID]

I had originally setup software raid for my 2 40 gig drives and then I change my mine and converted them back to basic disc. I figure if I only do raid 0 and one drive dies, I'll loose all my 80 gig of info. But if I have 2 separate drives, I only loose 40gig as to 80 gig. if you are doing raid 5 thats a totally different story.

 

[Zepper]

As HKS intimates, "Running RAID-0 without keeping verified backups is like flying an experimental airplane without a parachute." (c) 2000 by WAH.
.bh.

 

[dboy]

Initially it'll just be raid0, but I'd go to raid5 (can server 2003 do that in software?) if I can get another 80gig free after rebates. Since it's just copies of my dvd collection, it's not critical data so I don't mind the risk. A dead drive would cost me some time in reripping the discs, but not like it's irreplaceable data.

I may just stick with separate discs though, since I now am remembering that myhtpc allows you to set multiple folders for your movie collection... I forgot about that