RAID-0 questions

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Before you all cry andt ell me how RAID-0 has no noticeable performance increase, and it's all theoretical...

I want to RAID because otherwise I'll have 2 billion partitions running around, and sure a small speed increase would be nice.

Basically I want a Raptor 74GB to have my primary OS and be my OS drive.

The 2x7200.10s serve as storage drives. However, I would like to install XP in a small 10gb partition so the 7200.10s are used as emergency boot drives.

Correct me if I'm wrong because I've never setup RAID-0 before.

1) I setup the RAID array through BIOS. What stripe size should I use? I'll be installing games here, but I'm not the biggest gamer in the world or anything. The other half of the drive (or more like 70 - 80% of the 640gb) will be reserved for media and what not.

2) How do I create a 10gb partition? Do I use Seagate's tools? It will recognized the 2x7200.10s as RAIDed together? I like to use my original XP disc w/o SP2 slipstreamed, so I don't think I can partition by booting my Windows disc.

3) I'll install Windows onto the first 10GB, and then create 2 more partitions after I'm in Windows with Partition Magic or some other partition utility.

4) Load all my media onto these 7200.10s from my old drives.

5) Is it safe to unplug these drives now as I want to install Windows onto my Raptor? Plus I should unplug so the Raptor Windows installation doesnt mess my partitions up. When I replug the 7200.10s back will they immediately be recognized as a RAID-0 array?

 

[John]

First of all it's quite obvious that you don't need raid0. 😛 With that out of the way you need to hit the correct key to boot into the raid bios to configure the array. Try a 64K stripe with default cluster size. Now power off the pc and disconnect the raid0 drives. Boot to the XP CD and if your Raptor is on a native SATA controller you won't need to hit F6 to install sata drivers. You can create a 10GB c: on the raptor if you want, but why not make the entire drive one large partition seeing how you have the two other hdd's for raid0? Install SP2 before you partition the raid array using disk management.

 

[cmdrdredd]

You'll want to have the RAID setuip in BIOS and configured through the option ROM because Windows will need RAID drivers. (if your single drive is on the same controller). If you're using a seperate controller for your startup drive you won't need to have it plugged in.

64k stripe size is too small. you'll want 128k which offers better performance.

 

[John]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd
64k stripe size is too small. you'll want 128k which offers better performance.

You may be right, but in all of my years I have used this rule of thumb...err raid. 😛

[*]video editing: in this case, go for the largest stripe available, e.g. 128KB or 256KB
[*]general use: 64KB or 32KB
[*]small file access: 16KB

 

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: DLeRium
The 2x7200.10s serve as storage drives.

I would RAID-1 those two. RAID-0 increases your chances of losing the data and should be used on the boot parition if anything.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Atheus

Originally posted by: DLeRium
The 2x7200.10s serve as storage drives.

I would RAID-1 those two. RAID-0 increases your chances of losing the data and should be used on the boot parition if anything.

Perhaps he needs the larger single drive vs the fault tolerance?

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: John
First of all it's quite obvious that you don't need raid0. 😛 With that out of the way you need to hit the correct key to boot into the raid bios to configure the array. Try a 64K stripe with default cluster size. Now power off the pc and disconnect the raid0 drives. Boot to the XP CD and if your Raptor is on a native SATA controller you won't need to hit F6 to install sata drivers. You can create a 10GB c: on the raptor if you want, but why not make the entire drive one large partition seeing how you have the two other hdd's for raid0? Install SP2 before you partition the raid array using disk management.

I want my Raptor to have 2 partitions because it's XP and vista. If it were only XP, then yea.. would only be 1 partition.

My problem is that I know when I setup Windows on the 7200.10s in RAID-0, I will stick in the RAID drivers (f6)... That is my backup XP installation though..

But what about my current XP setup on the Raptor. I don't intend to install Windows again, will it be able to recognize the 7200.10s in RAID-0 or do I need to install drivers for that also?

Oh, and I guess the question that wasn't answered yet was what happens after I unplug my 7200.10s and replug them in? Will BIOS know that they are RAIDed or do I need to do something each time I unplug them/replug them in?

I know this is risky in terms of data management, and I have 75% of my stuff backed up so far. I'd like to run aroudn wtih my RAID-0 for a while and maybe I'll learn once everything fails and I'll switch to RAID-1 or just separate drives =P