Raid question...

[Chasim]

I'm thinking about setting up a Raid configuration on my system to increase performance. Although I'm not a technical noob, I know very little about Raids setups. I guess my main question is I have two hard drives - both WD Sata Raptors 10k but one is 74gb and the other is 36gb - can I setup a Raid 0 (that's the performance one right?) where I use the 36gb drive and a partition on the 74 gb drive of identical size?

Thanks.

 

[Smkyb]

Yes, you can use different size drives with a RAID 0(Striping). It would give you 110gb of space minus the file system overhead. You can also use different size drives with other RAID sets 1,3, or 5, but it is kind of a waste because you are limited by your smallest drive. For what you ar wanting it would work just fine.

Brian

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Smkyb
Yes, you can use different size drives with a RAID 0(Striping). It would give you 110gb of space minus the file system overhead.

While this *should* work, it's up to the controller. I'm not certain that all consumer-level controllers would allow this; check the documentation for whatever controller you're planning to use before you buy.

 

[Chasim]

Thanks for the reply.... So I could make a partition on the larger drive so I'd just be using the 36gb drive and (about) 1/2 of the 74 gb drive? What I'm thinking is I'd also install WinXP on the other partition on the 74gb drive - basically I could multi-boot into either the Raid configured setup or into a "normal" install on the rest of the larger hard drive. That sound doable? (I multi-boot using Boot Magic)

Also, is Raid 0 the best way to go for performance? I think my motherboard (Asus P4s800D-E) only supports Raid 0 and Raid 1.

Thanks again.

 

[Smkyb]

Matthias,

Every controller that I have seen will allow different size drives for Stripe sets. Raid 1,3,and 5 maybe alittle different between different controllers.

Chasim,

In the BIOS for the controller you will tell it to use your 36gb drive and your 74gb drive in a RAID 0 Stripe set. That will give you 110GB of space, you will be using both drives completely. When you are installing your system, if this a new install, you can create your partitions how ever you want an install on whatever partition you want. If this is going into an existing system just use whatever program you like to create your partitions how ever you would like them created. Also if this is a new install and it is for Windows you will most likely need to press F6 to install drivers for the RAID device. They can be found on the driver disk or the website of the controller. It should have an oemsetup.inf file on the disk.