Raid Questions.

[fastamdman]

When doing raid do the drives have to be identical?

I have 2 ssd's, one is a 512gb samsung 850 pro and the second drive is a 256gb crucial drive. Can I put these together in raid?

If it's not an option to use them in raid, could I possibly use IRST with them in raid? I've never done raid before or used IRST. I've installed IRST, but I have never used it.

Thanks for the help

 

[XavierMace]

They don't HAVE to be identical but you're going to be wasting half of the 850 Pro as it's basically going to be treated as a 256Gb drive. For that (and other reasons) it's generally preferred that the drives be identical.

 

[fastamdman]

They don't HAVE to be identical but you're going to be wasting half of the 850 Pro as it's basically going to be treated as a 256Gb drive. For that (and other reasons) it's generally preferred that the drives be identical.

Fine fine, I will just buy an nvme drive then.

 

[BFG10K]

Why do you need to RAID two SSDs? Unless all you do is copy files all day, you won't notice a lick of performance difference.

If you just want to straight-up combine their storage space, use a basic Windows spanned volume.

 

[fastamdman]

Why do you need to RAID two SSDs? Unless all you do is copy files all day, you won't notice a lick of performance difference.

If you just want to straight-up combine their storage space, use a basic Windows spanned volume.

That is exactly what I do.

 

[XavierMace]

That is exactly what I do.

If all you're concerned about is sequential transfer, an NVMe drive is going to be faster than a pair of SATA SSD's anyways.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

And if that's all you're doing, you don't want to give up the trimming and direct software access benefits that you're more than likely to lose when putting the drives in RAID.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

RAID is a bad idea for most people, most of the time, in most use cases.

*shrug*

 

[Berryracer]

And if that's all you're doing, you don't want to give up the trimming and direct software access benefits that you're more than likely to lose when putting the drives in RAID.

you don't lose TRIM in RAID mode anymore. This is not 2009

 

[thecoolnessrune]

you don't lose TRIM in RAID mode anymore. This is not 2009

It's definitely not 2009.

Avago (Broadcom -> LSI) - Not Supported in RAID - https://www.broadcom.com/support/kn...map-support-for-lsi-hbas-and-raid-controllers
Adaptec - Not Supported in RAID - http://ask.microsemi.com/app/answer...-command-support-and-adaptec-raid-controllers
Highpoint - Not Supported in RAID - http://www.highpoint-tech.com/websupport/kb_view_article_noauth.php?id=29

You are probably thinking of Soft-RAID, which is building RAID off of devices that are visible and accessible directly to the operating system layer. About the only thing that supports TRIM at the consumer level is Intel's RST in RAID 0 (you can't even get RAID 1 support without having RST Enterprise). Even with that, iRST only supported that with version 11, which came out in 2012, not 2009. TRIM might not be as ubiquitous in the RAID world as you think it to be. Certainly not in Hardware RAID.

 

[Berryracer]

It's definitely not 2009.

Avago (Broadcom -> LSI) - Not Supported in RAID - https://www.broadcom.com/support/kn...map-support-for-lsi-hbas-and-raid-controllers
Adaptec - Not Supported in RAID - http://ask.microsemi.com/app/answer...-command-support-and-adaptec-raid-controllers
Highpoint - Not Supported in RAID - http://www.highpoint-tech.com/websupport/kb_view_article_noauth.php?id=29

You are probably thinking of Soft-RAID, which is building RAID off of devices that are visible and accessible directly to the operating system layer. About the only thing that supports TRIM at the consumer level is Intel's RST in RAID 0 (you can't even get RAID 1 support without having RST Enterprise). Even with that, iRST only supported that with version 11, which came out in 2012, not 2009. TRIM might not be as ubiquitous in the RAID world as you think it to be. Certainly not in Hardware RAID.

Thanks for the correction.

This is how I feel right now.....