RAID setup on EPOX 8k7a+, suggestions needed!

[Ender510]

I have the following:

Epox 8k7a+ motherboard
2 30 GIG Maxtor ATA/100 7200 RPM
1 30 GIG Quantum ATA/66 7200 RPM

How do I hook these up on my mobo? What are my options? Do I put the 2 maxtor HD's on IDE channel 1 and channel 2, both set as master and then the quantum on it's own channel, the non-raid one?

3) I see there are a total of 4 IDE channels available on my mobo, 2 are labeled UIDE - I assume these are the RAID ones?


4) Also, all 4 channels are ATA/100, right?

Thanks everyone in advance..

 

[Sugadaddy]

Put one Maxtor on each RAID channel, and the other on any of the other regular IDE channels.

3)I think that's correct

4)yes

 

[Ender510]

So what would mean I would need a total of 3 IDE ata/100 cables? If I have a spare 6 GIG HD, would it be better for me to hook that up as the master and install the OS on that?

Is it possible to RAID the 3 30 GIG drives together and get 90 GIGS? How stable would this be in an overclocked system? THanks again..

 

[Sugadaddy]

Yes, you'd need 3 cables, and no I wouldn't install the OS on the 6GB because it's almost surely slower than the other drives. You want to have your OS on the fastest drive, in this case the RAID array.(it'll boot faster because of the RAID, and the new drives will have better access times)

Also, I think you can use 3 drives in RAID 0, but I'm really not sure. I know for sure you can't do it with the onboard controller alone, you'd have to have the 3rd drive on another channel and use software RAID in win2k for example. Even if it's possible, I wouldn't do it because your drives aren't all the same and you'd also have 3 times more chances of losing all your data.(I think doubling your chances of losing everything is already enough...)

 

[Ender510]

Does it really double the risk doing RAID? I just am looking for stability.. but if I get 2x the speed, then I am all for that as well.. hmm

 

[John]

<< Does it really double the risk doing RAID? I just am looking for stability.. but if I get 2x the speed, then I am all for that as well.. hmm >>



If one drive dies, the array dies in a raid 0 config. You could always do a 0+1

 

[Ender510]

When you say &quot;dies&quot;, do you mean that I won't be able to access ANY data or just the data that was on the other one?

As for 0+1, how does that work?

 

[Jiggz]

Raid 0+1 requires 4 drives so this is not an option for you. Technically, it means two drives are striped while the other two mirrors the striped drives. It's the best set up since it increases speed and also fault tolerant. Which means you have instant back up of everything.

With three drives your choice is to Stripe all three or you can just stripe two and have the other one in hot standby. To stripe all three, connect the two ATA 100 in each channel and then slave the ATA 66 on channel 1. The connection is the same if you decide just to stripe two drives except in set up you will only designate the two ATA 100 for the Raid 0.

 

[Ender510]

jiggz: What would be the difference in the setup you mentioned or just hooking up the ata/66 drive to its own channel that is NOT RAID... since I have the Epox 8k7a+, it has a total of 4 IDE channels.. 2 of them being RAID and 2 of them not, with up to 2 devices on each channel I believe.

Thanks again..