Thinking about RAIDing a second C300

[Dadofamunky]

Thinking about buying a second 128GB C300 and RAID0ing it. (Yes, I know "RAID0ing" isn't a verb.) Problem is, I have a functioning installation with all my apps and things are sweet. I can also image the existing install, but I have heard that restoring disk images onto new SSD installations is problematic.

To be specific, I would be imaging my existing 128GB SSD installation, wiping it, setting up RAID 0 with a second one, and then restoring the original image onto the RAID array. Is there any reason this shouldn't work?

 

[Emulex]

nope. you should ALWAYS practice your backup/restore DR method. if you do not actually do it - you will never know if it works as you like it to.

most restores are harder than you think

 

[nanaki333]

make sure you install the raid drivers before you image so it can boot from the new array

 

[Burner27]

make sure you install the raid drivers before you image so it can boot from the new array

If he has the controller set to AHCI or IDE mode, how do you install the RAID drivers if the controller isn't set that way?

 

[Dadofamunky]

I think he means the Windows 7 OS drivers. That is a good point.

Still hoping to run into someone here who's done it. Then again, I should also check the Crucial forums.

 

[sequoia464]

Hopefully someone has better information than I do on this, but from what I have read on the Crucials is that they really need to have trim working - their internal garbage collection is not very aggressive. I might have misundestood but that is what I took from Anand's review of the crucial SSD.

This is what he had to say ... http://www.anandtech.com/show/3812/the-ssd-diaries-crucials-realssd-c300/8

 

[hennessy1]

Not sure about this method as I have not tried it myself yet.

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...-A-simple-guide-for-speeding-up-EOL-OCZ-SSD-s

 

[Old Hippie]

I was helping another poster with a RAID1 request and gave him this link that describes installing Intel's RST and creating an array from existing drives and I'm sure RAID0 would be the same.

Obviously you'll need to have an image on a separate drive to reinstall but I've never had a problem restoring a single drive Acronis image to a RAID0 install.

The Acronis True Image 11 will keep the correct alignment and it's free for a 30 day trial.

Good Luck!

 

[Dadofamunky]

Thanks OH, that's definitely what I'm planning to do - except that I think I'll use Laplink's imager, which I've already paid for.

 

[bigi]

You will lose trim which is not a good option with C300. Something to consider.

Also, will you gain that much really except seeing larger bench numbers?

C300 is plenty fast by itself. Yes, RAID0 will make 2 even faster, but with time not having a Trim may actually be bad.

 

[Dadofamunky]

Yes, you're right. I knew there was a possible drawback to using RAID with some SSDs and that is the case with the C300s. Not having TRIM isn't acceptable. Losing GC is not worth the definite gains you would see. The larger an SSD array of flash chips, the more parallel operations take place and the faster your overall throughput is. I wish I could have afforded a 256GB unit.

 

[Old Hippie]

Losing GC is not worth the definite gains you would see.

GC still works.

You'll lose TRIM but GC does 90-95% of TRIM's job.

I've run many SSDs in RAID0 and they recover just fine.