Win 7 install with 2 drives in raid

[cmf21]

How does this work. When installing Win 7, does it automatically install on both drives or is their something special that must be done. Going to be putting together two 500gb's in raid for the first time and not sure how this works.

Also, should I be partationing the drives or just leave them alone. I've always left it as one big partation. If I do, how do I determine how big a partation to have?

 

[Big Lar]

How does this work. When installing Win 7, does it automatically install on both drives or is their something special that must be done. Going to be putting together two 500gb's in raid for the first time and not sure how this works.

Also, should I be partationing the drives or just leave them alone. I've always left it as one big partation. If I do, how do I determine how big a partation to have?

As to how it installs, Yes it installs to both drive, but not all files will be spread across both drives. Simple way to put it is; if you make a stripe size of say 128, any file under 128 will go to 1 of the drives, any file over 128 will be spanned across both drives.

As to partitions, it all depends on use of the drive. The outer rim will be fastest so your OS should go there with enough allowed for expansion over time. The balance can be partitioned if you like to another drive, ie; C: for the OS and D; for storage or on and on depending on your preference.

Larry

 

[Nothinman]

As to how it installs, Yes it installs to both drive, but not all files will be spread across both drives. Simple way to put it is; if you make a stripe size of say 128, any file under 128 will go to 1 of the drives, any file over 128 will be spanned across both drives.

Only in RAID0 which is pretty dumb. If you use RAID1 every file will be mirrored to both drives. If you install to RAID5 it'll stripe the data across all drives similar to RAID0 but will include parity information in the strip so that it can rebuild the data in the case of a single drive dying.

As to partitions, it all depends on use of the drive. The outer rim will be fastest so your OS should go there with enough allowed for expansion over time. The balance can be partitioned if you like to another drive, ie; C: for the OS and D; for storage or on and on depending on your preference.

Partitioning for performance is an oxymoron, even more so when talking about RAID. Just use as few partitions as possible to get the data layout that you want, generally this means 1 partition per drive/volume.

 

[Big Lar]

Only in RAID0 which is pretty dumb. If you use RAID1 every file will be mirrored to both drives. If you install to RAID5 it'll stripe the data across all drives similar to RAID0 but will include parity information in the strip so that it can rebuild the data in the case of a single drive dying.



Partitioning for performance is an oxymoron, even more so when talking about RAID. Just use as few partitions as possible to get the data layout that you want, generally this means 1 partition per drive/volume.

I guess everyone has thier opinions on the subject, I won't even bother commenting further on your thoughts, seem to be a bit to self indulgent for my tastes.

Larry

 

[RebateMonger]

As nothingman notes, in a RAID 1 array, the content of the mirrored disks are identical. When installing an OS to a RAID 1 array, you first create the array. The array becomes a "virtual disk" to which you install the OS. In the case of Windows, during installation you need to first feed the RAID controller drivers to Windows so it's able to see the virtual disk that's been created. As far as the OS is concerned, it's dealing with a single disk. The RAID controller takes care of the details of actually mirroring the data.

(Note: Onboard RAID controllers modify this somewhat. The RAID controller handles some low-level disk communications, but software loaded into Windows takes care of some of the RAID functions.)

As for partitioning:
Much of the decision on partitioning will depend on your backup/restore strategy. Much of the better backup software is volume-based, so you want to plan on partitions that will work best for backups and restores. Putting multiple partitions on a single disk or array does little for performance.

 

[Nothinman]

I guess everyone has thier opinions on the subject, I won't even bother commenting further on your thoughts, seem to be a bit to self indulgent for my tastes.

Larry

The important parts about how various levels of RAID works aren't opinion at all, any intro to RAID will explain them to you. The parts about RAID0 being stupid and partitioning may be largely opinion, but I don't see how they'r self-indulgent.

 

[cmf21]

Forgive me but I'm stupid on this matter as I've never done it before. Was planning on running the drives in raid 1.

So basically all I need to do is install the drives, set up the raid 1 in the bios, and install the operating system. Is this correct or am I missing a step. I've done this before the regular way but not in a raid configuration.

Now when I go to install windows, only one drive be shown as available to install on but will install on both drives? Is this correct or will there be two drives shown but only one available to do the installtion on or do i get to pick?

 

[Nothinman]

If you feed Windows the correct drivers you'll only see 1 drive, if it uses the basic controller drivers you'll see both because the actual RAIDing happens in the driver with a little help from the controller firmware.

 

[Big Lar]

Forgive me but I'm stupid on this matter as I've never done it before. Was planning on running the drives in raid 1.

So basically all I need to do is install the drives, set up the raid 1 in the bios, and install the operating system. Is this correct or am I missing a step. I've done this before the regular way but not in a raid configuration.

Now when I go to install windows, only one drive be shown as available to install on but will install on both drives? Is this correct or will there be two drives shown but only one available to do the installtion on or do i get to pick?

When you get to the point of setting up the OS,( install), have a driver on a floppy,flash, whatever ready to feed windows for the controller. Really hard to pinpoint exactly what you have going on without knowing what chipset etc you are running. Once setup you should have a logical disk, which is actually 2 physical disks running in RAID. Hope that helps.

Now then as to the other comment,"The important parts about how various levels of RAID works aren't opinion at all, any intro to RAID will explain them to you. The parts about RAID0 being stupid and partitioning may be largely opinion, but I don't see how they'r self-indulgent."
Interesting, an Intro to RAID.. I have been running SCSI RAID for probably fifteen years or more, you think I need an Intro? Get serious. The self indulgent part is yourself, its called attitude. Some people just think they are special, <insert sarcasm here>. To the OP, I apoligize for interrupting the flow of your thread.

Larry

 

[cmf21]

When you get to the point of setting up the OS,( install), have a driver on a floppy,flash, whatever ready to feed windows for the controller. Really hard to pinpoint exactly what you have going on without knowing what chipset etc you are running. Once setup you should have a logical disk, which is actually 2 physical disks running in RAID. Hope that helps.

Larry

Don't understand this. I'm going to be using an Asus P6X58D-E motherboard. What do you mean by having a driver ready to feed windows for the controller. How is this driver supposed to get installed when there is no operating system yet? Is windows going to ask for one during installation or something?

 

[RebateMonger]

Don't understand this. I'm going to be using an Asus P6X58D-E motherboard. What do you mean by having a driver ready to feed windows for the controller. How is this driver supposed to get installed when there is no operating system yet? Is windows going to ask for one during installation or something?

When doing the Win7 install, the installer will give you the opportunity to load a disk controller driver so that it can see your hard drive or disk array. At that point, you feed it the RAID driver for your disk controller. Now the installer can see the array (as a single disk) and can now write to the array and install Windows.

Once the install is completed, Windows will load the RAID drivers very early in the boot process so that it can again see the array and boot to it.

 

[Nothinman]

Interesting, an Intro to RAID.. I have been running SCSI RAID for probably fifteen years or more, you think I need an Intro? Get serious.

Then you must also have some magical powers of assumption because the OP never mentioned the RAID level and you just assumed RAID0.

The self indulgent part is yourself, its called attitude. Some people just think they are special, <insert sarcasm here>. To the OP, I apoligize for interrupting the flow of your thread.

Everyone's special in some way and you've done a pretty good job of demonstrating your "specialness" here.

 

[Big Lar]

@ Nothinman, as you seem to be unable to let this go, How in fact did you get the Elite title? Was it by blundering into threads and calling peoples ideas feedback to a question Dumb, like you did in your first response to this thread? Nice attitude there.
Life is not a pissing contest, think about that, its about getting along. As to your smart comment as to "specialness", at least I have pm'd the OP earlier this morning as to his questions,as the thread is muddled, did you bother to do that? I think not. Grow up please.

To the OP, I hope my PM cleared up your question, sorry to get off topic in your thread.

Larry