Windows Fresh Install -- Partition/Cluster Question

[vol7ron]

Is it possible to have two different partitions on the same HD with two different cluster sizes?

What I want to do is have 1 for the OS and one for storage.

I'm thinking:
8KB/16KB OS Partition
128KB/512KB Media Storage

I'm using WinXP Pro (ntfs).

------------------------------------------

A similar question:
When installing Raid 0, it asks you to set up the stripe size. Is it possible to split the disk in half and use two different stripe lengths? My board is old using ICH7R, still the Intel MSM driver.

Goal:
OS partition, small cluster size, small stripe length
Storage partition, larger cluster size, larger stripe length

All on the RAID0 setup


Thanks all,
vol7ron

 

[flexy]

yes its possible, but your cluster sizes dont make sense to me.

OS partition i would always use 4k since most files are small..and even on my big "media" HDs my cluster size is 32 or maybe 64.

 

[vol7ron]

Thank you for your response.

After having this hardware for years, I just did a fresh install of XPP. I decided to combine them all into RAID 0 - I know the risks and have read about doing so for a long time. I plan on getting new SSDs and putting them in RAID, so I figure why not try on some old hardware first - it's also giving me the chance to try doing backups/recoveries of the whole image.

Anyhow, those were guesstimate sizes, as I plan on doing a selective system scan and finding the average file size (knocking it to the lowest/nearest power of 2).

When I set up the Raid initially, it seemed as if I could select the amount of bytes to use, as if partitioning the array, leaving the remainder as free space to add another array. If that's true that's exactly what I want.

My first attempt I set up all the space of 2x74G Raptors in Raid 0, with a stripe size of 64K (the suggestion was 128K and I'm glad I didn't). Mind you, this is still for testing, but my OS and all the files are on the same partition. I do notice a decrease in OS performance at certain times, after all I think the default is 4K.


To keep this simple, I want to understand this correctly, before I add the third 74G to the array (my mobo has seemingly 3 different RAID controllers and only 5+1 sata input ports, making it a little confusing).


Are these the correct steps for a ~50GB/~100GB partition (74Gx2) running on Raid 0:
1) Create a Raid 0 of the two disks, 50GB of space, stripe size ytbd (yet to be determined).
2) Create a Raid 0 of the same 2 disks, for the remainder of the space ~100GB with a larger stripe size.
3) Install WinXP on 1st Raid, during setup format the disk to use a 4kiB cluster (maybe 2kiB or 8kiB, depending on my findings)
4) After the install, format the other partition to a larger cluster size (probably 64 or 128 kiB)

If that is right, what do you think would be best performance?
stripe size = cluster size?
stripe size = double cluster size?
or would it be a factor of how many disks are in the array

 

[vol7ron]

I just read somewhere else that stripe size would be fastest at half the cluster size to assure both disks are used.

Additionally, they said that the default 4kiB cluster size gives the file compression feature that you don't get at other settings.

 

[KeypoX]

lol clusters, I almost completely forgot about those.

just saw that a the first distro has been released for snow lol. I might try it.

 

[vol7ron]

Originally posted by: KeypoX
lol clusters, I almost completely forgot about those.

just saw that a the first distro has been released for snow lol. I might try it.

get out of here with your off topic comments.

i'm curious about the best cluster/striping size for the os.

I've heard mixed opinions on if stripe size should be double, or half the cluster