RAID help

[Andre2142]

well tpoday i deiced to do RAID and im having some questions:

-what should i set to? (mirroing, stripping, or mirroing&stripping)

-is it ok if im using like two identical dirves but different brands?

-and im having trouble that when i enable RAID windows wont boot =\

ppls help.:cry:

EDIT:
also should i do s fresh windows install after i aneble raid 0 ?

[elstonieo]

Re: RAID help

yeah if u want to set a raid up do a fresh install
u will also need the raid driver floppy disk as well
when windows is installing right at the begining it says press F6 for third party drivers or something like that
thats when u need your raid driver floppy
well thats the way we used to do it

[schaef2k]

Re: RAID help

yeah if u want to set a raid up do a fresh install
u will also need the raid driver floppy disk as well
when windows is installing right at the begining it says press F6 for third party drivers or something like that
thats when u need your raid driver floppy
well thats the way we used to do it

Right on the money.

As for what RAID setup you want that depends.

RAID 0 will give you better performence since it's using both (or however many drives you have) read/write heads at the same time. However if one drive fails the set is toast and since it's 2 or more drives you are doubling your chance of failure.

RAID 1 (mirror) doesn't give you any performence gains but greatly reduces the chances of the RAID set failing.

RAID 0+1 or what ever the hell they call it combines the freatures of both but I think it needs 4 drives to run.

RAID 5 is the best but not usually availiable on home PCs. RAID 5 needs at least 3 drives to setup and reads/writes to all drives at the same time. RAID 5 can loose a drive and keep on running and even rebuild the set while the OS is running.

[Andre2142]

Re: RAID help

should i install windows on the RAIDed drives?, because the thing i did was to install windows on another drive.

[Heavy552 AWG]

Re: RAID help

I just keep the windows, security and internet stuff on one C:\ and the games on RAID 0. Storage is on another drive and on a second computer. My RAID has been up for two years now with only one rebuild.

What sort of controller are you using for the RAID? If it is a hardware controller you should be in good shape. You should have the ability to enter the RAID during the boot process after the POST but Before the windows logo comes up.

Having several identical drives is best. Parity or data protection will take half of your RAID total capacity on two drives but may be able to use a 3rd drive to rebuild a failed drive while the system stays up.

Dont confuse RAID with JOBD (Just a bunch of drives)

[Andre2142]

Re: RAID help

thanks thats just the answer i was looking for :), anyways well my motherboard (gigabyte GA-K8N51GMF-9) supports RAID 0,1,0+1,5 using an Nforce chipset and yes something appears just before the windows loading screen telling me the Array that im using and some of its info, and I'm currently using RAID 0 on two 250gb sata drives.

[schaef2k]

Re: RAID help

thanks thats just the answer i was looking for :), anyways well my motherboard (gigabyte GA-K8N51GMF-9) supports RAID 0,1,0+1,5 using an Nforce chipset and yes something appears just before the windows loading screen telling me the Array that im using and some of its info, and I'm currently using RAID 0 on two 250gb sata drives.

If your board does RAID 5 I would really think about using 3 drives and setting it up. It's fast and the odds of loosing 2 drives at the same time are astrinomicle.

that or RAID 0, got to have the speed man!

[Andre2142]

Re: RAID help

lol, well im a first timer in this RAID thing so im i gonna noticed any improvement when it comes to loading games?, and does RAID 0 normally fails alot?

[Merlin]

Re: RAID help

While we are on the subject of RAID. What is the best secor size to use?

[schaef2k]

Re: RAID help

lol, well im a first timer in this RAID thing so im i gonna noticed any improvement when it comes to loading games?, and does RAID 0 normally fails alot?

No, just as often as a hard drive fails but your relying on 2 instead of 1.

RAID 5 takes 3 drives minimum but will still work if one dies. Then you just pop in a new one and it rebuilds, then you're go to go.

[Merlin]

Re: RAID help

No, just as often as a hard drive fails but your relying on 2 instead of 1.

Actually the chances of RAID failing is far higher than a single drive. If you loose the association between the two drives, you loose all the data on the drives. I had RAID set up once and it failed loads. However I assume the drivers for RAID/Motherboards are better than when I tried it. There might have been a chance that all my RAID's screwed up because I heavily overclocked my old machine.

[schaef2k]

Re: RAID help

Actually the chances of RAID failing is far higher than a single drive. If you loose the association between the two drives, you loose all the data on the drives. I had RAID set up once and it failed loads. However I assume the drivers for RAID/Motherboards are better than when I tried it. There might have been a chance that all my RAID's screwed up because I heavily overclocked my old machine.

A heavy OC without a PCI frequency lock will mess with RAID badly. I've had RAID 0 on my current system for a year (with a LARGE OC) with no problems at all.

[Andre2142]

Re: RAID help

my RAID chip is integrated into my motherboard, so i think i'm a little bit safer. But what is RAID really for? what advantages i'm i gona get if im doin RAID 0?

[schaef2k]

Re: RAID help

my RAID chip is integrated into my motherboard, so i think i'm a little bit safer. But what is RAID really for? what advantages i'm i gona get if im doin RAID 0?

Each one is different.

RAID 0 = Strip set = 2 (or 3 or 4 )drives that work as one big drive. It's benifit is that since you have 2 (3,4) drives you have 2 (3,4) read and 2 (3,4) write heads working at the same time. RAID 0 almost twice as fast as standard IDE. It uses the combined space of all drives.

RAID 1 = Mirror = 2 drives one is an exactcopy of the other. So 2 250 gb drives in RAID 1 will still be 250 GB. If it was RAID 0 it would be 500 gb. If one drive fails you can boot of the other drive and rebuild the set no problem no format no reinstall. If RAID 0 drive fails.....Format and reinstall or restore from a backup (like you have one).

RAID 5 = Strip with parity = 3 or more drives use all together so you get the speed af all the drives together but also all drives are writen accross one another in such a way that if one drive dies, the other 2 still have all the data and keep running (just slower). Then you put in a new drive and rebuild it without having to format or reinstall. Give you both speed and fault tollerence.

Then there is RAID 0+1 so RAID 0 and RAID 1 combined.

And there is also Mirrored RAID 5 but I don't know what you call it.