Member Avatar for nishad_forums

Hi,
I am currently using 1TB HDD. But I have another 1TB HDD that I want to use now and as far as I know setting up RAID 0 can increase my performance. So, I am thinking about doing it. I have a few questions:

My current HDD is almost full and no backup is ready. So, is it necessary that I format my drive, not partitions, I will install windows 8, so formatting the partition C (Windows) is not a problem.

My current HDD is 7200 RPM and the new one is 5400 RPM. Will it be a problem for Raid?

My main purpose for Desktop is for gaming and little bit of gaming. What stripe size should I choose?

PS. My motherboard is Gigabyte H67-MA which supports XHD (Extreme hdd).

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Member Avatar for CimmerianX

Raid 0 is taking 2 drives and making 1 logical volume across the 2 drives.

This gets you more spindles for reading/writing but also doubles your change for a failure since if you lose even 1 disk, the entire volume is dead. This setup is good for gaming rigs that have no valuable data or for a system that is backed up religiously.

You can also do Raid 1. This is a disk mirror that 'mirrors' data from 1 disk to the 2nd. This will slow down writes but speed up reads. IT also will protect you in the event 1 disk fails.

In either scenario, the speed of the 2nd disk won't prevent you from setting this up.

Member Avatar for JorgeM

Also, just to note that on RAID 0, if you have two 1 TB drives, the raid array will be 2 TB. If you set up RAID 1 between two 1 TB drives, the raid array will be 1 TB.

So it really depends on exactly what you are trying to accomplish.

And with regard to formating the drive, the answer is yes.

Member Avatar for nishad_forums

disk failure is a risk i didnt consider before, now i come to think of it, i dont want to take the risk and i dont have enough space to setup raid1 as i need the space of the 2nd hdd. So, is it possible to create some part of my hdd, say 200 gb, in raid 0 and use the other partitions without raiding? i know the risk will be the same but if thats possible then i wont lose the other partitions even if one hdd fails, right?

Member Avatar for JorgeM

You will need to check the capabilities and features of your RAID adapter.

Member Avatar for CimmerianX

What you are describing is some kind of software based RAID since I've never heard of any hardware based solution supporting a setup like that.

I would clone my existing setup to the newer drive with faster RPM. Once that is tested, you can but the slower drive to use as the 2nd data disk. I would forget about the RAID and just stick with a good backup schedule.

I use to game alot, and even though raid0 is sweet, having a single disk never bothered me as it really doesn't come into play when trying to get the most FPS.

Member Avatar for JorgeM

I've never heard of any hardware based solution supporting a setup like that.

I havent either, especially at the consumer based level type adapter card. Of course enterprise class SAN solutions have quite a bit of flexibility especiallly when considering virtual storage...

Edited by JorgeM
Member Avatar for jdonald

If you are serious about your computer I would reconfigure your operating system perhaps a fresh load to a ssd drive for your operating system, boot from it and get a huge performance boost. Raid 1 the 2 - 1tb drives to protect your data. clean up the drive get rid of obsolete and redundent data files remove the old operating system and optimize the ssd drive. check your raid software or bios options sometimes the raid process will wipe your drives and any info on them, some have the option of keeping the original drive intact, which is what you want to make sure you do if you don't have a backup.

Member Avatar for nishad_forums

Thanks all for the reply. I dont have a SSD, too much price for me. I think I am gonna transfer the files to the slower one first and then try to raid 0 the faster one but one partition (150GB) and the other partitions non-raid ( I dont know if this is possible but I will try definetly! ). If it works then Great, if not i will keep the both HDD in non-raid mode.

I know backup is needed but dont have sufficient space now. I have trust in my HDD products...;)

Member Avatar for javanoob101

I just finished installing RAID-0 on my computer about amonth ago, and I love it! I get double the data read/write speeds now.

Your drive have diferent RPM's, this is not really a problem, but the faster drive will only work as fast as the slower one, that's just what raid contollers usually do. The closer the drive are (in terms of RPM chace size and interface Sata or Pata, the better) But! Raid 0 doubles the failure rate!! so just be sure to do backups often.

For stipe size, I'm using a 128 KB strip, the default size.

Should you want more help, take a look at my thread i started!
http://www.daniweb.com/hardware-and-software/pc-hardware/storage/threads/446093/is-raid-0-worth-it

On a last note, check out SSD Caching it might be the better option if you want to make your programs to run faster.

good luck!
javanoob101

Edited by javanoob101
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