Question about RAID - Help needed

[novajoe]

To start off i better say im a RAID n00b

I have just built my new computer and was wondering about RAID, as i have 2 80Gb Seagate HDDs and i thought i may aswell be using the RAID feature.

Anyway i was just wondering which set would be the best, eg. RAID 0, RAID 1 etc...

Also this thing about stripe sizes i dont understand, what would be a good size 64k?

any advise would be great because i kno im going have to install windows all over again under RAID and want to get cracking!

mobo is a K7, Gigabyte 7NNXP (if this info is needed )

thanks

[zaphod]

If the chunk size is 64k this means every 64k of date is split and put on to each disk. 64k is proble the best size to set it to.

Raid 1 make a back up of one hard drive to the other, if you do this you will only have 80Gb total space. If you go Raid 0 the data will be split between both disks. For eg, 5mb of a 10mb file will be on disk 1 and the other 5 will be on disk 2. If you lose one disk you lose ALL!

I run a raid0 with 2 120Gb maxtors and have no problem. Its quite fast!!

[novajoe]

coo thx, im running raid0 now and its a big improvment

[zaphod]

But do be careful if your data is precious to you RAID 0 can be risky

[iranu]

I use 2 160g hitachi deskstars in raid 0 and an 80g WD for backup. Anything precious gets copied to another spare older 20g hard drive and/or better still, burnt onto cd.

In my experience the raid 0 does seem to work quite well but if your data is precious then do a proper backup onto a cd/dvd/tape drive (floppy -haha).

Those that go on about raid 1 (mirroring) being a backup are kidding themselves, a power spike or lightning strike/flood/theft/act of God can take out both those lovely mirrored drives and leave you with nowt.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by iranu

Those that go on about raid 1 (mirroring) being a backup are kidding themselves, a power spike or lightning strike/flood/theft/act of God can take out both those lovely mirrored drives and leave you with nowt.

This guy is sooooo correct.

Also, if the system is writing crap data, the RAID 1 array with mirror that crap data... can't fix that!

I use RAID 5 - it's to prevent downtime, not to replace backups.

Anyway, I used RAID 0 for about 18 months, worked great, but there's always that risk with relying on TWO hard drives...

[Rabs]

yes but - any HD can die at any time. Buy a brand which is generally recommended.

By using RAID 0 you increase your chances of losing your data. RAID 1 is better and RAID 5 as Kez says is better again.

If everyone was soooo paranoid we'd all use solid state ram which unfortunately isn't big enough for OS use etc at the present time.

Personally I use 2 x 36Gb Raptors in RAID 0 and a seperate 200GB drive, I dont care what people say about losing my data, thats why I buy long warrantied drives, I take the risk but the choice is mine.

I notice a substantial increase general performance and in game loading times, I love the difference and would not think go back to single drives.

The choice is yours at the end of the day, what ever decision you make... enjoy