Question about RAID - Help needed

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 :crazy: )

thanks :cool:

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!!

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

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

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.

Quote:

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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.

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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...

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 :)