Storage Solutions RAID rookie

Status
Not open for further replies.
P

panther

Forerunner
as the title suggest i am a rookie when it come to setting up raid, i have few question regarding raid, should both the disk be clean(Empty) to set up raid? ,are the chances of losing data more with any type of raid setup over the conventional method, will setting up raid boost my read and write speed significantly or just marginally.

thanks.
 
1. First you need to enable RAID in BIOS.

2. If you connect 2 HDDs, the RAID setup in BIOS will take care of everything (deleting/formatting etc). Here you will be asked to setup the RAID array. Simply select the 2 HDDs.

3. You must have the RAID driver ready before installing OS either in a floppy or a pen drive.

In RAID 0, yes, the chances of losing data is doubled.

For speeds check mine. It's a RAID0 of two seagate 500GB HDDs

 
^^ Hmm, but do you know that each and every mobo is different? I just gave you an idea how to go about doing RAID. If you want the exact steps, google your mobo's model number, get the usermanual and see if it helps.
 
^^yes i have x58 ud5 there they have many raid flavours i would not set to Raid0 sound risky i hope the speed will be better than one disk
 
panther said:
^^yes i have x58 ud5 there they have many raid flavours i would not set to Raid0 sound risky i hope the speed will be better than one disk
Click to expand...

RAID0 with just 2 discs is a compromise between reliability, space and thus expense. If you can backup important data periodically, you can go in for RAID0. Other forms of RAID are either expensive (more discs) or provide less storage space. Even in RAID0 setup, you won't see a huge jump in performance in everything you do. Huge programs like games will install, load a bit faster etc.
 
Raid 1 is mirroring

i.e. you need exactly 2 drives, and both are a ditto copy of each other, so if one physical disk fails, you still are online. replace the failed disk and the good one copies itself to the new one. space = 1/2 of total. i.e. 2x 500 gb will give you only a total 500gb usable space

Raid 5 is redundancy and is IMHO better, although i use a combination of 0 & 5 for my needs as you may see in my sig.
 
RAID primary allows you sort an array of multiple hard drives so you an use them at different levels to enhance a feature.

RAID 0 allows data to be stripped over the array of hard drives and thus offers twice as much bandwidth as compared to a single drive.

RAID 1 allows the data to be mirrored, so it could be recovered from the secondary drive if the primary drive fails or vice versa.

The speed boost from RAID 0 in daily applications and games loading speed is very significant.
 
^^ thanks... makes me cringe though when i think i will lose everything i have shot over the year... for speed.
 
I find RAID 5 best.

Write speeds drop down a notable bit.
Read speeds mark up a notable bit.

If one HDD fails, you can just plug in another one, and the data remains intact.

If you feel there is a chance that two may fail together, you can also add one HDD as a SPARE. If one fails, data auto shifts to the SPARE while you replace the dead HDD with a fresh one.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom