Best Raid to choose from 0-1-3 or 5 1

[irj001]

Hi,
I am new at this tech forum and also new in Raid technology. I use windows XP Pro on my workstation and would like to be able to make the best possible choice for my system. I do all sorts of things: browsing, downloading files ( music,information, drivers, software,etc), doing my accounting, testing different tech software ( I have been a technician since 1990 but never used Raid before - but I have some knowledge in scsi hardware). What I would like to have is advice to which Raid should I choose for that sort of work with my system, I am interested in best perfomance possible and backup solution. Thanks very much for taking time to read me and maybe helping me.

Sincerely

IRJ

Ciao and have a nice evening.

 

[drummer0921]

Well if performance is what you looking for probably RAID 0 is your best bet, but you do not have any kind of "failsafe" . With RAID 1 its a mirrored copy, so perfmance will be slowed a little over RAID 0. RAID 5 is slow if you are doing a lot of READS and updates to a database for example. It also depends on how many disks you have. I believe RAID 3 will require 3 disks. 2 for mirroring and 1 for parity. JW

 

[irj001]

Hi,
I thank you for your reply and if you can I will have a few more questions: I will probably try to get 3 hard drives. But I need to have dual boot for I have to give support to people that are still on win98 and I use WinXP so is there any possibility to use Raid with an environment like this. I mostly will put the information I need for backup in the same place but the OS of course at least that is what I am doing now. Os in one partition, Apps in one other, and Work at one other anf 4th all the downloads at one other location (so usually: 2 partitions for OSes and 3 more for the rest ( Apps, Work and Downloads). I thank you in advance for taking time to read me and answer me.

Sincerely

IRJ

ciao and have a nice evening.

 

[irj001]

Hi,
I think I made up my mind about my Raid choice but I need to be sure it is possible to do it that way. Right now I have only 2 scsi hard drive 73G each and want to use Raid 0 for performance and I would like to buy a IDE drive 160Gb to use as a back up solution, is there any problem doing that with RAID. I know it is not going to be part of my Raid choice but is it not recommanded or is it ok, the main reason of my choice is of course: cost.

Thanks for your advice.

Sincerely

IRJ

 

[drummer0921]

RAID 0 will work. Of course remember if one of the drives fails you are in trouble. Using the 160GB disk will work for a backup. JW

 

[irj001]

Will I be able to recover the raid with my backup with the IDE drive if I backup my Raid 0 (2 scsi drives)or would it be better to use a third 73Gb drive choosing another Raid solution, like Raid 1 , 3 or 5. I can afford maybe a 3 scsi drives but not more cause scsi are expensive in U160. As I wrote before, performance is one main reason for me to choose RAID but I need a back up in case a drive fails so I have time to buy a replacement drive if needed and recover the Raid solution from my backup. Is it a possible solution or please advise me of another solution if better and not much more expensive. I mostly: browse Interenet , download music and Apps for testing purpose, multiboot system, use an accounting program for my home office and nothing more. Thanks for for your precious advice so far.. I have not been so far able to make my decision on which RAID to choose, performance, possibility of backup and cost are the 3 things I have to consider.

Sincerely

IRJ

Ciao and have a nice evening.

P.S. Thanks very much for taking time to read me and answer my questions.