Raid 0 question please

[herbeapuce]

Hi .

right now I have a 250 seagate sata HDD in my PC. can I purchase a HDD much smaller , like 40, not from the same company, sata, and combine the 2 in Raid0 ? as you can see I don't know much about Raid0 ( Raid in general...) so my question is is there anyting I should be aware of before buying the second HDD ?

- will I have to reinstall window xp pro in order to have 2 raid 0 HDD?

- looking for a good tutorial on how to modify an existing PC with one HDD into 2 Raid 0 HDD setup

thanks for your help

stef.

-Antec sonata2 , Antec 450 W PSU
-LanParty UT Nf4 Ultra-D
- Opteron 165 dualcore
-Crucial Ballistic PC3200 , 2x512 dual
-Sapphire GTO2 Pci-e
-Seagate Barracuda SATA 7200.8 250GB
-LG GSA-4167B 16X DVD +- RW 16X
-LG GCE-8527B CD-RW
-Sony 1.44 MB floppy
-Logitech wireless keyboard/mouse
-Hanson 19" regular monitor (920A)
window xp pro

 

[paparazi]

herbeapuce
To answer your questions .
The second drive should be identical to the first for best performance and also so space is not wasted.
The Raid 0 sets the drives as equal so if there is an inballance of capacity it will ingnore/waste the excess.
So if you use a 250 and a 40 it will treat them as 2 X 40.

Yes you will have to re-install

This first article looks best.

http://www.smartcomputing.com/Editorial/article.asp?article=articles/2004/w1510/11w02/11w02.asp&guid

http://www.overclockercafe.com/Articles/RAID/

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/raid/levels/single_Level0.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks

http://techreport.com/reviews/2002q4/ideraid/index.x?pg=1

Martin



We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[cyberspace]

Also worth pointing out that RAID 0 is NOT fault tolerant (in fact its not truely RAID because the "R" stands for "Redundant" and RAID0 offers no redundancy).

If one drive goes down in a RAID0 array you will lose the data off BOTH drives - so ensure you are backing up important data. If you are working with critical data backup is essential - if you are not backing up, RAID0 isn't a good idea for important stuff.

The striping method employed by RAID0 is purely for performance (allows sequential input/output which will improve data transfer rate ) so is popular with people wanting to improve their systems overall performance.

Is it specifically RAID0 that you are interested in?

Also to back up what paparazi said - the second disk needs to be idential in size (i would also say same manufacturer)....in fact just generally identical is a good rule of thumb

And get a good brand too!!

The links above will give you all you need to know!!




'When all else fails.......read the manual'

 

[rvnguy]

if speed is what you seek...as other have posted..

The drives should not only be the same size but also of the same performance/speed. Identical drives on sepatate channels is highly recommended.

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[herbeapuce]

thank you guys.

I will look into it

stef.