RAID0 Options

[SunShock]

This is a type of question I've seen many times, but never with any clear answer. I have a total of 3 hard drives, one standalone and the other two on a striped RAID0 array. The question is what to put on which drive. Here's my breakdown:

-OS and installed programs and games all on one drive
-Data (program installers, downloads, etc.), media (videos and music), and CD images (which I load as virtual drives) all on another drive
-Video editing project files/scratch space (most likely on the RAID0 drive)

I think it's also necessary here to explain my philosophy. I consider my OS to always be temporary, that is to say that my data is more important to me than my OS (I tend to reinstall Windows every 6-12 months). My data/media drive will pretty much be storage. While I do make large changes to this drive (as in moving around 4-5 GB worth of data every so often), I don't intend to be reformatting the drive. I personally don't video edit very often, but it obviously moves around huge chunks of data too. I also am very good about defragmenting often.

So the question is, which should I put on the RAID0 array? My OS/programs or my data/media?

 

[jurgen36]

My humble opinion if the drives are big enough put everything on the raid 0 array, this will be the fastest. For security use your normal ide drive as a backup drive. Using Acronis Tru Image or a similar program. This way you have high speed and also data security. Back up once a day before shutdown, it only takes a few minutes for an incremental backup. This way you can sleep well at night. Re amount of data, Acronis saves the date with selectable compression ratios. Good luck. Regards

Jurgen

 

[SunShock]

Unfortunately, I do not have enough hard drive space for everything to be on the array. Otherwise, I agree, that would be the ideal option. I need to use both the RAID0 array and the IDE drive I have in order to hold everything, so back to square one on that: should I put my OS or my data on the RAID0 array?

 

[NDeters]

I would definately recommend that you place the OS on the IDE drive, since it really wouldn't matter if you lost that...you could always grab another drive and load your OS back on. Then keep your data, media, and CD images on the array so that if one fails, you won't loose the valuable install files and everything that will allow you to recover and get back working again.

 

[BaudKarma]

Raid 0 is striped, not mirrored. The stripe array is optimized for speed. If he loses either of his striped drives, then he'll lose all his data.

I'd put OS on the stripe drive, along with your programs and any files you're working with frequently, and drop everything else on your other drive. Downloads and media files you're not actively editing can definitely go on the IDE drive.



I try not to let my ignorance prevent me from offering a strong opinion.

 

[NDeters]

My bad, I would agree with BaudKarma's opinion now that we've straightened out the Raid issue.