Hard Drives & RAID

[o0RaidR0o]

yes u can boot from ide, the performance will be around half against the raid stripe.

i boot from ide and use the raid array as storage. i dont mind the drop in speed as things like paging file use the raid array.

Thanks GoNzO!

I'm building a gaming rig so I should stick with booting to a raid=0 then.

 

[GoNz0]

yup

 

[cryogenic]

The performance benefits of RAID0 are actually questionable. Even though RAID0 offers sequential transfer rates (STR) of nearly double that of a single drive, gaming performance seldom increases more than 10%. The only place that sees much of an increase is during bootup of XP since after much defragging, it tends to rely on sequential transfer. Games and many other programs actually don't. Storagereview.com has an excellent write-up on RAID-0 vs a single drive here. Hey, if you're dead-set on a RAID0, go for it. Just don't expect 2x the performance.

 

[coathanger007]

Well, here's my old RAID article:
http://www.graphixanstuff.com/Forum/index.php?showtopic=148&hl=raid

 

[cryogenic]

Well, here's my old RAID article:
http://www.graphixanstuff.com/Forum/index.php?showtopic=148&hl=raid

Very nice... thorough without treating the user like an idiot. You should update it to reflect WinXP though, since installing on XP usually requires using the driver floppy for the card or onboard chip. As far as all the benchmarks I've seen, the biggest difference is seen on bootup and file copying. Obviously a RAID array is not going to make a bit of difference in most games (though a few do rely on sequential transfer rates; those are discussed in the article I linked above). My board has SATA RAID, but I have no desire to go buy 2 SATA drives as I already have a WD 120gb drive and a WD 80GB drive.

 

[coathanger007]

Thanks
The article dows talk about XP drivers:
Quote: "Dual Booting with Windows XP:
If your RAID card only came with a driver CD then you’ll have to manually copy the relevant drivers to a floppy disk (for reasons that will become apparent shortly). Reboot off the Windows XP CD (you may have to make changes the system BIOS to enable this – refer to motherboard manual) and follow the self explanatory instructions to install XP on a separate partition (e.g. D:/Windows).When prompted, press F6 to install the RAID drivers from the floppy disk created above. "
I noticed the speed difference in loading large programs/program installations.

 

[max]

i have a problem at this situation...

If your RAID card only came with a driver CD then you’ll have to manually copy the relevant drivers to a floppy disk (for reasons that will become apparent shortly). Reboot off the Windows XP CD (you may have to make changes the system BIOS to enable this – refer to motherboard manual) and follow the self explanatory instructions to install XP on a separate partition (e.g. D:/Windows).When prompted, press F6 to install the RAID drivers from the floppy disk created above. "
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these are the things that i did, but in my case, after installing the RAID drivers, it says that it did not detect any hard disc or mass storage!!!!

but if i boot it up, it normally boots up using my 2000 Professional.

please help me....

 

[coathanger007]

So Windows 2000 recognises your RAID?
Who's the Manufacturer of the RAID controller - model number? May have to flash the controller BIOS.

 

[max]

i'm using the ASUS motherboard...

it was working properly but i need to format it....

 

[max]

i'm new to this stuff..i've never done mirroring but normal formatting i've done it.

i wanted to use the Fdisk but then everytime i'm trying to boot up using the floppy, it says something and i have to remove it...

 

[coathanger007]

Need much more details. What's the error message? What's the model number of the Mobo?

 

[max]

ok...let me explain abit...i wanted to format this pc..it is using ASUS mothereboard P4P800...it had 2* 80 gig..and its not using IDE cable but SCSI cable.

- i boot up using the 200o pro cd..it checks my configuration and ask whether i have the RAID controller for mass storage...( i have already manually got the RAID controller from the motherboard cd ), so i insert the floppy containing the RAID controller...

- then it copies some file and then it comes to the menu with 3 choices whether i want to repair or install new or exit..

- when i choose the install new or repair, it says it cannot detect any mass storage...

- before this also i realise that by using SCSI, it will not show the drives in BIOS.

the PC is currently using mirrorring...

what do u mean by mobo???i kinda new

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Mobo = Mother Board

 

[coathanger007]

As long as Windows 2000 loads up and recognises your RAID, everything is fine. Recommend you update your drivers here:
http://www.asus.com/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=P4P800-E Deluxe

I personally don't recommend mirroring. It's slow and unnecessary. I personally use striped RAID (for speed) then use Norton Ghost to preiodically image the entire RAID.

 

[max]

the connection is called SATA cable on scsi...i just got to know...but i still fix the prob..dono how...

 

[coathanger007]

All I can think of is a BIOS flash using the link I provided. Any of you guys have other ideas?

 

[RUMANDCUJO]

Is it possible to set up a raid 0 configuration on a westerndigital 40 gb hard drive and on a westerdigital 120 gb hard drive im trying to set up a raid 0 configuration for my dell XPS.

 

[American Zombie]

It is best to use drives the same size and what you want to do will work but will be a big waste of the 120 GB drive.
When setting up the array it will go by the smallest drive (40 GB) so you will end up with a 80 GB raid array.
There may be other issues as well but I can't think of them right now.

 

[RUMANDCUJO]

so would it be beter if i would partion off the 120?

 

[Zedric]

so would it be beter if i would partion off the 120?

No. Partitioning is done after the raid array is set up, so that won't be possible. You can only raid drives, not partitions.