Very New to Raid.....

i'm curious... could he maybe get a 120gb drive, split it into 20gb, 40gb, and 60gb parts and do software raid through xp? i'm not sure of the capabilities of xp's raid, so i don't know.
 
No, software RAID works on drives and not partitions too afaik. It would be logic anyway since you always partition the RAID array afterwards. RAIDing partitions would create double layers of partitioning... And being able to RAID two partitions on the same drive is just silly.

No I'm pretty sure it won't work.
 
yeah, i agree. was thinking maybe software raid was different than hardware.
 
Hey Guys, Its me again.


I do have another question before I jump the gun and purchase one RAID card and two other 60 gig HDD's to make three 60giggers. Yes I know I said I was going with a backup utility, But I am actually still interested in RAID. Now I manage to fit all my important info onto my other two available HDD's (Please see below). I will next install the RAID card and attach all three 60's to it and fresh install the XP on boot up and pressing the F6 for RAID setup. Will RAID0+1 offer me the protection of lost data if one HDD fails (maybe even hotswap, if right card)? Will Raid0+1 actually give me 180gigs of room? Can I introduce the other HDD's into the system after all Raid setups is complete to transfer the info (my guess is that I would plug them into the mobo IDE connectors)?

I am terribly sorry about these continuous questions, I just want to make the right choice for my file protection. Thanks to everyone for enduring me.


Heeter
 
Ok, I need to correct some of the erronus Ideas about RAID my raid card made by SII PnP680 chipset can have diffrent sized HDD's in the array. Although it's prefered to have same sized drives. The reason I ommitted the SCSI raid formats was due to their price. Were talking around $500-$1000 diffrence in setups. All he wanted to know was if it would protect his info. And how he should go about doing it.

I do believe that the High Point ATA133 Raid also permits diffrent sized HDD's to be in the same Set aka Array.

A side note on software RAID, NEVER DO THAT!!! I had a wonderful experiance in NT4.0 with drive striping aka software RAID 0 let's just say it was irrecoverable, we lost all info. The drives started getting bad clusters and died quickly. I will always recommend Hardware RAID over software RAID.

As to your last question if 3 60 Gb drives were set to RAID 0+1 how much space would you have you'd get 90 Gb's of free space. Because, with RAID 1 you get half of the potential space. 180 / 2 = 90Gb.

Answer to other HDD's now that depends on your Power Supply if it has enough Head's and Wattage to run those other drives and your two you have right now. Because, your RAID card is where the cables to the 3 60's will goto then the channel on your PC will still be open. So, you have the capability to have those two running with your RAID. Only other problems are heat and space in your Case.
 
Originally posted by Indomidable
As to your last question if 3 60 Gb drives were set to RAID 0+1 how much space would you have you'd get 90 Gb's of free space. Because, with RAID 1 you get half of the potential space. 180 / 2 = 90Gb.
i don't know how that is possible..? i'm certain raid 0+1 requires 4 drives.

so, either way heeter... you'll only use 2 drives, unless you get another 60gb. and since you're using 2, put just one on each channel. if you put other hd's on there that aren't part of the array, then you'll lose performance. one master on each channel will give you the best performance, whether mirroring (raid 1) or striping (raid 0).
 
OK, so I want to run 4 120GB IDE HD's in a RAID 5 setup. So where can I get a controller card that will support RAID 5, IDE, and will fit in my desktop. Or is this a server only thing.

BTW, I'm new to RAID as well.
 
Originally posted by King Ratt
OK, so I want to run 4 120GB IDE HD's in a RAID 5 setup. So where can I get a controller card that will support RAID 5, IDE, and will fit in my desktop. Or is this a server only thing.
I posted a link earlier in this thread, but there are probably other cards as well.

Heeter: If you want to run RAID 0+1 you need four 60GB drives, giving you 120GB free space (2x60 + 1x120 is also said to work, total 120GB space).

Indomidable: How do you count? You can't get 90 out of it. 60 and 120 are possible (though 60 is just stupid :)). And yes, controllers support different sized drives, BUT that will either limit the effective space per drive to the size of the smallest drive, or make a complicated setup (like 2x60 + 1x120 above).
 
Originally posted by Zedric
2x60 + 1x120 is also said to work, total 120GB space
that would work? never thought of that. but it wouldn't be any faster than the one 120gb drive. the other two 60's would finish their write and be waiting on the 120 to go on.
 
I guess I should clarify that I would only install the other HDD's just to transfer my existing flies into the RAID setup, then they would subsequently be removed. My goal through all of this total file loss protection due to Harddrive failure. I have about 80 gigs of files and info now, but plan to increase it to about 120gigs once all my files and info have been transferred into the RAID tower. So I am looking for a stable setup that will not lose info due to HD failure. Can RAID 0 offer me this protection? Can You Hotswap RAID0 Cards? (I haven't seen one yet) I think I will be picking up 3 more 60giggers for a total of 4x60giggers, if someone can answer me the RAID0 question. This tower will be only a server setup, as other towers will be accessing it for files. Thanks to all for your time.


Heeter
 
Your correct on needing 2 or 4 drives to do RAID 0+1 or RAID 1

Here are the specs on the HP RAID controller

Here are the stat's on my card and it's built in RAID capablilities.

The stable safe setup is RAID 1 or 5 and raid 0 just makes it much faster.

Here is a nice RAID 5 card
http://www.knowledgemicro.com/detail.php?p=IDE-SX6000&c=pw
Find the review at Tom's Hardware

or for a great RAID 1 card
http://www.axiontech.com/prdt.php?src=PW&item=12264

For a middle of the road RAID 1 card
http://www.amamax.com/pricewtchata133a213.html
 
No, RAID 0 offers no protection at all. RAID 0+1 does. So you run the 4x60 in a RAID 0+1 setup for a total of 120GB space. If one disk fails you're OK. If two disk fail at the same time (don't worry), you're OK if it's the "correct" combinations of two.

You can't hotswap the cards, but some cards support hotswapping of disks (which I think was what you meant :)).
 
Thanks,

That was the exact answer I was looking for. Thanks Zedric and Indomidable for all your help.


Heeter

Once all drives are installed and XP cd is put in, once I press F6 and go into RAID setup, is it pretty much staightforward question and answer type setup?
 
yeah, just have your raid drivers for xp ready on a floppy.
 
We're only glad to help. :) Plus we all learned alot too.

Yes if you want the OS on the RAID array (and not on a separate disk) that's the way.
 
What????

I could have a RAID array, like the setup I am doing, and like, have a fifth HDD for my OS that is not part of the RAID? HHMMMM!!!sounds interesting. Can I do That? I got an old 2.5gig HDD sitting here in my deskdrawer that I could use for that. Can I?? Thanks Zedric, another round of questions now.LOL

I have a 375Watt power supply, and it is running right now three HDD's and two IDE drives, seven fans but no floppy, it is my gaming tower, but I am retiring it to server use, It's new setup will be: four (Now, maybe five) HDD's, CDburner and four fans. So I cannot see a power supply problem, due to what I am using now.

Heeter
 
yeah, i always recommend running your OS on a single, non-striped drive. if your OS is on a stripe array and the array gets corrupted, no more OS. actually, the ideal setup to me would be a, say. 60gb drive partitioned into 5gb for XP and the rest for reliable storage. then two fast 40's striped for games and pagefile.
 
Yes you can have a fifth drive on the regular IDE ports and the four others on the RAID card (or built-in controller). Like taurus said it's even recommended. That way the OS can be exchanged and crapped as you (or it) wish(es). The data on the RAID array will still remain.

Oh and one last thing. Even though RAID 0+1 is very safe due to hdd failure, data will be lost if the controller fails (very unlikely). So if you have some really really important data, you might want to back that up somewhere else anyway. Data just isn't safe if it's in one place. :)

With the specs in your sig the 375W should be enough I guess. Would have been worse with a high end AMD XP.
 

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