2 x 74GB Raptor's & Partition Question...

[Sophisticated]

....ok sometime in the future i plan on getting 2 x 74GB Raptor's and im wondering if i can do this or what would be better.....if after i intall the OS i Give the OS it's own little partition say like 10GB and make another Partition with whatever's left for Games & Appz would this be alright to do or will it mess up performance...oh yeah this will be with RAID 0.....i want the best performance i can get out of these...

[gustav]

i would also like to know o_O :)

[Th0r]

I would do this

Partition 1: 2GB File Swap,Temp dump for whatever OS you install
Partition 2: 30GB OS and programs
Partition 3: Whatever space you have left, i would put games on and use it to store music etc...

thats my thoughts anyways :)

[Sophisticated]

would doing all this mess up Performance???

[gustav]

ive heard, and from what people say, partitioning slows down the drive/array.....dont know if thats true though...for me, i want to do this as an OS and app drive only, and thats why i would also like to know if partitioning it for OS on one partition, and apps on the other...i have a seperate drive for storage.

[shadowdr]

It will actually increase performance on a raided array especially if you use any other OS than XP.It is the only OS I know of that tries to optimize a single large disk, moving files toward the front of the drive during defrag.For all others you need a third party defrag tool.

I always keep a partition for my Os and another for apps and games.I also use 10 gig partitions for each as I like about 50% free space so it has plenty of room.Keeping the OS on the first partition will also keep it on the fastest part of the disk which translates to fast access times.I also prefer to keep a static page file on the first partition as well,just to keep all the letters straight.

To farther confuse myself I have set up two different raid0 arrays.The first partition is for the OS on one and apps on the other.The second partition on the first array I keep all my downloaded files.I also have a 40 gig IDE drive with three partitions to Ghost the others to.My last DVD drives letter is M:.

[intx]

partitioning should actually improve performance, not decrease performance. unless you defrag very often, by keeping the files in a specific part of the hard drive reduces as many seeks, and therefore increases overall performance.

[Sophisticated]

Thx For The Replies...Got What I Needed To Know:)

[Xaotic]

Partitioning can be a double edged sword. In some cases it will help, but many times it will increase seek and disk access times. This is due to the nature of disk read and write operations. By grouping similar files and spreading others to different sections of the disk, it can aid in reducing seeks if multiple consistent IO is performed within those partitions. When performing IO operations where multiple sectors are accessed over differing partitions, the access times are increased and latency increases. It does help control fragmentation and separate partitions can aid in improving STR on larger files. Again, the performance depends on the disk IO patterns more than anything else.

[Sophisticated]

Ok I See What Your Saying...Having Things With Their Seperate Partition Will Increase Seek Times Because It Doesnt Have To Go Through 1 Large Area To Seek So Having Seperate Partition Will Lower The Chance Of That Since It's A Smaller Space To Seek Through Basically

[Xaotic]

Here's a good way to see it. Take an array with three partitions, swap, OS and programs. If there's normal IO going on with several intense applications running, IO patterns will hit OS and application partitions about equally and assuming sufficient RAM, the swap partition a significant amount less. Seeks within any partition will be faster than whole disk seeks. Sequential access between partitions will slower than average seeks on a well defragged disk. Add in the latency penalty for a RAID-0 array and, while STRs will be good, throughput will be reduced due to seeking to other partitions interrupting the flow of sequential data.

Rather than partitions, I prefer smaller dedicated disks or arrays. For most users, this isn't practical, so make the best compromises possible. For RAID-0 arrays, I'd use a well defragged single partitions for OS and applications, with data and permanent files on a separate large capacity disk.

[gustav]

Originally posted by Xaotic

Rather than partitions, I prefer smaller dedicated disks or arrays. For most users, this isn't practical, so make the best compromises possible. For RAID-0 arrays, I'd use a well defragged single partitions for OS and applications, with data and permanent files on a separate large capacity disk.

sweet....this was exactly what i was planning....i just have to figure out the best stripe size for me....kudos to Sophisticated to starting this thread, its helped me make yet another decision before i setup my raid ;)

[Sophisticated]

Ok one more question.....say when i setup my array and have 3 partitions....say when i want to break the array and use the raptors as singles will the 3 partitions be on each drive or will i have to make it back to 1 partition for each drive

[johan851]

Once you break the Raptors out of RAID 0 you won't have any information or partitions. It'll all be gone. RAID 0 requires both drives - if they're not together, you have half of each drive, and the halves alone are worthless.

[Sophisticated]

yes i know but what im asking is if i do this would i be able to break the array and just reformat and re partition to use like a regular single drive

[TombKeeper]

yes...why wouldn't you be able to?

I myself am removing my x2 36gb raptor raid 0 configuration.... i'd rather not have the chance of one dieing (spelling!) on me or data corruption...don't trust computer hardware as it is.....THey should be fast enough for me separately anyways.....

[Thermo]

Lucky you! Those are 2 really fast drives :) Hope you have fun.