Partition/Raid Setup - Need Help Deciding

[reid18]

Inkfx, an awesome guy, is once again, building me a PC. Four 7200.11s (500 GB) are being used in this beast. We have a general idea of what we want partition/raid wise, but I would also like some thoughts and opinions from members of OCF! In addition, I have some questions.

Facts

Four (4) 7200.11s (500 GB)
Three (3) in RAID0 (For the capturing and editing of uncompressed 720p footage)
One (1) with a One Hundred (100) GB partition for the OS


Questions

What should I use the RAID setup for besides what has been previously specified (Games, APPs, anything) ?
How big should the RAID0 partiton be (I need at least 300 GB) ?
Should Ink completely remove the jumpers of the 7200.11s, or simply change their position?
Is there a way to put the OS onto the RAID0 partition and mirror it to the "un-raided" partition in case of the RAID failing (Random thought I had, sorry if it is completely stupid) ?


Any insight would be helpful. By the way, he is finishing the PC tomorrow - I am very excited.

[thideras]

1) Not sure exactly what your asking, but do you mean how should you split it? (I'm assuming you have matrix raid)

2) Well, it depends on how many games you have. I run a 135gb RAID0 (games/os) and a 375 RAID5 (my docs/media)

3) Not sure what you are asking here either...do you mean the SATA jumper? Sure, why not?

4) You won't be able to mirror it like that. Mirroring is transparent (if done by hardware) and you would not have access to that second partition. Even if you mirrored it...you don't want to mirror it to the same drive, you will still lose everything if it fails. Just back everything up to another internal drive and to an external drive or another computer.

[reid18]

I see. Well does removing the jumper increase the read speed? Most people here completely remove them and Ink just relocated them.

[tuskenraider]

1. Nope, leave the single drive as your OS/programs drive. Running programs off the RAID array, separate from the OS drive, will likely gain you little benefit and make backups a nightmare.

2. Why are you paritioning it? Just RAID the whole capacity if you're going to actually use it. Otherwise I guess you could partition it to effectively short-stroke the drives.

3. Change their position to a useless(Like hanging off just one pin) config so you don't lose them.

4. Nope, just get a program like DriveXML or True Image to do backups. You could store the backup on the RAID array if necessary. Not ideal, but the chances of both the single drive and your array going down at the same time are slim so you'll always have a place to get another image from. Ideally, external backup.

[reid18]

I see. Well I don't really want to RAID the entire 1.3 TB incase of it failing, resulting in me losing all of my important files.

[tuskenraider]

I see. Well I don't really want to RAID the entire 1.3 TB incase of it failing, resulting in me losing all of my important files.What were your ideas for it? If you Matrix RAID it, you could run RAID1(unusual but possible with three drives) or RAID5 on the remaing part of the three drives. But if you accessing the second array while using the first array(RAID0) that you have set up for speed, well, it's kinda defeating the purpose of using three drives for pure speed, no?

[reid18]

I need tons of sapce and 3 drives in RAID0 for the speed. I am kinda confused as to what you are saying.

[tuskenraider]

I need tons of sapce and 3 drives in RAID0 for the speed. I am kinda confused as to what you are saying.Well you say you got 3 drives for speed, but you say you don't want to use all the space, so what were you planning on doing with that extra space? I have assumed about the Matrix RAID part, my fault, is this an Intel chipset motherboard?

[Enablingwolf]

An easy way to cheat Windows for space on drives. Is to redirect your folders to other drives. I used to redirect the My Documents to another physical drive. I had all the functionality of the original location and it was not part of the install partition. This was my backup drive also. I had folders on the one drive inside My Documents that were actually other drives. All redirected and looked and acted like folders..

I RAID'ed the Windows install on two drives. Since most of what I had in the storage area. i.e. - My Documents was not dependant on speed. If Ihad to rebuild the RAID0. I just reverted to my storage drive(s). Then was back up.

[reid18]

No, listen. I needed at least 1.5 TB of space for this PC, so I decided that I might as well get four 500 GB HDDs rather than getting 3 small HDDs in RAID along with three 500 GB HDDs. RAID0 often performs better with less GB. Also, I do not want to risk the enitre RAID failing, once again, resulting in me losing all of my important files.

So, I needed a lot of space, and I needed at least 200 MB/s read speed, so I went with the least drives possible resulting in 200+ which happens to be the 7200.11s (500 GB, 4 of them).

As for that directories thing, that may help me a lot because otherwise I will not be able to place all of my folders on the Desktop because the OS partition will have only been 100 GB. I think I also just found an article explaining how to achieve this on Vista, awesome.

[tuskenraider]

RAID0 often performs better with less GB. I'm assuming you mean by partitioning the drives in the array to short-stroke it, or by using Intel's Matrix RAID to make a smaller array than the total drives' capacity. Those would be the only instances that would be true.
Also, I do not want to risk the enitre RAID failing, once again, resulting in me losing all of my important files.
Ok, so you need 1.5TB, can't afford to lose important files, don't have 1.5TB to back that up, haven't stated what the size of your important files is or if these would even reside on the RAID array, originally stated you needed 300GB RAID0 array and haven't stated why you can't make your OS partition more than 100GB to fit your important files, on the single drive(?), if indeed they are going to reside there. And knowing if you're using an Intel mobo would help us recommend more possibilities......so what say you? :eh?:

[reid18]

My PC Specs


Case (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16811129025)
Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813131219)
Video Card (looking to step up to a 9800) (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814130319)
CPU (OCed to either 3.2 or 3.4) (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819115017)
Cooler (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835109125&Tpk=thermalright)
RAM (2 sets of these) (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820231145)
HDDs (4 of these, 3 in raid0) (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16822148288)


Trust me. In my mind, the reason for these HDDs makes sense.I came in here simply for answers to my questions.

[tuskenraider]

My PC Specs


Case (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16811129025)
Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813131219)
Video Card (looking to step up to a 9800) (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814130319)
CPU (OCed to either 3.2 or 3.4) (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819115017)
Cooler (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835109125&Tpk=thermalright)
RAM (2 sets of these) (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820231145)
HDDs (4 of these, 3 in raid0) (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16822148288)Trust me. In my mind, the reason for these HDDs makes sense.I came in here simply for answers to my questions.I don't doubt it, but you're not conveying very well what exactly that is, which is understandable otherwise you wouldn't be asking questions. If you answered the questions I asked previously, we can come to the best solution for ya. :beer:

[curtis1552]

What about setting up a raid 5 on the three drives;
1. RAID 0 doesn't have ANY backup/protection
2. It uses less space than RAID 1

[tuskenraider]

What about setting up a raid 5 on the three drives;
1. RAID 0 doesn't have ANY backup/protection
2. It uses less space than RAID 1 RAID5 might not get him the write speeds he needs/wants, but that would have to be tested, and of course he'll lose the space of one drive.

[reid18]

Yeah, I am doing RAID0 for sure because of the write speeds.

Tuskenraider, you have much more computer knowledge than me which is why it is hard for me to convey what I am doing.

I will ask Ink whether or not he is doing matrix RAID or whatever.

[inkfx]

Yes, it will be Intel Matrix RAID.

I say you just keep what we had planned earlier. ~100GB for the OS/Apps then ~400GB for just storage/backup. Now for the RAID, I can format 500GB RAID-0 (which should be plenty of space for your recording and even some programs) and then you can use the remainder for storage/backup.