Multiple OS Installs on a RAID-0 (ICH5R)?

Hello,

I am upgrading from a single 36Gig Raptor to Two 36Gig Raptors in RAID-0 on my P4C800E-Dlx (running on the ICH5R). I have not done RAID on the ICH5R, nor have I done RAID for my OS drive. I previously had the 36 Gig partitioned into 3 partitions, and I had a different XP install on each partition (One for General Surfing, one for Audio Production tasks, and one for "Sensitive Surfing" to quarintene any Viruses to the 3rd partition). This made for very secure surfing, and also allowed maximum horsepower for my Audio stuff, but the partitions were a bit too small for my liking.

Should I expect any suprises if I try this with RAID-0 setup? I know I have to make the IAAR floppy and use F6 at install time, and install the "IIAR full version" for each OS install, correct? Is there any way to Slipstream this IIAR stuff onto my OS CD's? I did that with my Promise Drivers, but that was just for DATA storage.

Where would I create the partitions? Would I make the partitions in the BIOS's RAID utility, or what? When I set up the RAID-0 array in BIOS, do I have to partition the entire array at this time, or can I partition a part of it from the BIOS, and format the first partition with the XP OS Installer? Previously with my single 36Gig, I would wipe my HD clean with the XP OS Installer (erase all partitions), and then use the XP OS Installer to Format a certain partition size (say 10Gigs). Then, once the initial XP install was done, I'd go and partition/format the remaming free space from within the 1st OS install (using Disk Management), and then install the 2nd and 3rd OS's from the XP-CD onto these pre-formatted partitions like normal.

Will this work as easily as I suspect it will? I'm also doing RAID-0 with Two Maxtor 300Gig 16MB SATA drives on the Promise Controller, and I have done that before - so I ain't scared! Don't worry - I have over 500Gigs of removeable Firewire Caddy storage for back-up purposes, so I'm more than covered in case of failure, and all of my RAID'ed HD's have AT LEAST 3 years of warranty on them. I'm upgrading some of my PC components while using my old parts for a "Suprise PC" I'm building for my awseome parents (they will be going from a 6 Y.O. DELL 700MHz POS to a P4 2.8E monster!).

Also - Any recommendations on Stripe Size for OS drive w/36 Gig Raptor RAID-0 on the ICH5R? I have read everything from 16K to 128K stripe with a 4K Cluster size. I also read that the ICH5R specifically likes the larger 128K stripe sizes - is this true? Either way, I think I'll stick with the default 4K cluster size to keep XP-Pro SP2 happy...

Rock on, and thanks for any input

Quick BUMP. My second Raptor 36Gig came in today, and my MoBo will be back from RMA on Thursday or Friday. Should I expect any weird issues with the 3 OS installs on the RAID-0 (anything different from my Single Raptor partition/format routine?)?

Thanks!

I can't think of any issues. To the OS, it is just one Logical drive, as long as you install the drivers during the install.

Cool. I just didn't want to shoot myself in the foot by overlooking something simple. I'm getting really stoaked about this re-build!

So (clarifying for my sanity ) , when I "Build" the array from BIOS, does it get Partitioned then, or will the XP OS Install CD still partiton & format it? I'm assuming I will specify a desired partition size from the XP OS Install CD (like I did with the single Raptor), and then the rest of the array would be "unpartitioned free space" until I install the other 2 OS's (or manually partition/format from "Disk Management"). I just want to make sure I can easily make 3 partitions - and that I don't have to commit the entire array to one partition when I initially set up the RAID-0 Array in BIOS.

Thanks for the input

So far, so good. The only issue I see is that I made 2 "primary" partitions, and left about 15 Gigs for my 3rd partition, but Disk Management will not let me format the remaining "Free Space" as a Primary partition, it is forcing me to format/partition it as a Logical Drive (not good for an OS drive from what I understand). I'm sure I am missing something, but hopefully I'll figure it out. The IAAR was a snap to install with F6, and Windows is cruising along at a very snappy pace! . I'm gooing to "Ghost" the OS drives to an external FW drive, so I won;t have to re-install if I loose a Raptor.

The Promise RAID-0 with the 2x 300Gig/16MB Maxtor's is also an eye popper IMO. I also have 2x 160Gig and 1x 300Gig HD's in removeable 5.25" caddies in my case (interfaced via Firewire internally to the MoBo) to back-up this array for security if a drive fails. I'm pretty much covered from what I can tell...

I also got the P4 3.2E running comfortably at 4.01GHz with full load temps BELOW 50*C on air! . This is one heck of a CPU. I'm now in the 4GHz "On-Air" Club, and proud to say it. My new DDR550 Corsair RAM is also screaming along at a hair above 500MHz w/o a whimper.