Mirror or Stripes and partitions with 2 Drives?

hay guyz-

I'm putting a second HD in my computer and am wanting to configure RAID for the first time. I'm pretty sure they are both Barracudas; one is 120GB and the other is 300GB possibly with a difference in cache. The larger one is SATA300 while the smaller being SATA150. Must the SATA bandwidth be set the same in both HDs (both @ 150)? I'm not sure if these discrepancies matter when setting up RAID; does it?


First is first-


Which type of array should I use? Mirror or Stripes? I'm shooting for a nice balance between efficiency and dependability. Yes, vague, I know, but I'm shooting for the most practical level of RAID for a DAW (digital audio workstation) as well as a gaming rig.


secondly-

I plan to have two primary partitions with XP on both of them. One will be for gaming, the net, and other miscellaneous, and the other for a minimalistic approach to a DAW without the net, i.e., I only want the bare necessary applications for efficient music recording.


thirdly-

I'm still confused about how extended partitions work. Can a single extended partition be seen by both primary partitions and their respective OS's? I'm currently under the impression that these are mostly used for independent files such as MP3s, movies, and documents, while applications should be installed on the primary OS partition for efficiency. Please correct me if I'm wrong.


finally-

When a primary partition is created for the sole purpose of an efficiently working OS (assuming there are other extended partitions present), where SHOULD the program files of applications be installed-- on that OS partition or on another extended partition?

Thanks!

Signature!!!! we need to know what hardware you are running. If you have a computer capable of Matrix RAID then you could do both.

:: posts arbitrary reply to show new signature ::

ehh... someone plz help?

If you Raid your two hard drives you will be losing alot of space. You could do it, but it will just use your 300gb as a 160gb so it can match the other drive. If you don't care about losing the space then it comes down to this;

If you want performance and don't care if you lose all the date on both drives, then go with Raid 0

If you can't afford to lose the data on your drives, then do a mirror Raid 1

Hard drive prices are way down right now. If you can afford it then you could but another 160GB drive, then you could have your Raid0 + a stand alone drive to back up all your data.

hmmm i seeee.

can you elaborate on my questions about the partitions?