[GamingDaemon]

Hi all,

I have heard so many good things about RAID, I have decided to do something about it for my PC. My rig is in my sig. My WD 80GB has Vista, Office 2007, etc. on it. The Seagate 320GB has my games, files, movies, etc on it.

1. Should I RAID both of them? Just the Vista OS drive? Or the Gaming drive?
2. I am also concerned about heat with more drives in there. Should I consider an external RAID configuration instead?
3. Also, are there any gotchas with an Intel BadAxe2 and RAID?

Thanks in advance...

[UglyChild]

Regardless of which drives you use for RAID, you need two of the same kind for over all best performance and compatibility, and youll have to format them, thus youll lose all data.

Dont worry about the heat.

[GamingDaemon]

So, I have to start from scratch? Ouch!

Is it more important to have the OS drive in RAID 0, or the gaming drive in RAID 0?

[Drew@PSU]

Generally the best idea is to put the programs on the RAID 0 ( to include the OS ) and all of you data on another drive or RAID 1 for redundancy. That way the programs load faster, while the data doesn't take up fast HD space that it doesn't need. Check the RAID sticky when you get a chance, its got lots of good info.

[GamingDaemon]

Originally Posted by Drew@PSU

Generally the best idea is to put the programs on the RAID 0 ( to include the OS ) and all of you data on another drive or RAID 1 for redundancy. That way the programs load faster, while the data doesn't take up fast HD space that it doesn't need. Check the RAID sticky when you get a chance, its got lots of good info.

Would it make more sense to forget about the two different drives, and jsut buy another Seagate 320GB drive, and stripe those two? Then I would put Vista, Office 2007, all of my games, the game files, music, videos, etc. on jsut one RAID 0 drive. Would that be best overall solution?

[TimoneX]

That's what I'd do. I use 2x320GB Seagate ES drives and dual boot XP32 & XP64 from that. I also do video editing and alot of database and content creation. Then I use 2 more Seagate AS drives as alternating backups with Norton Ghost. That way you can get the benefits of RAID 0 and if you keep up with your backups the risks are marginal IMO.

[GamingDaemon]

Originally Posted by TimoneX

That's what I'd do. I use 2x320GB Seagate ES drives and dual boot XP32 & XP64 from that. I also do video editing and alot of database and content creation. Then I use 2 more Seagate AS drives as alternating backups with Norton Ghost. That way you can get the benefits of RAID 0 and if you keep up with your backups the risks are marginal IMO.

Cool, that's what I think I will do then. Are you aware of any gotchas with the Intel D975XBX2 (BadAxe2) mobo?

Also, I have an old version of Ghost (don't remember which version but it's from about 2 years ago). I could never get it to work right. I wanted it to write to a DVD to backup my OS drive, but it required more than than the 4.7GB on the DVD. What version of Ghost do you use, and how do you do it?

TIA

[TimoneX]

Nope. I am definately not the guy to ask with regards to Intel mobos. I have been on nVidia mobos for years.

I'm on Ghost 10. It's alot easier to use than the older ones, though I used them for years without too much difficulty. One of the "tricks" I've evolved into is creating a small boot partition on my backup drives and putting a very minimal XP install on there. Then you don't have to deal with getting Norton Recovery boot to recognize your RAID setup or any of that gahbage. Plus XP64 won't work with Ghost 10 unless you do things this way. Ghost 10 works within windows BTW if you weren't aware already...so there's little need of a DOS environment to backup or restore with this system. I highly recommend it.

[superducky]

The bad axe has an ICH7, right? So you should be able to matrix them:
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=467848

[Joeteck]

Originally Posted by superducky

The bad axe has an ICH7, right? So you should be able to matrix them:
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=467848

The chipset needs an "R" at the end.... for it to be MATRIX RAID. Otherwise you can only do a max of two drives RAID 0 or 1.

[superducky]

Oh, ok, thanks for the info Joeteck!

[GamingDaemon]

Thank you everyone for your responses.

I'd like to confirm my approach with you...

Today I have an 80GB SATA2 that has the OS on it, and a 320GB SATA2 that has games instaleld on it. I just ordered another 320GB SATA2 of the exact same type and manufacturer.

My approach will be to RAID 0 the two (2) 320GB drives. These will become my main drive, and I will put Vista, Office 2007, Visual Studio 2005, and all of my games on this 'logical' drive. The 80GB will then be used for my pictures, videos, documents, etc. I also have several external drives I use for backups of my personal files.

My feeling is that with Vista, Office 2007, Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005, and a dozen or so games, that I will not have enough space on the 80GB which is why I decided to RAID the 320GB drives instead.

Does this make sense?

[Drew@PSU]

Not a bad way to roll, let us know how it works out for you

[GamingDaemon]

Originally Posted by Drew@PSU

Not a bad way to roll, let us know how it works out for you

I think part of my confusion was that if I RAID 0 2 80GB drives, I would end up with a total capacity of 80GB in RAID 0. But that's not the case, it would be 160GB in RAID 0.

The second 320GB drive I ordered will be here tomorrow. So when I RAID 0 it, I will have 640GB correct? So now I am going to have this whoping large drive that's fast but not very secure. Correct?

[Trap05]

Yep you've got it

[TimoneX]

596.18GB to be precise. HD manufacturers seem to be a bit confused about what a GB is. Security comes from backups IMO. Keep your important stuff backed up and you'll have all the security you need.

[Joeteck]

Originally Posted by GamingDaemon

So now I am going to have this whoping large drive that's fast but not very secure. Correct?

But you can't look at it like that... Granted you have two points a failure instead of one, but you would be in the same boat if you had only one drive. Just now your throughput will be almost double....

[GamingDaemon]

Originally Posted by Joeteck

But you can't look at it like that... Granted you have two points a failure instead of one, but you would be in the same boat if you had only one drive. Just now your throughput will be almost double....

Whoo Hoooo! Double the throughput!

Will the fact that it is 640GB slow it down at all? Should I partition it at all to improve performance?

[TimoneX]

You should definately partition it. I triple boot off my 2x320 Sgate ES array and partitioned it as follows:

XP32_15GB(primary active) | Vsta64_30gb(primary) | XP64_15GB(logical) | Swap_4GB(logical) | PROG_60GB(logical) | Archive_200GB(logical) | Video_227.18GB(logical)

Obviously you'll have different requirements...but this setup has evolved for me over the course of years and it's...refined.

[Joeteck]

Originally Posted by GamingDaemon

Whoo Hoooo! Double the throughput!

Will the fact that it is 640GB slow it down at all? Should I partition it at all to improve performance?

If this will be your boot drive, then yes.

Once you set it up, run HD tach and see where your drives fall off, in terms of speed. No need to format them or make the partition yet.

After that, then make the fastest part of the disk your boot partition. With a 600gig, that should be around 80 to 120 gig mark.

Then depending on how much ram you have make a second partition for your page file of 6 gig. If you have two gig of ram set your page file for that drive for 4092 min and 4092 max.

The rest of the drive make a partition for your data, and relocate your my documents folder to that drive..

Have fun, and enjoy!!