[Coreyoliseffect]

So I have decided enter the matrix.
I have 2TB (in sig) HDD's. I am pretty sure that I had seen a "sweet spot" chart around the forums somewhere. It seems to have *poofed*. I do have a couple of concerns. This is a set of drives that is already up and running. I have finally gotten back to having all the setting where I want them after moving from Vista to 7(64 bit).

1) Is there any way that I can preserve the data on the disks while moving them into a RAID 0+1 config. I am pretty sure that I can not but, never hurts to ask.

2) Selecting a sweet spot. If I can find that chart then I will be set. I have run a suggested tester, HD Tune I think it was, but am having some issue discerning the "sweet spot".

3) For some reason I can't get past how the data will be stored on the RAID 1 portion and still be accessible by the R0. I do have the Intel Raid Matrix installed.

Hopefully I am asking some decently unique questions. If not please feel free to redirect me. :P

[Chris_F]

Originally Posted by Coreyoliseffect

1) Is there any way that I can preserve the data on the disks while moving them into a RAID 0+1 config. I am pretty sure that I can not but, never hurts to ask.

Theoretically I see no reason why it couldn't be done. How you would do it though...

[Coreyoliseffect]

Originally Posted by Chris_F

Theoretically I see no reason why it couldn't be done. How you would do it though...

[Chris_F]

Err, disregard that. I thought you wanted to go from RAID0 to RAID10.

[Coreyoliseffect]

Originally Posted by Chris_F

Err, disregard that. I thought you wanted to go from RAID0 to RAID10.

I hope that I said all of the numbers correct. I want to go from R1 to R0+1.

Although I thought that it was pretty funny that you answered my question with my question. Ever though about being a politician? :P

[Coreyoliseffect]

I know one of the mighty brains around here has an answer.

[JCLW]

Originally Posted by Coreyoliseffect

1) Is there any way that I can preserve the data on the disks while moving them into a RAID 0+1 config. I am pretty sure that I can not but, never hurts to ask.

I do not believe you can do it, since you will be re-partitioning the drives in this case.

Originally Posted by Coreyoliseffect

2) Selecting a sweet spot. If I can find that chart then I will be set. I have run a suggested tester, HD Tune I think it was, but am having some issue discerning the "sweet spot".

I wouldn't worry about the "sweet spot" and instead worry about how much space you want for your striped (RAID 0) partition. If you want 250GB then you'll need 125GB from each drive, which will leave you with ~875GB for your RAID 1 array. The first 125GB of each drive will be in the fastest section, regardless.

Originally Posted by Coreyoliseffect

3) For some reason I can't get past how the data will be stored on the RAID 1 portion and still be accessible by the R0. I do have the Intel Raid Matrix installed.

Don't confuse "drives/disks" with "volumes". The hardware (intel RAID controller in your case) will handle the drives. It can combine them, split them, or what ever it wants to do. These are then presented to Windows as "volumes". Windows doesn't know (and doesn't care) how many drives (or parts of drives) makes up a "volume". Windows just tells the controller to "write this data to volume C:" or "read this data from volume D:" and the controller figures out which physical drive (or drives) it needs to deal with.

[EarthDog]

I do not think it can be done either, but not 100% certain.

I would also not worry about a sweet spot. The performance difference between the best spot and 100GB either way is more or less negligable and not worth the effort. Just slice out what you need and have a little room for growth.

[Joeteck]

Originally Posted by Coreyoliseffect

So I have decided enter the matrix.
I have 2TB (in sig) HDD's. I am pretty sure that I had seen a "sweet spot" chart around the forums somewhere. It seems to have *poofed*. I do have a couple of concerns. This is a set of drives that is already up and running. I have finally gotten back to having all the setting where I want them after moving from Vista to 7(64 bit).

1) Is there any way that I can preserve the data on the disks while moving them into a RAID 0+1 config. I am pretty sure that I can not but, never hurts to ask.

2) Selecting a sweet spot. If I can find that chart then I will be set. I have run a suggested tester, HD Tune I think it was, but am having some issue discerning the "sweet spot".

3) For some reason I can't get past how the data will be stored on the RAID 1 portion and still be accessible by the R0. I do have the Intel Raid Matrix installed.

Hopefully I am asking some decently unique questions. If not please feel free to redirect me. :P

here you go

http://www.overclockers.com/short-stroke-raid/

I happen to like the sweet spot, because not matter how full the drive gets it will always achieve maximum throughput! Access times will be lower, until you defrag.

You can not do RAID 0 + 1 with 2 drives, however you can do RAID 10, but you'll need 4 drives to do it.. Two sets of RAID 0, then mirrored (RAID 1).

You can do mixed mode. RAID 0 and a RAID 1 array with two drives...

[Coreyoliseffect]

So from what I can gather I am going to have to format and start over. I figured that would be the case. It is probably for the better anyway. That always clears out all of the junk. Thanks for the explanation about the drive volumes.

Originally Posted by Joeteck

here you go

http://www.overclockers.com/short-stroke-raid/

I happen to like the sweet spot, because not matter how full the drive gets it will always achieve maximum throughput! Access times will be lower, until you defrag.

You can not do RAID 0 + 1 with 2 drives, however you can do RAID 10, but you'll need 4 drives to do it.. Two sets of RAID 0, then mirrored (RAID 1).

You can do mixed mode. RAID 0 and a RAID 1 array with two drives...

I had read over that article. I have gotten in the habit of checking out the front page. What I was thinking along the lines of were from this post. From the way that I read it you could have a partition that is R0 and then on the same drives have a partition that R1. It seemed like I.M.O.G.was only using 2 drives. I think that I meant to say that I have 2 1TB drives. Anyway, thanks for all of the info!

[Joeteck]

Originally Posted by Coreyoliseffect

So from what I can gather I am going to have to format and start over. I figured that would be the case. It is probably for the better anyway. That always clears out all of the junk. Thanks for the explanation about the drive volumes.



I had read over that article. I have gotten in the habit of checking out the front page. What I was thinking along the lines of were from this post. From the way that I read it you could have a partition that is R0 and then on the same drives have a partition that R1. It seemed like I.M.O.G.was only using 2 drives. I think that I meant to say that I have 2 1TB drives. Anyway, thanks for all of the info!

I think you misread it. It means you can achieve both RAID 1 and RAID 0 with two drives..

Lets say you have 1866MB of total space, what you currently have..

You can select RAID 0, and change the capacity from 1866 to 500. You still have 1366MB left, where you could do RAID 1. When you select RAID 1, that 1366 will change to 683MB

[Coreyoliseffect]

Within the same two drives? R0 and R1

or

Meaning that you can do R0 or R1 with just two drives?

Ug, I am having a hard time phrasing it so that I understand myself. lol

[Joeteck]

Originally Posted by Coreyoliseffect

Within the same two drives? R0 and R1

Correct... You can't do this without Matrix RAID.

[Coreyoliseffect]

Got it! Thanks for the explanation. lol

[Coreyoliseffect]

In between installs of Linux on my laptop I have been thinking about this thread. The reason that I am opening it up again is because I think I have found a good way to describe my third question.

3) For some reason I can't get past how the data will be stored on the RAID 1 portion and still be accessible by the R0.

What I mean by this is more or less the organization. I have had two HDDs installed in a machine before and the secondary drive was pretty much a huge wasteland. There wasn't really any organization to it. I just created folders and put the information in.

How could I could I organize the extra space so that it looked like a part of one Win 7 install? Instead of having random named folders hanging out in the second partition.

The example that I am thinking of is for games. How is it that the saved games would be on the R1 portion but the program stored on R0 portion? Or would I have to specify the save game location to be on the R1 portion. If that is the case it sounds like a good bit of work.

Windows doesn't know (and doesn't care) how many drives (or parts of drives) makes up a "volume". Windows just tells the controller to "write this data to volume C:" or "read this data from volume D:" and the controller figures out which physical drive (or drives) it needs to deal with.

I just keep picturing two separate volumes for some reason. C(programs) D(information)

Sorry if I am belaboring the point here a bit. I am just trying to wrap my head around it.

[Coreyoliseffect]

No bites on the last bump so I went ahead and redid my setup just to get everything clean again after I got my OC where it is stable and I am at max. As they say that a picture is worth a thousand words.

Here is what I was thinking about. All of the installs are going to be defaulted to the C drive. If I put them on the E drive then they will just floating around. The C drive is the R0 partition and the E is the R1 partition. How can I combine the two to make them act as one drive or do I simply have to edit where all the games and programs save their info?

[fritzman]

If by combine C & E, you are meaning have them appear and function as a single drive... I do not believe this to be possible. (It is 3am here, so I might have misunderstood the question, but) if you running two different partitions, afaik you can't make them be treated as or appear as a single drive.

First you create your raid type or types and then you slice it or them up (if you want).

I think you are simply going to have to edit the various locations for each game, or you could buy another pair of drives and run raid10 and be done with it.

[Coreyoliseffect]

You answered the question perfectly. In the concern of money, as cheap as these drives are, I am going to stick with what I have. I actually thought that I was having some issues with the install of Win7 that that pic was taken of and redid the setup again. Turns out I had to many vid cards plugged in and the comp was . Thanks for the response!

[Coreyoliseffect]

So I am craking this thread open again. I have realized that I need more than 100GB of room for my operating system. I like to keep all of my games installed and 20GB is cutting it close when you have 500+GB to play around with. The issues that I am running into is that I have a partition that is in a R0 config and want to extend that partition from 100GB to 150GB. I also want to do the same (extend from 100GB to 150GB) for the partition (my backup) that is in R1 config. I thought that this would be a little more simple than it is. I know that you can extend the volume from the computer manager in windows. No such luck with this. What I want to be sure of is that if I erase the R0 partition that I will be able to restore it from the backup once I have reinstalled Win7. Also, since I am wanting to extend the C volume from 100GB to 150GB I will have to sacrifice some of the space on the R1 partition. Is Intel RAID Matrix going to allow me to shrink the R1 volume without erasing it? Here is a little screenshot for clarity.

[fritzman]

I have never used the shrink/extend functions built into Intel Storage Manager, but I would be having a good look at that before going too much further... I think you should (DO BACK EVERYTHING UP FIRST) be able to adjust the volume sizes using that prog from within Windows, without too many issues.