Raid Questions

[Tanner65]

I'm looking into purchasing 4 more drives and set up my drives for raiding. I'm hoping you guys can both direct me and answer a few questions I have.

Firstly, I've read through close to 10 pages of the uberungodlysupperdupermerge thread for the Intel Matrix RAID and I feel as though I've learned quite a bit, but not enough. My mobo can do " 0/1/5/10 Matrix RAID" (exactly as Newegg states).

Configuration questions:
1) I want to have my OS's backed up (yes I know I'll have to re-install everything, which I plan on doing anyway--terrible virus) so that eliminates RAID 0. And after those are partitions are backed up, I don't really care if it's stripped or not. I'd rather not have a disk failure, but one can never tell and I don't plan on changing anything for at least 3 years after Win 7 full version), so this is going to be something to last me, so I was going to see what config you guys were thinking about.

2) With the mobo I have the Matrix RAID is used for all of the sata ports? So if I plug in a 1TB drive into the mobo in a few years, then it will be recognized as not being part of the raid but a 1TB drive, right?

3) Is it possible to multi-boot with RAIDing or does each OS have to be on a separate RAID 1? E.g. if I decide to go with RAID 5/10 then each OS would have to be a separate "drive" right?

4) If I decide to add another OS and elminate space on any RAIDed drive, I can use the disk management utility in Windows Vista and up, right?
/config questions

HDD Failure questions:
1) How will I be informed of a drive failure in any configuration with parity or mirroring?
2) In a non RAID 0 config, I would replace the damaged drive and the data would be re-written? Would I be in charge of starting off some software or will the controller on boot begin to re-write the data?
/HDD questions

For what it's worth, unless you guys have some suggestions it looks like I'll probably end up going with a RAID 1/0 set up on the first two drives with OS's and then RAID 5 on the full other 4 (which will become 640GB rather than 500GB drives).

Thanks in advance!

 

[Archer0915]

I just went through the loss of my mobo and although raid offers redundant security make sure you back up or you will most likely have to replace you controller with the same type and rev. if your board dies, or you can do your backups to a non raided internal drive

 

[Tanner65]

I just went through the loss of my mobo and although raid offers redundant security make sure you back up or you will most likely have to replace you controller with the same type and rev. if your board dies, or you can do your backups to a non raided internal drive

That makes some sense. Wouldn't the Intel Matrix thing be identical in all Intel based mobos? I'm not really a hardware person, so I comprehend what it's doing, but I don't understand what's it doing. And if that's the worst case senario, I guess I'll buy a back up mobo.

I'm going to be doing quite a bit of work from home in the coming months and only backing up data at work probably once a week. So I need to make sure that I'm being as "secure" as I can be.


What was your raid configuration? Raid 0/1 as it currently is?

 

[Archer0915]

In principal yes in practice no as they may revise one thing or another just make sure you back up or have a spare MOBO of the same rev. or be prepared to get one Next Day Air. I had to NDA as my wife did not back up my financial data wives never listen but they are always right

 

[Tanner65]

Bump for some answers and another question.

If I make an image of my OS's without raid in place, can I load the image back onto the machine after the raid is in place?

 

[Tanner65]

Bump for help?

 

[Archer0915]

Bump for some answers and another question.

If I make an image of my OS's without raid in place, can I load the image back onto the machine after the raid is in place?

You will have driver issues unless your software that makes the IMG. can access the hardware through a bootable usb flash drive.

 

[Tanner65]

You will have driver issues unless your software that makes the IMG. can access the hardware through a bootable usb flash drive.

Thanks for info, I ordered a tertiary drive toady so I'm going to make the images after the raid is in place after further research.

 

[Vengance_01]

If you are buying four drives, Raid 5 is your best option. While not as fast as raid 0, you can have 1 drive fail and your data will still be (should be) in tack and the OS will still be bootable.

 

[Tanner65]

If you are buying four drives, Raid 5 is your best option. While not as fast as raid 0, you can have 1 drive fail and your data will still be (should be) in tack and the OS will still be bootable.

Thanks, that's what I ended up doing. I actually put the 4th drive on as a spare in case one of the drives fails while I'm away.