Dumb raid setup question

[OC Noob]

I read what raid does and want the performance of raid 0, but what I haven't found (not even in my 8k3a+ manual) are the answers to a ouple of very basi questions.


Does it matter how I hook my HDs up. I want to set up 4 WD HDs. 2 10 gigs in raid 0 and a 10 gig and a 13 gig in raid 0. Can I hook them up as master/slaves in IDE 1 and 2 and the set my 2 CDROMs up in the 3 IDE slot?

Also can you raid 0 HDs of different sizes, like my 10 and 13 gig WD HDs?

Anyway, sorry for the dumb questions, but its late and I gots ta gets to bed.

 

[Ottoman]

to avoid as many complications as possible, it's best to use 2 equal size drives and perferablly same brand/make/model etc..

and u should have 1 drive as master or IDE3 and other as master on IDE 4

 

[ronin1967]

1st question: does it matter how you hookup your drives, honestly no, but if you want maximum performance, then yes it does matter(for example, I have 2 hardrives setup in RAID 0, I could use 1 cable set 1 drive as [master] and 1 as [slave], attach the cable to 1 IDE RAID channel and they would run great. Of course for even better performance, I could use 2 cables, I hookup the 1st drive as [master] on IDE RAID1 and the 2nd drive as [master] on IDE RAID2 and they will run even faster.

Size, yes you can RAID drives of different sizes, but the RAID will be the equal to (the size of the smallest drive*the number of drives), ie...13GIG + 10GIG RAID 0=20GIG not 23GIG

***I know with the RAID feature of the EPoX*** you can setup RAID 0 on 2-4 hard drives, but I do not beleive you can setup 2 seperate 2 hard drive RAID 0's****

it's worth a shot....

 

[OC Noob]

Thanks for the info.


I'd really like to use all the drives because 10 gigs (2 10 gigs in raid 0) just isn't enough storage.

So if I set up the 4 drives in RAID 0 I should set them up as masters on all 4 IDEs for best performance and then set up the CDROMs as slaves?

or...can I set up the 4 drives so that they will work as pairs so I can set the first pair up as master and the seond pair as slaves?


Will the 4 drives in RAID 0 yield 1 20 gig partition or will it be treated a 2 10 gig HDs in windows 2000? i.e. a 20 gig C drive OR a 10 gig C drive and a 10 gig D drive (I'd perfer 1 20 gig drive, but it doesn't matter too much).

Thanks again for the help.

 

[ronin1967]

you are confusing the RAID IDE slots with the regular IDE slots, and also if you setup 2 10gig HHDs in a RAID 0 you will have a 20gig RAID not a 10GIG, that happens with RAID 1(mirroring not 0 stripping)

there are several ways to do this, maximum speed, maxium storage, or a combination, dependes on you, and I can help

 

[ronin1967]

There are several things to consider before we move forward:

Raid 0 will allow to connect 2 or more drives together, the combination will be a single drive(smallest drive*number of drives)that reads/writes much faster as a whole than as the parts. However if any single drive in a RAID 0 fails, the whole RAID fails and everything is lost.

Raid 1 is for mirroring, it's takes 1 drive and makes an image on the other, it's for security, and has no performance value.

Raid 0+1 requires 4 drives, basicly it's RAID 1 + RAID 0, but you lose the space of half your drives(so 40gigs of drives would only yeild 20gig of usable space)

Since you have several drives and several options I suggest creating a RAID 0 array with 2 drives for performance and then using the other 2 drives for storage...

 

[OC Noob]

DOH, thats right RAID 0 will give me 20 gigs out of 2 10 gig drives won't it. I'm not sure what I was thinking.

2 drives for performance and 2 for storage sounds good. What would be the best way plug the 4 drives in to do this?

Would it be possible to set all 4 up for performance?

Its a second computer and I got the RAID to play with since I was silly and didn't get it on my BD7-II and I may /format and set them up several different ways.

 

[ronin1967]

you could setup all four in a RAID 0, it would give you 40GIG of hard drive space, but like I warned before, if one fails, they all fail, and there is no recovery...

you have plenty of options concerning how you set them up, what are the 4 drives?

what OS?

 

[OC Noob]

3 WD HD 10 gig drives and 1 13 gig WD HD. The drives all have the same specs, with the exception that 1 is larger.

I'm going to put W2k on the system.

Nothing important will be going on this rig, just some of my games, my kids games and some greetings card programs. I will probably play with some digital pics to, but they will be stored on my primary rig also so it won't hurt if the RAID array goes down.

Is this correct? I need to plug all 4 drives into the RAID IDE connetors (2 masters and 2 slaves). Then the CDROMS on a standard IDE port (1 as master the other as slave).

Thanks for the help.

 

[ronin1967]

I have found away to create a dual array, it's actually quiet simple, if you are interested.

Otherwise: you're connections are correct, setup the HHD's like you said, then when you setup the RAID, select all 4 drives, use 64MB or 128MB for your cluster size(I think 64MB is default and will work fine), set the array to 0, and that's it...

I do however recommend if you have a CD-RW and another type of CD-ROM to set them up on seperate cables, CD-RW's perform better alone, and especially seperate from the hardrive they write from(not the case with you here, but something to remember in the future)

 

[OC Noob]

I will probably set the up in RAID 0 for all 4 of them, but I wouldn't mind knowing how to set up two arrays. It never hurts to know too much

Gotta run to church. Thanks again for the help

 

[ronin1967]

Depending on the way the controller works you can connect all 4 drives, assign 2 drives to the 1st array, then create it, after it has been created you go back into the array controller software and create the 2nd array. ***SOMETIMES***it is necessary to install only the drives for the 1st array, create it, then install the remain drives, and create the array for them...easy...

 

[Sonny]

Most of the time 2 arrays on a onboard controller dont work as I learned in another thread here. Setting up 4 HDD RAID0 using an onboard controller is usually slower than 2 HDD RAID0. Good Luck & dont forget to keep track on how you set them up so you actually get to tell the difference.

 

[Albigger]

Most of the time 2 arrays on a onboard controller dont work as I learned in another thread here. Setting up 4 HDD RAID0 using an onboard controller is usually slower than 2 HDD RAID0. Good Luck & dont forget to keep track on how you set them up so you actually get to tell the difference.

could you find/link that thread? i was interested in possibly 4 drives RAID 0 instead of two, but wasn't sure it was worth it on an onboard controller

 

[OC Noob]

Hey, thanks for the great info.

That just leaves me with the same question as Albigger. What kind of a performance hit am I going to take with 4 drives as apposed to 2 in RAID 0.

Time to do some thread hunting.

 

[Sonny]

Let me clarify what I said:

• 2 independent RAID Arrays on most onboard RAID Controller is not possible unless otherwise mentioned as a feature. This is what I read here, I too thought it was possible but unfortunately was wrong.
• 4HDD RAID0 is slower than 2 HDD RAID0 on an onboard RAID Controller unless it is a 4 channel controller.

The threads can be found by using THIS great little feature