Raid 0 Drives

[explorer]

I am thinking of going to a raid 0 configuration and i was just wondering if I need another drive with identical specs or if I can use any drive in the set up. My first drive is a maxtor ata 133 20 gig and I wanted to pair that with a 40 or 60 gig hd, is this possible in a raid configuration?

Thanks,
Explorer

 

[nikhsub1]

Yes it is possible but not recommended. If you pair a 40 or 60 GIG with a 20 gig, the 40 or 60 will only use 20 GIG, wasting the rest of the space. Second, the raid array will only run as fast as the slowest drive so mixing ATA100 and ATA133 will yeild 100. I recommend getting another 20GIG Maxtor and then an ATA133 raid card like the Promise TX2000 or a Highpoint.

 

[Garfield]

What is a raid 0 configuration?

 

[Xaotic]

Basically, in RAID 0, the data is striped in sections across two drives. Both drives act as if it were a single drive. It typically gives a boost in sequential read speeds for large files, but is normally only slightly faster for random reads. It is very dangerous for critical information as a single lost stripe can result in the loss of the data on the array. It can also be combined, in some cases with RAID 1 to mirror a pair of striped drives. This gives data protection at the expense of some speed and purchase of double the amount of needed space.

 

[Garfield]

So you'd need a RAID card and two hdds for this?

 

[nikhsub1]

So you'd need a RAID card and two hdds for this?

To do it right yes

 

[JaY_III]

if you run 2k/XP you could setup a software RAID...
but as reliability goes....
reinstalling 2k means goodby RAID.

With a hardware RAID, you will lose nothing.

 

[cooldude222]

Do you need special cables to use RAID or is it just IDE cables?

 

[nikhsub1]

You just use regular IDE cables, nothing special.