Windows 7: Question about RAID 0

I just purchased a new 10,000 RPM VelociRaptor drive and I'm going to use it as my OS drive. Is it possible to set up a RAID 0 with my current drive (hitachi 1TB 7200RPM) without having to format it?

I remember researching this when I did my last build and if I recall raid 0 works best with matching drives. So I got two Raptors and set it up. Works flawlessly. WEI of 6.3 which seemed OK at the time. Then the SSD thing reared its head and I am now preparing to unplug the Raptors and just have a single SSD for the OS and a second mechaanical drive for data. It will hopefully be faster and simpler. I kind of wonder if Raid with mechanical drives is worth the effort anymore? Any thoughts?

Hi,

You can still build some extremely fast RAID0 drives thats still score a WEI of 5.9 or thereabouts - in my experience a WEI score doesn't really reflect the power of a good RAID0 setup. For example, I have 4 x 15,000RPM Seagate Cheetah SAS drives in a RAID0 that flogs IO speeds, yet still scores a WEI = 5.9.

I would agree that RAID0 drives are laregly redundant in a typical home-setup : they are still very handy in some specialist cases. When building a RAID0 the recommended setup is two disks of the same type. I wouldn't build a RAID0 with the Velociraptor and Hitachi.

Keep the Velocirator as a single drive, and reformat and keep the Hitachi as a separate storage drive.

Regards,
Golden

If you want a fast OS, get a $100 SSD and use the 2 HDDs seperately as data drives. As Golden says, in real life the Raid setup buys you little but may complicate your life.

I'm holding off on SSD until they become more reliable and the prices go down a little bit. Probably on my next major system upgrade when I purchase the new 1155 chipset CPU when the prices go down, I will buy a SSD w/ SATA III.

Hi..no you can't.

I doubt very much you could raid a 10k drive with a 7.2...Use 2 Velos or 2 hitachi...I use Raid 5 now with 3 Velo's....combines speed and safety...Mind you I have never had an issue with a 2 disk Raid 0 but I'm told ppl do..

SSD's are the go tho...they are getting bigger and cheaper by the hour lol and thats the way I'll go when I build a 2011 pin system....or possibly a Bulldozer depending on how good the new AMD CPU's are in real time.

cheers

You need identical drives for an array, especially RAID0. It isn't really worth the hassle, so for what you paid for that Raptor, you could have been at or close to a quality SSD....which are definitely reliable now. Reliability isn't a reason to avoid them anymore....but cost may be.

Yea. I'm gonna stick with my Raptor for now. I put together a wish list at newegg for a new system which includes a SSD. When the prices come down a little bit (It's at $600 for cpu,mobo,ssd,memory) I will pick one up