Install on raid setup

amigo max said:

Well the main reason was to get faster speed and boot, and for installing games so that I can get an improvement on playing speed. But how come you people say that a HDD fails mostly in raid? At least till now none of my raid HDD has failed.

RAID 0 is not fast and is only supposed to be used in systems that need a large data storage area that is backed up daily. If one drive fails the entire RAID array is unusable. This is why you need good backups.

If you are looking for speed then you need RAID 5 on 4 or more hard drives. Typically RAID 5 on 6 hard drives will give you very good performance. But that is a lot of work to go through and you will need a case and power supply that can support many hard drives, as well as the expense of buying drives.

You are better off getting a fast SSD. That should give you the performance you are looking for. -WS

OK well thanks for the answers, but i can put up raid 5, just the problem, i got the following drives...
160GB, 2 X 320GB, 500GB, and a 640G sata hdds. But then in that case my storage used on each drive will just be 160GB. Well, for now ill stick to a normal drive with no raid installation until i have the knowledge and resources too.
Thanks again.

Hi,

You will have signifcant problems trying to create a RAID array with a mixture of different HDD's. I think you are wise to clear steer of RAID for OS installation - it's too problematical.

Good luck,
Golden

amigo max said:

OK well thanks for the answers, but i can put up raid 5, just the problem, i got the following drives...
160GB, 2 X 320GB, 500GB, and a 640G sata hdds. But then in that case my storage used on each drive will just be 160GB. Well, for now ill stick to a normal drive with no raid installation until i have the knowledge and resources too.
Thanks again.

You can RAID those with RAID 5 however your total data area will only be ~700GB.

160GB ---- Will be seen as ----> 160GB
320GB ---- Will be seen as ----> 160GB
320GB ---- Will be seen as ----> 160GB
500GB ---- Will be seen as ----> 160GB
640GB ---- Will be seen as ----> 160GB

160GB x 5 = 800GB - Parity ~100GB = 700GB

It would be much better to buy 1 320GB drive and have:

320GB ---- Will be seen as ----> 320GB
320GB ---- Will be seen as ----> 320GB
320GB ---- Will be seen as ----> 320GB
500GB ---- Will be seen as ----> 320GB
640GB ---- Will be seen as ----> 320GB

320GB x 5 = 1600GB - Parity ~310GB = 1290GB

The best way would be to buy 3 500GB drives and have:

500GB ---- Will be seen as ----> 500GB
500GB ---- Will be seen as ----> 500GB
500GB ---- Will be seen as ----> 500GB
500GB ---- Will be seen as ----> 500GB
640GB ---- Will be seen as ----> 500GB

500GB x 5 = 2500GB - Parity ~450GB = 2050GB

If you use hardware RAID you can create one large array and then install the OS on the array. Since you have many hard drives with many platters/read heads the system will be fast. -WS

Well thanks for the info on hdds,
I cannot buy any new hdds right now but in case I get them,
How do I set the up on raid, I have only two sata slots on my raid card?
In that case won't I need a new card? Or I can put some from the mobo too?
Thanks.

amigo max said:

Well thanks for the info on hdds,
I cannot buy any new hdds right now but in case I get them,
How do I set the up on raid, I have only two sata slots on my raid card?
In that case won't I need a new card? Or I can put some from the mobo too?
Thanks.

You will need a SATA card that supports 5 or more drives. If you motherboard has 5 or more SATA connectors and your BIOS has RAID options then you can use the MB SATA.

RAID 5 can be expensive if you have to buy drives and a 6 port RAID card. -WS

First thing my mobo doesn't support raid, and i only have 4 sata ports.