RAID 0 drives / partitioning

H

haydnw

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Hi,

Just wondered if someone could help me clarify something before I make my new PC far more complicated than it actually needs to be!

If I set up two hard drives in a RAID 0 array (on an Asus A8N mobo if it makes any difference), I assume this shows up in WinXP as the equivalent of just one physical drive? If so, can I then partition it as I would a normal non-RAID drive? I will have two 80Gb drives set up on RAID 0, and would like to split them into 40Gb OS and apps and 40Gb data. Obviously this is easy enough with a single physical disk not in RAID, but I'm not sure whether it's that easy for two disks in RAID?

Also, how much different does RAID 0 make? Is it literally twice as fast as only having one drive? Basically I need to set up an OS/Apps drive, a Photoshop scratch disk and a data disk - I'm trying to figure out the easiest, cheapest way to set these up and I'm not sure what areas will benefit most from being on RAID 0 and which will see no difference.

Sorry, I didn't explain that very well! Hope it makes sense -thanks in advance for any help received.

h
 
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the answer to the first question is yes, the two drives will show up as one big drive, but i dont know about partitioning the drives

it may be possible (this is something i've just thought of so may not work) to partition both of the drives in to two then setup RAID 0 with both halves so you have two 80GB arrays
 
Yes, a RAID 0 array will be seen as one drive and yes, you can partition as you would a normal drive.

You will notice some speed increase with a RAID 0 array but to be honest I think safeguarding your data would be more imprtant than a slight speed increase.

If you partition the 160Gb drive into two partitions of 80Gb each and store data on one, if one drive fails, you've not only lost your operating system but all your data as well.

In your position, I'd keep the drives seperate and have your data stored on a drive that is physically remote from the one with the OS on it.

If you do fancy a RAID 0 array - and imo it is worth it - consider buying an extra hard disk for data backup, either another 80Gb drive or maybe a 120Gb drive.

An IDE drive will be fine, and they're really quite reasonably priced right now.

Then you could have your two 80Gb partitions, one with data, and also an extra backup of that data.
 
Thanks folks! On reflection, I'm looking at two SATA 80Gb drives on RAID 0 for OS/apps, and a non-RAID SATA drive for data / Photoshop scratch disk. The images I work on in Photoshop are stored on an external drive so the machine wouldn't be trying to work off the non-RAID SATA while also trying to use it as a scratch disk.

I'm hoping this setup will give me a speed increase for Windows and programs, and provide a faster scratch disk than I'm used to now for Photoshop (currently on PATA). Any mega-important data on the non-RAID drive will be backed up to an external 160Gb drive anyway, as I do with my current setup.

Cheers!
 
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