RAID 1 with fresh install. Anything specific I need to know?

[dude_56013]

Hey guys. I'm thinking of RAID 1'ing my computer. I'm sick of backing crap up to my external...half the time I don't keep it up to date .

Now, I've got a few options. I can either RAID1 2 - 1TB WD Caviar Blacks or 2 - 750GB Seagates. Both are 32MB cache, and the speeds are pretty identical. I'm not going to triple boot anymore, so the difference is negligible. One of the 1TB drives was technically supposed to go in my friends new build, but it doesn't have to. In addition to the above, I have a 1TB Sammy drive. One of any of these drive will most likely go in the server I'm building to download and stream videos and music and such.

Okay. Let's review, because even I'm confused.

Desktop Option 1: RAID the 2 WD 1TBs; Put the Samsung 1TB or one of the Seagate 750GBs in my friend's build and the other one in the server; Whichever is left goes in my external.

Desktop Option 2: RAID the 2 Seagate 750GBs; Put one of the WDs in my friends build and the other in the server. Sammy would go in the external.

I don't know what I want to do. I should probably still put a 1TB in my friend's build since that's what I told him I was doing. I could put the Sammy in there. It's been a super good HDD, plus, I've had it for about oh 6 months and I know that it works. If something happens to one of the WDs, then I have to mess with it, not him.

Is RAID1ing the drives just as easy as turning RAID on in BIOS? I'll be doing a fresh install of Windows 7, so the drives will be bare when I enable it. Also, can you partition RAID'd drive? Usually I like to make about a 150-200GB partition for my OS and then seperate the rest. Is this possible with RAID1?

Thanks guys. I know that was a lot of info, but I'll bold the important crap. It was more thinking aloud than anything. Sometimes you gotta see your ideas on paper.

 

[Celegorm]

Is RAID1ing the drives just as easy as turning RAID on in BIOS? I'll be doing a fresh install of Windows 7, so the drives will be bare when I enable it. Also, can you partition RAID'd drive? Usually I like to make about a 150-200GB partition for my OS and then seperate the rest. Is this possible with RAID1?

Thanks guys. I know that was a lot of info, but I'll bold the important crap. It was more thinking aloud than anything. Sometimes you gotta see your ideas on paper.

I'm going to focus on that part. yes, it's pretty much that easy in 7. 7 has picked up the RAID drivers for me every time. You can partition them off, but I don't know if that has any impact on performance.

 

[dude_56013]

Thanks cele for responding. I was about to bump it tonight.

There's really no performance gain in RAID1 though is there? I know there is in RAID0, but...

Hmm...the only reason I ask about partitioning is that I like to keep my files separate from my OS. That way, if I ever need to reinstall my OS, I don't have to move my darned files and back them up and what not. You just wipe the OS partition and reinstall and you're good to go.

 

[Celegorm]

When I went from a single drive to RAID 1, I saw no gain (and no loss in speed either). For me, RAID 5 seems to be a little quicker, but still not as fast as a RAID 0.

I'd give partitioning them a try. Worse case scenario you can use GParted to make it one large partition again.

 

[dude_56013]

Yeah. I wouldn't assume any loss in speed. I would assume it would essentially stay the same in RAID1. Once I get it set up, I'll check back and let everyone know the scoop.

 

[shozzking]

what brand of motherboard do you have?

 

[dude_56013]

It's an ASUS P5NE-SLI. RAID is supported.

 

[shozzking]

you may have to go to the ASUS website and install RAID drivers before you set it up. i had to do that before it would let me configure RAID on my MSI motherboard.

 

[dude_56013]

Yeah'll. I'll have to be prepared with them before I install W7.

 

[berry120]

There's really no performance gain in RAID1 though is there?

Theoretically, there is a small gain in read performance because the data should be read across both of the disks (as long as they're both working) similar to in RAID 0. This doesn't apply to writes though for obvious reasons.

Without wanting to sound like a boring lecturer, I'd also throw in there that while RAID 1 reduces the risks, it's not a replacement for backing your important data up!