RAID Setup

[50mobber]

I need help installing a RAID. I will be running RAID 10. I tried to go through it myself but got stuck. I was asking me what Strip size i wanted and capacity size. Ok here is the system


mobo: ASUS P5E Deluxe

Video: Sapphire Radeon HD 4870

Cpu: Q9450

Ram: G.SKILL 4GB

HD: 2x western digital 160 gb (Running RAID)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136200

HD: 2x western digital 500gb (running Raid)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136205

Thanks in advance

 

[Remeniz]

Ok.

One second....

Whats you OS installed on?

If you install RAID 10 on these drives then you will loose all the data on all 4 drives.

Use a lower stripe size for server systems and a higher stripe size if you do a lot of music/video editing. The capacity size that it gives you will be the maximum available.

 

[50mobber]

the os is vista home premium 64bit.

There is no data on the 3 of the drives since i build it like 2 days ago and i started it today. So could i leave the capacity size the way it is?

 

[Remeniz]

Ok well you cannot use RAID 10 because this array needs 4 hard disks and you will loose your OS install. RAID 10 will not work with 3 HD's. So it's either create a RAID 10 array, and loose your Vista OS in the process, then re-install the OS onto the RAID 10 array. Or consider the option below. And because you have an OS on one HD you have limited the arrays available to you.

I can make a suggestion though.

Why not RAID 0 the 160GB HD's...

... and RAID 1 the 500GB HD's?

You can then use the RAID 0 array for your OS and applications, faster loading times. And you can protect all your important stuff on your RAID 1 array. This means re-installing OS too.

Or RAID 1 the 500GB HD's. Leave the OS on the one drive and install applications on the other 160GB drive. This way you can keep your OS that you installed.

 

[50mobber]

ok i dont mind re-installing it but your alternative sounds really good. I had no idea you could run different RAID on the same computer.

Ok my next question is how would i do that?

 

[Remeniz]

As long as you have the right amount of HD's you can run any amount of RAID arrays.

I've edited my previous post, sorry . Have a look at the other options and let me know which one you like.

 

[50mobber]

ok i like this one cuz i give me faster speeds.

RAID 0 the 160GB HD's...

... and RAID 1 the 500GB HD's?


Since i just got it running today i dont have anything on the drive except the OS which i can always re-install.

Is running Raid 0 and Raid 1 better than running Raid 10.

What do u recommend

 

[Remeniz]

Thats sweet.

RAID 10 is great if your HD's were the same size. In your case you'd loose a lot of HD space due to the different sizes of the HD's.

So I recomment RAID 0 on the smaller drives and RAID 1 the big boys for storing very important data.

 

[50mobber]

ok. sounds good.
so how do i set that up?

 

[Remeniz]

Ok.

While you have the OS installed create the RAID driver on a floppy disk. Your gonna need this when you install the OS again.

When in Vista pop the Motherboard support DVD in to your CD drive. Go to 'Make Disk Menu' then click Intel ICH9R 32/64bit RAID driver to create an Intel ICH9R 32/64bit RAID driver disk. Insert a floppy disk and follow the instructions on screen to complete this process. When your done write protect the floppy to avoid over writing data on it.

Let me know when you've done this.