RAID ONLY Boot drive for O.S...Programs on Storage?

[rivrbyte]

I'm very sorry for double posting,I thought I previously posted in the right Forum,until I saw this one.

RAID Boot drive Only for O.S.?

I don't know what the difference is with using my WD RAPTOR as a boot drive for the OS and apps, then using my 500GB for storage.....OR someone telling me to RAID the 74GB, then put ONLY my Operating system on it. Isn't that the same thing?

Is there any way, (or do I even want to) Install the O.S. on the 74GB Raptor, then install programs to the storage Drive? Or do they all belong on the same drive? I'm trying to use more resources on my Photoshop and Studio Pinnacle Video Editing.
I presently have three internal hard drives.

Western Digital 74GB RAPTOR,
Western Digital 500GB HDD, and a newly bought
Western Digital 2 TB Caviar Green HDD, which will also be used for saving huge video files.

When I installed XP Home 32 Bit, a few years ago, I used the WD Raptor for boot drive for the O.S. and installed programs, and the 500GB for storage.

In using Pinnacle Studio 15HD, it installs different files all over the boot drive and the 500GB storage drive, and it's very hard to know where all these needed files are, also need to increase resources when I use both Photoshop and Studio.

Someone mentioned to use ONLY the WD 74GB RAPTOR to boot my operating system by USING RAID, and use both the other two drives for applications, and storage….is this an accepted way to configure a system so the O.S. and programs works faster, and more efficient? Thank you!

I have not used the RAID option before, and wondered if it's hard to do? I can't wait to dump XP and get the Pro Win7, so I'm upgrading MoBo hardware first.


Now I'm thinking of just using my 74GB Raptor for an extra Storage HDD, then using the 500GB for my boot drive. BUT ….the consensus is that the Raptor is faster for apps and OS. I would like a smoother system!

Thanks again?

 

[ReikokuKo]

Its a fairly common setup with SSDs nowadays to put the OS and applications there and all other data on another drive. You will definitely want the OS and applications on the higher performing drive. 74GB vs 500gb for storage, the answer is 500gb hands down, I use a 64gb SSD for my OS and applications and even that will almost fill up in 5 months.

I don't understand how RAID ties in to all this, I would recommend going with your previous set up with the Raptor holding your OS and apps, and the 500gb for storage. You can stripe together two of your hard drives for even faster performance (RAID 0) but you have mismatching capacities so any drive you stripe with your raptor, you will be losing a considerable amount of storage space.

 

[Lexluethar]

Put your OS on your fastest drive (the Raptor), but your important stuff like pictures, movies, etc on the RAID drive so that you have redundancy with your data and you have less of a chance of loosing them.

 

[kmote]

I'm very sorry for double posting,I thought I previously posted in the right Forum,until I saw this one.

RAID Boot drive Only for O.S.?

I don't know what the difference is with using my WD RAPTOR as a boot drive for the OS and apps, then using my 500GB for storage.....OR someone telling me to RAID the 74GB, then put ONLY my Operating system on it. Isn't that the same thing?

Is there any way, (or do I even want to) Install the O.S. on the 74GB Raptor, then install programs to the storage Drive? Or do they all belong on the same drive? I'm trying to use more resources on my Photoshop and Studio Pinnacle Video Editing.
I presently have three internal hard drives.

Western Digital 74GB RAPTOR,
Western Digital 500GB HDD, and a newly bought
Western Digital 2 TB Caviar Green HDD, which will also be used for saving huge video files.

When I installed XP Home 32 Bit, a few years ago, I used the WD Raptor for boot drive for the O.S. and installed programs, and the 500GB for storage.

In using Pinnacle Studio 15HD, it installs different files all over the boot drive and the 500GB storage drive, and it's very hard to know where all these needed files are, also need to increase resources when I use both Photoshop and Studio.

Someone mentioned to use ONLY the WD 74GB RAPTOR to boot my operating system by USING RAID, and use both the other two drives for applications, and storage….is this an accepted way to configure a system so the O.S. and programs works faster, and more efficient? Thank you!

I have not used the RAID option before, and wondered if it's hard to do? I can't wait to dump XP and get the Pro Win7, so I'm upgrading MoBo hardware first.


Now I'm thinking of just using my 74GB Raptor for an extra Storage HDD, then using the 500GB for my boot drive. BUT ….the consensus is that the Raptor is faster for apps and OS. I would like a smoother system!

Thanks again?

You can't RAID only one drive.