Adding a RAID 0 Array

[Francesco]

My System has the ability to run in a RAID 0 Array, but i have not implimented it yet. I had a few questions.

The first is, do all of the hard drives have to be SATA? Can i mix SATA and IDE hard drives within the Array? Is it possibile to have a RAID 0 Array running on Sata and still having a seperate hard drive plugged into IDE (So for example Drive C: is a RAID 0 array of two SATA 500gig HDs, while drives D: and E: are IDE Hard Drives).

I have a Dell XPS with media center edition and don't have nearly enough storage for all of the recorded content i want to store on it, so i want to add a 1TB Raid 0 Array. I allready have a 250 Gig and 150 gig IDE drive in there and would hate to have to scrap them (or worse give them to my younger brother, lol)

Thanks,
Francesco Esposito

 

[GuitarFreak1857]

i'd get the WD Raptor 74GB 10K RPM, RAID 0. idk i would probably get that for speed not for space... i'd stick with SATA. im pretty sure u cannot mix IDE with SATA HDD's. there two different types, different plugs.

 

[aj2003]

You cant setup a raid0 array with IDE and SATA mixed. I personally use a raid0 aray for 2 120gig sata drives, then a WD raptor on another SATA and a IDE 250gig.

If i were you i would get the 2 500gig drives, if u really need that much space. but dont put them in raid. They are big enough by themselves. plus if one off those drives fails you will of lost close to one terabytes worth of data.

 

[Trotter]

It doesn't sound like RAID0 is what you need.

For media storage, you may want to look into some huge external drives.

I know that there are some terabyte drive systems out there.

 

[Francesco]

im pretty sure u cannot mix IDE with SATA HDD's. there two different types, different plugs.

Yea i know...my motherboard has both...lol, what i was wondering was could you have one raid 0 array with drives on all four (two ide and two sata) or if it was possible to have a RAID 0 array and to also have two ide hard drives attached that opperate seperate to the array...which is answered below.

I personally use a raid0 aray for 2 120gig sata drives, then a WD raptor on another SATA and a IDE 250gig.

Cool thanks, atleast i wont have to scrap the HDs i have now, since you can have ide drives plugged in opposite a sata raid array.

If i were you i would get the 2 500gig drives, if u really need that much space. but dont put them in raid. They are big enough by themselves. plus if one off those drives fails you will of lost close to one terabytes worth of data.

That makes sense, i probably will only be gettin one now either way, since i can keep the almost 500 gigs i have now.

For media storage, you may want to look into some huge external drives.

That seams to make the smallest amount of sense in my situation. Portable storage is more expensive then internal drives, and I don't need to move the storage from computer to computer, for example. Is there something I am missing?

My last question is, you guys seem to have large HD set-ups. What is it with Windows suggesting you partition any drive over 160gigs? Do you guys run your drives so a single drive letter has over 160gigs assigned to it? Having to split drives into partitions makes WMP recordings a headache, since instead of having the whole 250gig of the hard drive i have now, i can only leave 160 gigs of it open for recording at any time (it only allows you to assign one drive letter for recording, without being able to establish a "backup" drive letter incase the assigned drive becomes full).

Thanks,
Francesco

 

[Trotter]

Eternal storage = no need for internal drive bays, no running out of room.

RAID0 is data striping, and is for speed. You need storage. And you case only has so many bays, and your mobo only has so many ports.

 

[aj2003]

i agree with trotter about the external drives. But it all depends on your case and motherboard, Using mine for example, ive got 8 SATA ports on my motherboard and space for 4 ide drives as normal, I can put about 8 hard drives in my case and that is alot compared to most cases, if youve got quite a small case, as most dells are, you will have to go with externals.

I dont really think it matters that much if u partition drives that are over 160 tbh, im using a 250 thats not partitions fine, and my raid array is 240 and thats shown as one drive and thats fine.

Iff i were you i would make sure you install windows on a drives by itself (ie a raptor) this means that when you computer needs to load something from windows its got solo access to it rather than having to wait around whilst you doing stuff with large video files.