RAID-0 Array question...

[Spazmogen]

Yes, I know. A nice simple topic for today.

I will have two SATA300 drives.

Samsung 80gb 8mb cache
WD 250gb 16mb cache

both are 7200 rpm


I'm thinking about setting up a RAID 0 (striping) array.


How should I go about this?

1) buy another WD 250gb 16mb cache drive?
2) partition the WD 250gb 16mb cache drive to match the 80gb Samsung?


Is option 2 even possible with RAID-0 ?

I have Norton Ghost 2003. I back up my system monthly onto a firewire hdd.

I could use Ghost to copy the current XP install over onto an IDE hdd, then FDISK or Partition Magic the SATA drives to match each other. I do not want to loose the extra free space on the 250gb drive. I'd like to format it as another partition, if possible.

Would I be able to Ghost the install back over and have it work as a RAID 0 array? Or should I just re-install XP or Vista? I know there's a floppy to use with drivers for a fresh install...

[Ian]

With RAID 0, you shouldn't need to have matching hard drives. When you stripe the two, you'll just end up with a 330GB volume.

Are you going to use a hardware RAID controller to do this? If so, you should be able to back up your install and put it on the new volume. Just made sure the driver for the RAID controller is installed first.

[Spazmogen]

the Gigabyte board has the SATA2 raid controller built in, so I will use that.

I'll have to pull the manual and give it a read about how to back up the info.


Ok. Thanks Ian!

It will give me something to do after I get the new drive in January.

I wasn't really needing a 500gb RAID-0 array across two drives.
That would be a bit much for a home computer.

[LoneWolf]

With your mainboard, I'd still consider removing the 80GB and buying a second matching 250GB drive.

It would let you use Intel's Matrix RAID setup so that you could RAID 1 (mirror) a boot partition, and then RAID 0 (stripe) a second partition, all with only two drives. Best of both worlds: a backed up OS partition, and a second partition striped for speed.