Undercover_Man
[H]ard Surgeon
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2010
- Messages
- 1,314
Hello. I'm new to RAID and I was trying to figure out which would be the best solution for me. I am building a new computer and I am trying to decide how many hard drives I need and how I was going to set them up.
First off, this is what I was thinking:
RAID 1
Drive 1: C:/ - Windows
Drive 2: C:/ - Windows
RAID 1
Drive 3: D:/ - Installed Programs
Drive 4: D:/ - Installed Programs
RAID 1:
Drive 5: E:/ - Misc. Files
Drive 6: E:/ - Misc. Files
Why did I think this would work for me? Because if one of the drives failed for one of the drive letters, then I'd have a backup and be able to pick up from where I left off. Actually, I've been starting to think that since D: is seperate from C:, that if Windows got a virus or decided to start BSODing or an event happened causing me to reinstall Windows, I would still have my save files and game settings and stuff on D: so maybe RAID 0 for C: would be better.
Then I saw 0+1 and 1+0 RAID's existed. I thought to myself that this must be two or more smaller drives making up a bigger capacity "drive" and that set was mirrored. That's what it sounded like for 1+0.
Then I was thinking that 0+1 was kinda the same thing except I got confused the more I thought about it and read about the two.
Basically, I want security in the event that a drive fails. If I can have additional capacity as a result of a RAID configuration than awesome. And I don't want whatever I do to affect the performance of the drives.
I was thinking of two SSD's for Windows (either mirrored for security or set as a bigger C: capacity), two Raptors for Programs (I was thinking RAID 1 for security), and WD Caviars for Misc. (Since this drive won't need to be as fast like the programs. It's mainly a storage for misc. things.)
The SSD thing I think makes since since SSD's are faster than HDD's. But I don't know which raid would make more sense.
As for the Raptors, I was told that Raptors don't benefit from their additional speed until you raid multiple drives of 2 or more in raid 0, otherwise they are no faster than normal HDD's. Is this true? Would that apply to a dual disk raid 1 setup?
And for the Misc. E: drives, I figured the normal Caviars would be best since they don't need to be as fast as the Raptors but still be quick nonetheless. I was thinking raid 1 for security since this will hold my music and photos and saved photo and video edits as well as any downloads I may download.
Currently, I have 1 drive partitioned into 3. I like to keep D: and E: seperate for organizational purposes. Would it make more sense to combine D: and E: into 1 drive (2x raid 1) for my new rig and use the Raptor drives?? I suppose I could just have a folder, among my long list of installed programs, and name it "My Misc. Stuff". Or, can you raid two drives and partition them? That sounds like it'd be screwy with performance.
I am stuck and don't know how to proceed in outlining a plan for my upcoming drives. Thanks for reading.
First off, this is what I was thinking:
RAID 1
Drive 1: C:/ - Windows
Drive 2: C:/ - Windows
RAID 1
Drive 3: D:/ - Installed Programs
Drive 4: D:/ - Installed Programs
RAID 1:
Drive 5: E:/ - Misc. Files
Drive 6: E:/ - Misc. Files
Why did I think this would work for me? Because if one of the drives failed for one of the drive letters, then I'd have a backup and be able to pick up from where I left off. Actually, I've been starting to think that since D: is seperate from C:, that if Windows got a virus or decided to start BSODing or an event happened causing me to reinstall Windows, I would still have my save files and game settings and stuff on D: so maybe RAID 0 for C: would be better.
Then I saw 0+1 and 1+0 RAID's existed. I thought to myself that this must be two or more smaller drives making up a bigger capacity "drive" and that set was mirrored. That's what it sounded like for 1+0.
Then I was thinking that 0+1 was kinda the same thing except I got confused the more I thought about it and read about the two.
Basically, I want security in the event that a drive fails. If I can have additional capacity as a result of a RAID configuration than awesome. And I don't want whatever I do to affect the performance of the drives.
I was thinking of two SSD's for Windows (either mirrored for security or set as a bigger C: capacity), two Raptors for Programs (I was thinking RAID 1 for security), and WD Caviars for Misc. (Since this drive won't need to be as fast like the programs. It's mainly a storage for misc. things.)
The SSD thing I think makes since since SSD's are faster than HDD's. But I don't know which raid would make more sense.
As for the Raptors, I was told that Raptors don't benefit from their additional speed until you raid multiple drives of 2 or more in raid 0, otherwise they are no faster than normal HDD's. Is this true? Would that apply to a dual disk raid 1 setup?
And for the Misc. E: drives, I figured the normal Caviars would be best since they don't need to be as fast as the Raptors but still be quick nonetheless. I was thinking raid 1 for security since this will hold my music and photos and saved photo and video edits as well as any downloads I may download.
Currently, I have 1 drive partitioned into 3. I like to keep D: and E: seperate for organizational purposes. Would it make more sense to combine D: and E: into 1 drive (2x raid 1) for my new rig and use the Raptor drives?? I suppose I could just have a folder, among my long list of installed programs, and name it "My Misc. Stuff". Or, can you raid two drives and partition them? That sounds like it'd be screwy with performance.
I am stuck and don't know how to proceed in outlining a plan for my upcoming drives. Thanks for reading.