HDD Partitioning Questions

[BusyBeaverHP]

I've recently upgraded my PC, and is exploring the idea of getting the most out of my storage system.

My current storage configuration:

2x 300-GB Velociraptors in RAID0 = Vista OS, productivity programs (e.g. Adobe Creative Suite 4)

WD 640-GB = Games

WD 640-GB = Media (music, photos, etc.)

For the first time, I'm considering the idea of partitioning my RAID0 volume. From my limited research, the benefits of partitioning include reduced seek times, reduced fragmentation, and faster OS boots. A few questions:

1. Is partitioning of my RAID0 volume possible while keeping my current Vista OS on it bootable? If so, what programs would you recommend?

2. From what I've read, the fastest part of the HDD is the outer tracks that spins fastest. If I were to create a primary and secondary partition on my RAID0 volume, where would they be located on the physical disks by default? Or can I choose where they belong?

3. Of the RAID0 volume, my plan is to create a 50 GB primary partition for Vista Booting, and the rest of the GB's secondary for my productivity programs. Do you see a better setup?

 

[[LYL]Homer]

1. It is possible, just us the windows OS disc to partition it when you first install it.

2. The primary partition will be on the outer edge of the disk, you can't really control it.

3. I'd go a bit bigger for the OS partition. Bloat happens. Maybe 80gb total.

The primary partition will be slightly faster except when it has to access the secondary partition.

As always with RAID 0 make sure you backup everything on those Raptors you care about since losing one drive or the controller hiccuping will bork all the data. (I've used GetDataBack + RAID Reconstructor to recover some data off of a client's RAID 0 setups, but it's never 100% - don't ever rely on this ability.)