RAID array: One big partition or several smaller ones?

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smartins

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I just got my Areca controller and I'm trying to get a few WD RE2 drives to create an array.

How do you guys usually organize the storage in a RAID 5 array? One big partition (in my case can be up to 7 TB) or a few smaller ones, say Movies, TV Series, Stuff, ....?

Cheers,
Steven
 
It depends. I normally like making one big partition but sometimes I split it up if I want to use treucrypt for a partition and not the whole drive.
 
I have my array in one big partition. Everything has it's own folder. If I partitioned everything I would hate it if ran out of space on say my "Anime" partition. One big partition is easier for me, other people may say differently.

As always have a good backup system.
 
I have one big partition and just make folders for everything that i store. So far working out with 2tb partition, going bigger than that might be a problem though since i need to either change lba size or cluster size.
 
oplin said:
I have one big partition and just make folders for everything that i store. So far working out with 2gig partition, going bigger than that might be a problem though since i need to either change lba size or cluster size.
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2 gig partition!? Guess you aren't running vista.... :eek:
 
I usually have a couple partitions but mainly stick to one large one. So a big storage partition for movies, mp3's etc and possibly a few smaller ones for storing smaller files than change more often. I've got my OS/programs installed on drives not in the array or I'd likely have a partition for those as well.

Just out of curiosity what card are you using that you have 7TB of storage on?
 
I stick to one big partition, it's much easier to manage, and just as easy to organize data by directories than making numerous partitions.
 
Anarchist4000 said:
I usually have a couple partitions but mainly stick to one large one. So a big storage partition for movies, mp3's etc and possibly a few smaller ones for storing smaller files than change more often. I've got my OS/programs installed on drives not in the array or I'd likely have a partition for those as well.

Just out of curiosity what card are you using that you have 7TB of storage on?
Click to expand...

Areca 1261ML with 16 x 500 GB WD RE2 disks on a RAID 6 array.

I'll be starting with 4 500 GB drives in RAID 5 mode but once I have over 8 disks I'll upgrade to raid 6.

I'm hoping this will give me plenty of storage for many years to come :)
 
If you move from Raid 5 to 6, wouldn't you have to delete and recreate the array? I really don't remember. :(
 
protias said:
If you move from Raid 5 to 6, wouldn't you have to delete and recreate the array? I really don't remember. :(
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Areca supports ORLM, aka Online Raid Level Migration. I wonder if there's an owl for that.
 
unhappy_mage said:
Areca supports ORLM, aka Online Raid Level Migration. I wonder if there's an owl for that.
Click to expand...
That seems pretty nifty. I was thinking of getting an Areca myself for a project I have planned, but I just couldn't justify the cost. This gives me something to think about.
 
Is this your total system storage or do you already have a one or more drives allocated for OS and applications? I always organize my drive(s) in such a way that there is a concept of a system drive (or partition) and a data drive. The system drive will have enough head room for the OS and for current and future applications. For the data drive the sky's the limit and I try to make that partition as big as possible and organize using folders so I don't need to worry about balancing space between the various partitions. As someone else said earlier, it would be a crying shame if I ran out space in my "Anime" partition and had to redo my partitions or copy the overflow into a partition that was not originally meant for that type of data.

I like having a separate system drive because it allows me to do an OS reimage without having to worry about backing up data. I did that back when I had a single 80MB drive (partitioned 20 for OS & apps/60 for data) and I'm still doing this now that I have 6 drives - it always ends up organized as a system drive and a data drive.
 
CubicleGeek said:
Is this your total system storage or do you already have a one or more drives allocated for OS and applications? I always organize my drive(s) in such a way that there is a concept of a system drive (or partition) and a data drive. The system drive will have enough head room for the OS and for current and future applications. For the data drive the sky's the limit and I try to make that partition as big as possible and organize using folders so I don't need to worry about balancing space between the various partitions. As someone else said earlier, it would be a crying shame if I ran out space in my "Anime" partition and had to redo my partitions or copy the overflow into a partition that was not originally meant for that type of data.

I like having a separate system drive because it allows me to do an OS reimage without having to worry about backing up data. I did that back when I had a single 80MB drive (partitioned 20 for OS & apps/60 for data) and I'm still doing this now that I have 6 drives - it always ends up organized as a system drive and a data drive.
Click to expand...

I have a system drive and the array will be running separately just for file storage. This way I can easily move (I hope!) the array to a different machine if needed just by moving the controller and drives.
 
This way I can easily move (I hope!) the array to a different machine if needed just by moving the controller and drives.
Click to expand...

I've had no problems moving my card/array between machines so that part should be easy enough. Actually moving 16 drives would likely take a bit longer.
 
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