ok i could not find a hard drive thread anywhere so i will post here. all i want to know is what exactly is RAID and how you set it up? I know some how it allows you to make it so all your hdd's show as one large one but I was wondering if i have say a 150gb raptor and an 500gb 7200rpm hdd can they be raided or not worth it?
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what is RAID?
- Thread starter rjolin01
- Start date
From the FAQ....
For best results, you need identical drives -- so no, you couldn't use a 150GB Raptor HDD and an 500GB 7200RPM together. Your motherboard's user manual (or the manual to your particular RAID card) has further details on how to set everything up.
What the hell is RAID? What is it good for? Why is it good? What does it do?
RAID stands for Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive/Independent Disks (or some variant thereof), which integrates, via a RAID controller, two or more hard drives together for greater performance and/or data protection. There are many levels of RAID, with each level having its own strengths and weaknesses. Here are some explanations of RAID and its various levels. Please understand that RAID is NOT a backup solution.
For best results, you need identical drives -- so no, you couldn't use a 150GB Raptor HDD and an 500GB 7200RPM together. Your motherboard's user manual (or the manual to your particular RAID card) has further details on how to set everything up.
HardwareGuru
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RAID - Redundant Array Of Inexpenive Disks. Basically, the most common RAID are RAID 0(Striping) and RAID 1(Mirroring)
RAID 0(Striping) for performance
2 harddrives basically of the same type and size. Example: 2 x WD 640gig drives set in a RAID 0 Array. What this does is the O/S will look at the drives as 1 big 1,280gig HDD as opposed to 2 x 640 gigs. Because of this setup, when data is written to the drives, it splits the data between the 2 drives therefore increasing performance. It's like instead of having cars driving on 1 lane and accumulating traffic, it opens up another lane to free up traffic soo.. cars can move more freely.
RAID 1 (Mirror) for backup
This setup is common among business where backing data is important. When 2 drives are setup in a mirror, it makes a complete clone copy of the O/S and all the programs and data that is on that drive, will also be on the other drive. So, whenever you do a change, or modify files on the disk, it will also make the exact changes on the other drive. This is useful just in case 1 drive craps out. You can reply on the other drive because it is an exact clone.
RAID 0(Striping) for performance
2 harddrives basically of the same type and size. Example: 2 x WD 640gig drives set in a RAID 0 Array. What this does is the O/S will look at the drives as 1 big 1,280gig HDD as opposed to 2 x 640 gigs. Because of this setup, when data is written to the drives, it splits the data between the 2 drives therefore increasing performance. It's like instead of having cars driving on 1 lane and accumulating traffic, it opens up another lane to free up traffic soo.. cars can move more freely.
RAID 1 (Mirror) for backup
This setup is common among business where backing data is important. When 2 drives are setup in a mirror, it makes a complete clone copy of the O/S and all the programs and data that is on that drive, will also be on the other drive. So, whenever you do a change, or modify files on the disk, it will also make the exact changes on the other drive. This is useful just in case 1 drive craps out. You can reply on the other drive because it is an exact clone.