Understanding Raid

rydin4life · 11-04-2008, 01:27 AM

Ok, so tell me if I have this right.

Raid 0 is just like having two hard drives with separate information. This way I could have a C drive with OS and programs and a D drive for just documents. I would still need an external or other option for backup.

Raid 1 would involved having 2 hds, but they would hold the same identical ifnormation.

So if I want to have two discs (1 for OS and programs and 1 for documents) and use an external hd for backup, Raid 0 is the way to go. Alternatively, I could have a raid 1 with 3 hds (C drive with D drive mirroring and then and E drive with documents).

Is that correct....or am I way off. Right now I have a C drive with programs/OS and a D with all my documents/videos/music..etc. and I backup to an external hd....and I'm just trying to see what would mimic that the best.

[-0MEGA-] · 11-04-2008, 01:41 AM

RAID 0 basically "combines" two identical drives to appear as one, so if you had two 500GB hard drives in RAID 0 it would appear to the OS as a single 1TB hard drive.

RAID 1 also appears as a single hard drive, however if you had two 500GB hard drives in RAID 1 you would only see a single 500GB HD in the OS. The difference being all data is copied to both drives, so if one fails you still have another. However I wouldn't consider it a backup solution as if you delete a file it gets erased from both drives, it really only helps if a drive has a mechanical failure.

rydin4life · 11-04-2008, 02:08 AM

gotcha...so if I have two hd's in a raid0, there isn't really a way to separate what I want on one from the other?

Can I just get two hds without having them setup in raid on SATA II then?...similar to the way my xp box is now.

Cleric7x9 · 11-04-2008, 02:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rydin4life

gotcha...so if I have two hd's in a raid0, there isn't really a way to separate what I want on one from the other?

Can I just get two hds without having them setup in raid on SATA II then?...similar to the way my xp box is now.

yeah of course you can

[-0MEGA-] · 11-04-2008, 03:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rydin4life

gotcha...so if I have two hd's in a raid0, there isn't really a way to separate what I want on one from the other?

Can I just get two hds without having them setup in raid on SATA II then?...similar to the way my xp box is now.

Yes you can have setup without RAID, I was going to ask why you wanted RAID in the first place.

Also though you can setup two HD's in RAID 0 and create two partitions.

rydin4life · 11-05-2008, 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by [-0MEGA-]

Also though you can setup two HD's in RAID 0 and create two partitions.

seems kind of pointless then in that sense? If I want to separate areas, I would just use two separate drives, correct?

thanks for all the help by the way.

[-0MEGA-] · 11-06-2008, 05:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rydin4life

seems kind of pointless then in that sense? If I want to separate areas, I would just use two separate drives, correct?

thanks for all the help by the way.

RAID 0 theoretically doubles the read/write and transfer rates.

11-04-2008, 01:27 AM	#1 (permalink)
rydin4life Silver Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 134	Understanding Raid Ok, so tell me if I have this right. Raid 0 is just like having two hard drives with separate information. This way I could have a C drive with OS and programs and a D drive for just documents. I would still need an external or other option for backup. Raid 1 would involved having 2 hds, but they would hold the same identical ifnormation. So if I want to have two discs (1 for OS and programs and 1 for documents) and use an external hd for backup, Raid 0 is the way to go. Alternatively, I could have a raid 1 with 3 hds (C drive with D drive mirroring and then and E drive with documents). Is that correct....or am I way off. Right now I have a C drive with programs/OS and a D with all my documents/videos/music..etc. and I backup to an external hd....and I'm just trying to see what would mimic that the best.

11-04-2008, 01:41 AM	#2 (permalink)
[-0MEGA-] VIP Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Goffstown, NH Age: 21 Posts: 29,406	RAID 0 basically "combines" two identical drives to appear as one, so if you had two 500GB hard drives in RAID 0 it would appear to the OS as a single 1TB hard drive. RAID 1 also appears as a single hard drive, however if you had two 500GB hard drives in RAID 1 you would only see a single 500GB HD in the OS. The difference being all data is copied to both drives, so if one fails you still have another. However I wouldn't consider it a backup solution as if you delete a file it gets erased from both drives, it really only helps if a drive has a mechanical failure. __________________ Core 2 Quad Q9550 @ 4.1GHz Asus Rampage Formula X48 ATI 4870 X2 2GB GDDR5 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 960 300GB Raptor // 2x 750GB Creative SB X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty SilverStone 750W +12V@60A 3DMark06: 22605 www.geoffjohnsonphotography.com

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11-04-2008, 02:08 AM	#3 (permalink)
rydin4life Silver Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 134	gotcha...so if I have two hd's in a raid0, there isn't really a way to separate what I want on one from the other? Can I just get two hds without having them setup in raid on SATA II then?...similar to the way my xp box is now.