RAID setup question

S

schizle

New Member
I'm building my first pc and want to set up 3 HDD's in a raid array - very much a newbie with this, here's my idea. I bought:

Two - Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KSRTL 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Retail
One - Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD7500AAKS 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

ABIT IP35 Pro LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model BX80562Q6600 - Retail

Two - CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400 - Retail

I'd like to have the two 250 GB drives setup in a RAID 0 for speed, and use the 750 GB for backup. How do I do that? I've seen a little info on hardware vs. software RAID, do I use the hardware setup? If so, when I assemble the computer (starting today) what do I need to do? Can someone please help?

Thanks!
 
You can setup to two 250GB hard drives in RAID0 usually by holding down CTRL+I during startup, and then set up the array that way. You will need to reinstall Windows however.
 
is there any way to do it at the initial computer startup after the build without having to reinstall windows?
 
Raid 0

RAID 0 is for speed. The data is spanned across 2 hard drives (the 250gb) and gives you 500gb total. For backup, you will need 2 additional disk (250gb min). The 1 750 you have won't work. This setup is called RAID 0+1 or RAID 10.
 
thanks for the reply - if i can't use the 750 in a raid setup, can i use the two 250's in raid 0 and some software to automatically backup to the 750 like true image or would i be better off RMA'ing the 750 for another couple of 250's for the RAID 0+1 you are talking about?
 
schizle said:
thanks for the reply - if i can't use the 750 in a raid setup, can i use the two 250's in raid 0 and some software to automatically backup to the 750 like true image or would i be better off RMA'ing the 750 for another couple of 250's for the RAID 0+1 you are talking about?
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What you as well as others need to remember, is that RAID 1 or RAID 0+1 isn't an actual backup solution. The only time it is useful is if one of your hard drive crashes/fails, or you corrupt the RAID array some how. If you accidentally delete a file, it is gone from both hard drives.

What I would recommend is setting up the two 250GB drives in RAID 0 if you want added speed, and then manually backup the important files every few days or so.
 
I need help - i built my pc, including the 3 hard drives, two 250's and one 750. when i booted and loaded vista, i got an error stating there was no volume to load available for loading vista. so i disconnected one of the 250's and the 750. vista then loaded properly. now when i shut down, reconnect the sata cables to the two additional drives, my computer does nothing, if i disconnect, it starts fine. i want to setup the two 250's in raid 0 and use the 750 for manual backup. what do i need to do to get this working?
 
schizle said:
I need help - i built my pc, including the 3 hard drives, two 250's and one 750. when i booted and loaded vista, i got an error stating there was no volume to load available for loading vista. so i disconnected one of the 250's and the 750. vista then loaded properly. now when i shut down, reconnect the sata cables to the two additional drives, my computer does nothing, if i disconnect, it starts fine. i want to setup the two 250's in raid 0 and use the 750 for manual backup. what do i need to do to get this working?
Click to expand...
Well part of the issue is that it sounds like you installed Vista on a single 250GB hard drive, so when you install the other drives and setup RAID it won't boot.

You need to setup the RAID array using only the two 250GB hard drives from within the BIOS/RAID Utility, then load Vista.
 
can i ask what your goals are of setting up a RAID? RAID only performs better in pure data throughput and is really more of a server side technology in my opinion

What are you trying to accomplish?
 
ok so far i've got the two 250's in raid 0, now i've connected the 750 drive and it's recognized during the boot sequence but when i'm in vista, and go to my computer, there's no 750gb drive, this is my first issue, the second is that i'm getting the blue screen with message memory_management. i was wondering if my ram could be suspect, i've installed 4 1gb modules of CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800, it has cas latency of 5 and i thought maybe i read somewhere that it supports the corsair at 4 only? could this be the issue?

as for the raid setup, i'm using raid 0 to get the extra speed
 
Even then, RAID only really out performs it in pure data throughput at high volumes of data. If you are rendering files that are many gigabytes in size then yes you will benefit from the speed.

Also running RAID 0 is a large risk of data loss especially when running an OS like windows, which is prone to crashes and corrupted files. If one drive in the array fails, then all your data is gone - as in gone for good unless you can recover it which is time consuming and costly.

RAID 1 you actually lose performance because both drives have to synchronize and read/write together, its not that noticeable and if you get lets say a virus or spyware, its mirrored to your other drive.

Your best option is a high speed HD with lots of cache IMO.
 
i had thought about the 10000 rpm disks but a little pricey for me now, but if the benefit is there, i'll consider switching to a single 10k disk. can you help with either of my other questions?
 
schizle said:
ok so far i've got the two 250's in raid 0, now i've connected the 750 drive and it's recognized during the boot sequence but when i'm in vista, and go to my computer, there's no 750gb drive, this is my first issue, the second is that i'm getting the blue screen with message memory_management. i was wondering if my ram could be suspect, i've installed 4 1gb modules of CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800, it has cas latency of 5 and i thought maybe i read somewhere that it supports the corsair at 4 only? could this be the issue?
Click to expand...

So, the 250s are in RAID 0 and the 750 is by itself? You might need to load raid controller drivers during the set up of windows. I am not 100% because I haven't set up a lot of RAIDs with Vista. The 750 is recognized in the BIOS right?
 
i did load the drivers for raid in vista, then rebooted and setup the two 250's in raid 0, the 750 is by itself and is recognized by bios. i was able to locate and am currently formatting it in vistas 'computer management'/'disk management'. hopefully when it's done formatting (taking forever) it'll be all set. i guess my biggest concern now is the memory_management issue. occasionally the blue screen will appear with that message. i'm hoping i bought the correct RAM, i found this site: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=147163
which shows the cas4 latency corsair twins are compatible but i bought cas5 and am worried either i 1)bought an incompatible ram or 2)just have bad ram. would the memory_management screen show up if this cas difference is the issue, or is it more likely bad ram?

Just finished formatting the drive, all is well with the 750... one last issue which I'll start a new thread on since it's really a new topic.
 
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