Formating RAID 0

[monj]

hello,
i want to format windows and im running RAID 0 config.
i have 2x 500GB Segate harddisk.
i've separated the drives, and i see it as 1 - 300gb, 2- 700gb under windows xp sp2.
if i want to format only one of the drives, am i risking loosing all the data in both of the hd's? i dont want to have any risk loosing the data i have on the other hd.
thanks,

monj

 

[jevery]

As I understand it, when the drives are “dismounted” from the array the data is lost. Certainly if one is formatted then the data is lost as one half of the whole has been erased.

 

[TFT]

^ Exactly, what has been written to discs have been "chopped" with a bit going to each disc, supposed performance gain is the only benefit of a Raid 0. On their own they are useless, Raid 0 must have the pair to be useable.

 

[fmw]

As a matter of practicality, if one drive doesn't provide enough space to do what you want to do, then split what you want to do between two separate drives. While RAID zero can provide some (quite) small performance increases, it greatly reduces reliability and MTBF (mean time between failure.) Or, simply buy bigger drives. They aren't all that expensive these days.

 

[monj]

if that is the case, i will not configure RAID again.
i am using big files and seeing a reasonable difference between the two methods, but its ridiculous i need to go through this process of saving everything i have on those drives. this is irritating.
your help is appriciated

 

[vnvnvn2000]

For better seek times I would set the stripe size to 16KB and format it as FAT32... I'm too lazy to actually care about the sector size.
With the above setup, you're going to see zero to little improvement on your write times compared to a single drive system, but your seek & read times will get a nice little performance boost.

 

[2048Megabytes]

I don't disagree with you. The cons of RAID 0 outweigh the pros. RAID 1 or RAID 5 are good setups I hear as they provide more protection for your data. I've never messed with either them up to this point.