ATA Raid???

[RiverWars]

my cousin just bought a new computer, one reason for video editing, it came with NCQ Serial ATA Raid 0, with dual 160gb drives.

this is new to the both of us, but both of us have 30 plus years computers, but need some info, and dredging through the internet is slow process.

so, first of all, any good sites with info already laid out about this configuration?

second, can you help with a few questions?

1.can Partition Magic 8.0 be used to partition the drive(s)
2.is the fact that the drives are already configured for "0" does that mean that it is "stripped" and can not be partitioned with PM8?
3.then, if that is so(#2) then can the drives be reconfigured to "1" for mirroring, and then be partitioned with PM8?
4.why do the drives show up as only one 300 plus gig drive?

much appreciated, any one's responses
River~

[Darthtanion]

Re: ATA Raid???

I don't use Partition Magic so I'll eave that portion of the questions to someone more versed in that piece of software.

Yes, RAID0 means the drive is striped. This basically fools the system into thinking it is one massive drive (hence the 300+GB drive size you noted)but gives better performance by splitting the data being written and writing to both drives at the same time. Kinda like SLI for video boards but in the storage arena.

If you go RAID1 you will lose half of the storage space you currently have but the data you keep will be safer since it is mirrored onto a redundant drive. If your RAID0 array breaks down, you lose the data on both drives and it is more difficult to recover (sometimes impossible) since the data is broken between the two drives.

There are benefits to both types of RAID, it just depends on your needs and level of paranoia.

[matm347]

Re: ATA Raid???

Yes, your drives can be partitioned, if PM8 is compatible is another question that I'm not sure of, but would put money towards yes, as the RAID is hardware level which, as stated above, fools the software (PM included) into thinking there is one drive.