Setting up raid

[ReSpAwN DeMoN]

so basically from a fresh load it would install half an installation of windows on one drive and half on the other? This is assuming it is one big drive. Then again lets say that is the case. What happens if I pull out one of the dries upon boot up? :?:

[FLaCo]

LOL..what ^BeeFy^ said...hehe

MOCTEZNUMA...remember to get the same Brand,Model and size as your other drive. This way it will prevent conflicts the array might give you in having to different drives.

[Wiggo]

You'll have nothing to work with. ;)

[Beefy]

In a RAID 0, don't think about it as installing half the OS on one drive and half of the other. It simply shares the space and merges it into one. That's also one of the not-so-nice features of RAID 0. If you lose any drive in the config, then everything is gone.

However, the way I see it, it's still better than one drive. ie: in your case, you've got two 40GB drives to make an 80GB. So let's compare having 2 40's to having one 80:

If one of the 40's failed, you lose 80GB of data.
If the 80 failed, you lose 80GB of data.

Cost to replace one of the 40's is a lot less than replacing an 80GB HDD...

Hope this is making some kind of sense.

[FLaCo]

I dunno why you would want to do that RD but Windows will not boot. I never done that but thats what would happen. The only negative thing that a RAID might have is that if the array gets corrupted you lose everything. One hard goes down out of the two...say bye bye to eveything.

That half thing is only to give you an idea.

[FLaCo]

Fast on the submit button huh beefy...

Oh, and that remark about the whole 40 , 80 thing made a alot of sense...gj you shed some light to the RAID.

[Beefy]

Maybe someone around here should write an article on RAID setups...

*looks around*

Anyone?

......

[ReSpAwN DeMoN]

lol.........well what is the likelyness of a raid array goign down? Is it very unlikely or VERY possible. I mean is it like the phone going out? Or can it go out as often as the power going out.

[Beefy]

About as much chance as any other computer part going ka-poot.

Seriously, don't worry about it so much. RAIDs are fairly easy to implement, secure enough that most major servers will have a RAID of some kind (although a different kind of array.. but that's not the point.. :D ) and if set up correctly, you shouldn't have to worry about it again. In theory...

[ReSpAwN DeMoN]

well considering I have the majority of my "personal" stuff backed up like music and stuff like that. If the raid array WERE to go down. It would be easily recoverable hardware wise right? I mean I can always reload the software right? Or is this permanent as in raid controller dead replace mobo or card or replace a drive kind of thing?

[Beefy]

... Accidents happen. Who knows what could be damaged. There's as much chance of the RAID failing as there is of anything else failing. Think of it this way... How many times have you seen an IDE controller die? That's basically the same as a RAID controller (sort of anyways). And if the RAID went down, it would basically be the same as a HDD going down.

Personally, I'd stop thinking so negative. RAID are fairly simple to get running, and once it's up, you don't really need to worry about too much. Just give it a shot and see how it goes. As long as you are careful nothing should go wrong.

[ReSpAwN DeMoN]

your right.....I never thought about IDE going downnow that I think about it.

[Beefy]

You're just being cautious, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. :)

[ReSpAwN DeMoN]

ok cool.....one last question though. can you link me to an IDE raid controller card? ;) ;)

or to make things easier guide me on how to set up raid through software and not firmware.

[Beefy]

Hardware controller, I don't know what's good and what's not. The only RAID controllers I've used are on motherboards. Some of the other guys might be able to help you with that department. What I can say is just search around for a card that is capable of RAID 0. That's all you need to achieve, so don't bother going for a big fancy card that can do RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.... it will cost a lot more and isn't needed.

With software RAID, you are severly limited to what you can actually do. To achieve software RAID, you need to have an Operating system installed to be able to set it up, which then means that your drive that your operating system is on cannot be part of the RAID configuration. Plus software RAIDs aren't all that great to begin with. You don't really get the same benefits as a hardware RAID.