RAID Issues

arice89 · Sep 3, 2005

Alright, if youve read my other posts I have 1 hard drive that failed (primary) and 2 other HD's (1 80 gig, 1 40 gig). I bought a new hard drive (250 gig) and I am going to move my system into a new case. I was going to RAID the 3 drives until I realized it would reduce the 250 gig into a 40 gig puke: So, I think I'm going to just keep the 250 gig un-RAID'ed. Now, I just need some advice. I am willing to RAID the 80+40 so the 80 is reduced to 40, and just leave the 250 gigger in an IDE port. Is that even possible? Also, what would be the smartest thing to do? Would I get the best performance if I installed the new O/S on one of the RAID drives and used the 250 simply for storage? What would you guys do if you were me: New case, 1 blank 250 gig, 1 used 80 gig, 1 used 40 gig?

Also, if I were to do the 40/80 gig RAID and the 250 gig IDE would I simply plug the 80 into RAID 1, the 40 into RAID 2, and the 250 into one of the IDE's? Is that how I would go about doing it?

DelJo63 · Sep 3, 2005

1) support for drives > 137gb is flakie, sometimes it works great, other times not so great
2) you still need backups even with RAID and backing up 250gb is miserable,
so use the divide and conquer approach; partition it
3) keep the C:\ partition for WINDOWS itself, D:\ partition for OEM software installs,
and consider putting User Data on still another E:\ other physical HD

with this segregation of data, I would think your used data to be more important
than Windows and OEM software; they can always be reloaded.
I would RAID-0 the E:F: pair with my user data
(btw: it makes no sense to raid across partitions; you lose performance big time)

arice89 · Sep 3, 2005

jobeard said:
1) support for drives > 137gb is flakie, sometimes it works great, other times not so great
2) you still need backups even with RAID and backing up 250gb is miserable,
so use the divide and conquer approach; partition it
3) keep the C:\ partition for WINDOWS itself, D:\ partition for OEM software installs,
and consider putting User Data on still another E:\ other physical HD

with this segregation of data, I would think your used data to be more important
than Windows and OEM software; they can always be reloaded.
I would RAID-0 the E:F: pair with my user data
(btw: it makes no sense to raid across partitions; you lose performance big time)

Ok, so you recommend I partition the 250 gig into a C:\ and D:\ and RAID the two other drives?

DelJo63 · Sep 3, 2005

Ok, so you recommend I partition the 250 gig into a C:\ and D:\ and RAID the two other drives?

yes sir

arice89 · Sep 3, 2005

arice89 said:
Ok, so you recommend I partition the 250 gig into a C:\ and D:\ and RAID the two other drives?

Ok, assuming I do this, when I finally get my system running what will happen when I install programs on the 250 gig? Would I leave the OS on the C partition and install programs on the D? If I did do this, would the programs show up in the Start->Programs menu?

DelJo63 · Sep 3, 2005

arice89 said:
Ok, assuming I do this, when I finally get my system running what will happen when I install programs on the 250 gig? Would I leave the OS on the C partition and install programs on the D? If I did do this, would the programs show up in the Start->Programs menu?

YES

Frequently, with a GOOD installer, you get to browse where to install.
For the first time install ond D:\ use the explored to create a new folder
D:\Program Files BEFORE you try to install the OEM software.
Then during the install process, you will see the default install location as
C:\Program Files\$product_name which you can overtype the C:\ as D:\
and away you go. IF it's not modifiable, COPY the $product_name,
browse to D:\Program Files and append \$product_name.
You then get Directory Does Not Exist, Shall I create it? {but of course }

Your Start button menu choices will then include ANYTHING so installed

arice89 · Sep 3, 2005

jobeard said:
YES Frequently, with a GOOD installer, you get to browse where to install.
For the first time install ond D:\ use the explored to create a new folder
D:\Program Files BEFORE you try to install the OEM software.
Then during the install process, you will see the default install location as
C:\Program Files\$product_name which you can overtype the C:\ as D:\
and away you go. IF it's not modifiable, COPY the $product_name,
browse to D:\Program Files and append \$product_name.
You then get Directory Does Not Exist, Shall I create it? {but of course }

Your Start button menu choices will then include ANYTHING so installed

Ok, so do you recommend, if possible, to partition the drive before installing Windows? If possible, how would I do that?

DelJo63 · Sep 5, 2005

Actually Partition Magic (PM) will allow you to
1) shrink the existing partition
2) carve out another from the free space

I you want to go the other route, PM will do that nicely
and you then just install the OS (make sure you get all the updates)

RAID Issues

arice89

DelJo63

arice89

DelJo63

arice89

DelJo63

arice89

DelJo63

Similar threads

Latest posts