# Can i raid 2 different ssd size?



## Elmo (Jul 22, 2012)

Hey guys im having a lil dilemma  well first off i have a corsair force 3 60GB , but i was thinking of getting another ssd and raiding them together instead of just using it as a spare drive . I plan to buy another corsair force 3 120 GB SSD so my question is  it safe to do a raid 0 with the same drive but different size? Im not to worried about data loss or stuff like that as i store my documents and what not on a HDD. I have not done a raid 0 before i dont have a raid card i just plan on using the onboard one ? But im not sure if it will work with 2 different volumes. 

Second question. Lets assume if my ssd gets corrupted or OS gets corrupted and i format the "raid 0" ssd will the raid disappear?  Or if the OS gets corrupted will the ssd stop working and be trash? Will it void warranty if i raid it?


----------



## Yukikaze (Jul 22, 2012)

Elmo said:


> Hey guys im having a lil dilemma  well first off i have a corsair force 3 60GB , but i was thinking of getting another ssd and raiding them together instead of just using it as a spare drive . I plan to buy another corsair force 3 120 GB SSD so my question is  it safe to do a raid 0 with the same drive but different size? Im not to worried about data loss or stuff like that as i store my documents and what not on a HDD. I have not done a raid 0 before i dont have a raid card i just plan on using the onboard one ? But im not sure if it will work with 2 different volumes.
> 
> Second question. Lets assume if my ssd gets corrupted or OS gets corrupted and i format the "raid 0" ssd will the raid disappear?  Or if the OS gets corrupted will the ssd stop working and be trash? Will it void warranty if i raid it?



If you RAID0 a 60GB drive with a 120GB drive, you will result in a total drive size of 120GB, making the whole idea rather silly (sure, it will be faster, but you're pretty much losing 60GB of space).

If one of the drives in the RAID0 fails, the array is damaged beyond repair. Once the faulty drive is replaced, you will have to reinstall everything. If the OS on the RAID fails, nothing happens to the drives. Breaking up a RAID0 will lose all data, but the drives themselves are not harmed in any way by RAIDing them.

RAID does not void a warranty.


----------



## Elmo (Jul 22, 2012)

I see , so why do i loose 60gb if i raid it with a different volume? Thats rather wierd.. because ive heard people raid 2 different (HDD) and it works. but since this is a ssd :S? can you explain alittle more to why?


----------



## Elmo (Jul 22, 2012)

Is this what you meant? "For level 0, total capacity is equal to the stripe width times the smallest drive."


----------



## Arrakis9 (Jul 22, 2012)

You'll probably end up getting stuttering issues with your operating system if you mix and match, tried it myself once with two different speed drives and the system would just lock up every few seconds


----------



## Kreij (Jul 22, 2012)

Elmo said:


> Is this what you meant? "For level 0, total capacity is equal to the stripe width times the smallest drive."



Yes. Both halves of the RAID0 array must be the same size. If you have two different size drives the array will be created using the size of the smallest drive and the rest of the larger drive will be ignored (wasted), so you will get 2x the size of the smallest drive regardless of how big the larger drive may be.


----------



## Aquinus (Jul 22, 2012)

Unless it isn't your boot device and you're doing a software RAID. In that case you can make a "stripped partition" as well as creating another partition that is the remaining 60Gb off the second drive. However I wouldn't rely on software RAID. I just wouldn't do it.


----------

