# Raid 0 with two different hard drives?



## petepete (Feb 25, 2010)

Hey guys, I bought a WD Caviar black 1TB and want to Raid 0 with my WD Caviar Green 1 TB and am wondering will it be safe? From what I have heard the Green is at 5400 RPM and goes up to the Blacks speed when use, it is more "eco-friendly" per se.

Also, when I raid 0 do I lose all my files??

thank you

peter


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## freaksavior (Feb 25, 2010)

You can raid the two drives, but it is not recommended because of the speed differences.

If you raid-0 then if a drive fails all your data is lost. Raid 0 offer higher read and write speeds.


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## DirectorC (Feb 25, 2010)

Yeah don't worry about RAID0 those drives together.  That would be a waste of a Caviar Black.  Instead put Windows, Apps & Games on the Black and just use the Green for incoming/working data, mass data storage and backup purposes.


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## petepete (Feb 25, 2010)

thank you for all your fast responses.. So dont Raid 0 them?? they are almost alike though arent they?


edit,, would you say system programd and windows on black or games on black?

also freak,, on idle the green runs at 5400 rpm but goes up to 7200 when in use so i think they are almost alike more or less


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## freaksavior (Feb 25, 2010)

You could, but it would be pointless, 

The idea of raid is to have identical drives to write data across multiple drives, then it will read from both at the same time, and having faster access time. The green drive will be variable rpm while the black is a constant 7200rpm. if your die hard set on raid, sell one of them.


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## brandonwh64 (Feb 25, 2010)

this is an interesting subject. hey i f you have the time. use a short install OS and do a HDtune test with them normal and a test with them in raid 0 for kicks


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## vnl7 (Feb 25, 2010)

can someone please help me to figure out why i cant RAID 0 my 3 HDDs? 

Situation:
using 2 equal disks, 
WDC WD800BD
WDC WD800BD

and 

WDC WD800*J*D

I can create RAID 0 array but windows cant see it when im trying to install.

allready checked sata ports compatibility, switched betwen them whitout success. 

thank you


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## brandonwh64 (Feb 25, 2010)

hmmm sounds like that one odd ball drive is messing things up. maybe you can sale all those and order 3 or 4 exact drives


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## DirectorC (Feb 25, 2010)

vnl7:

Does Windows see it when it's just the first two drives in RAID0?

What version of Windows is it?  XP needs RAID drivers for most systems.


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## vnl7 (Feb 25, 2010)

DirectorC said:


> Does Windows see it when it's just the first two drives in RAID0?
> 
> What version of Windows is it?  XP needs RAID drivers for most systems.



Yes, it only works whit 
WDC WD800BD
WDC WD800BD

if a use any type of RAID whit *WDC WD800JD* it does not work.

Strange that i used this RAID 0 setup (WDC WD800BD + WDC WD800JD) on my old nforce 2 and worked.


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## DirectorC (Feb 25, 2010)

That's odd and interesting.  When you're booting up, it does say that the three drives are in a RAID array, correct?  I mean you can verify that they all have for sure been successfully added to an array?  Use something like an Ubuntu LiveCD (or Acronis boot disc) to double check if it can see the array.


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## vnl7 (Feb 25, 2010)

DirectorC said:


> That's odd and interesting.  When you're booting up, it does say that the three drives are in a RAID array, correct?  I mean you can verify that they all have for sure been successfully added to an array?  Use something like an Ubuntu LiveCD to double check if it can see the array.



Array successfully added but no windows or linux cant see it.

One other thing is that i can raid 5 these 3 disks but after the first reboot during the installation i shows RAID ERROR but i cant finish the installation.

I tryied to add a disk on a working RAID 0 in windows, after the process i reboot windows and get RAID ERROR again, and cant boot windows anymore.


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## panchoman (Feb 25, 2010)

watch out. WD implemented some sort of software into their drives that causes green drives to fail in RAID... 

newegg reviews definently indicate that if you do not have a wd raid edition drive, you have a very high chance of failure with a green drive, since they power down periodically to save energy, and cause the raid controllor to drop the drive from the array. 

check this thread: "http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/251076-32-raid-issues-western-digital-hard-disk"

edit:

Nordic pc explains this better: 



> "Also, and very importantly, this drive is not for RAID systems. To keep with the low-power design, Western Digital chose to automatically park the drive heads at times, which some RAID systems will see as a hard drive failure. So you could be in a constant RAID rebuild if the drives are mirrored, or if the drives are in RAID-5 for parity, you could lose all of your data. WD has acknowledged this, and released the RE4-GP 2TB hard drive for users who need big RAID arrays. They are really pricey though, so you may want to stick with a 1TB Caviar Black for your RAID solutions."



(http://www.nordic-pc.com/node/422)


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## DirectorC (Feb 25, 2010)

I like your post man.  Before this I had heard reassurances that Green drives did indeed work fine in RAID0.  It's good to see more sources stating that they definitely don't play well in RAID0.


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