# Just set up Raid 0, a little help please



## ace80 (Aug 13, 2008)

Just got my Asus P5Q3 Deluxe back up and running and am gonna reinstall XP and also Vista for dual boot. Using Drive xpert on the mobo i've already got 2 40gig drives setup in raid0 then a 250gig drive by itself.
Now what would be the best way to utillize this setup? First time Raid user


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## Deleted member 24505 (Aug 13, 2008)

I would say split the 80gb raid 0 into 2 40's,one for system,one for documents.The 250 is for dump,games and whatever else.


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## alexp999 (Aug 13, 2008)

ace80 said:


> Just got my Asus P5Q3 Deluxe back up and running and am gonna reinstall XP and also Vista for dual boot. Using Drive xpert on the mobo i've already got 2 40gig drives setup in raid0 then a 250gig drive by itself.
> Now what would be the best way to utillize this setup? First time Raid user



you dont want the OS on the Drive Expert Raid Controller. if your gonna do raid, it need to be done via the Intel raid controller.

The Drive Expert has too higher latency and it also says in the mobo's manual (at least it does for me) not to use the Drive Expert for an OS install.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Aug 13, 2008)

Shit yes,can you switch the two drives to the intel controller?


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## btarunr (Aug 13, 2008)

Some bad news: 40 GB + 40 GB + 250 GB = 120 GB by RAID 0. 

Don't make the 250 GB drive part of the array.


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## ace80 (Aug 13, 2008)

Should be able to. Nothing is on the drives yet. So would it be best to ditch raid and put each os on the separate 40gig drives then as you said use the 250gig for a dump?


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## btarunr (Aug 13, 2008)

I for one would use a 40 + 40 GB RAID array, with the 250GB left out, the 80 GB LB would boot Vista while XP sits on the 256GB drive.


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## ace80 (Aug 13, 2008)

Ok, so install vista on the 40GB raid then xp on the 250GB. I'd prob partition up the 250 with xp on 1 partition and documents, games etc on another.
Oh and i guess i won't use drive xpert at all.


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## AsRock (Aug 13, 2008)

btarunr said:


> I for one would use a 40 + 40 GB RAID array, with the 250GB left out, the 80 GB LB would boot Vista while XP sits on the 256GB drive.



Yeah, i just have horrible feeling though. there old drives and when one goes down his save game OS and all  POOF gone as it will only take one HDD to fail.  Running a raid 1 be better at least he be able to recover his stuff if a drive did fail.


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## kenkickr (Aug 13, 2008)

I agree with Asrock on either No Raid or Raid 1 with those 40's.  40Gb's have come and gone sometime ago so age wise I wouldn't set them up in Raid 0.  I'd say do what tigger recommended but I'm not sure what you are doing with XP and Vista.  I would say put XP on one 40 and Vista on the other, then put your games, apps, doc, etc on the 250.


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## btarunr (Aug 13, 2008)

AsRock said:


> Yeah, i just have horrible feeling though. there old drives and when one goes down his save game OS and all  POOF gone as it will only take one HDD to fail.  Running a raid 1 be better at least he be able to recover his stuff if a drive did fail.



RAID 1 is wastage of space 

You'd rather not have RAID at all, use them in IDE mode.  Remember: In RAID 1, 40 GB + 40 GB = 40 GB.


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## AsRock (Aug 14, 2008)

btarunr said:


> RAID 1 is wastage of space
> 
> You'd rather not have RAID at all, use them in IDE mode.  Remember: In RAID 1, 40 GB + 40 GB = 40 GB.



Umm ok..  I guess it's a matter of opinion.


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## AsRock (Aug 14, 2008)

btarunr said:


> RAID 1 is wastage of space
> 
> You'd rather not have RAID at all, use them in IDE mode.  Remember: In RAID 1, 40 GB + 40 GB = 40 GB.



Umm ok..  I guess it's a matter of opinion. i'd rather not have raid ?.. Who told you that ?.


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## btarunr (Aug 14, 2008)

AsRock said:


> Umm ok..  I guess it's a matter of opinion. i'd rather not have raid ?.. Who told you that ?.



Mr. Commonsense told me. In this case RAID 1 won't give him any performance increase, it's just mirroring data for fault tolerance, he loses half his space (that's already low (40 GB)), no need for that.


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## AsRock (Aug 14, 2008)

btarunr said:


> Mr. Commonsense told me. In this case RAID 1 won't give him any performance increase, it's just mirroring data for fault tolerance, he loses half his space (that's already low (40 GB)), no need for that.



Umm he needs over 20GB for each OS ?.  could he not install his apps to his larger drive ?.  I see what you mean and i do agree to some degree but for me the OS drive normally contains more files that i need to be safe than any other drive\partition.  Like save games \ MP saves \ some apps settings that i just drop in saves me loads of time setting up.   But thats just what i would do and not everyone thinks of this data as important enough.


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## btarunr (Aug 14, 2008)

But still, 0% performance gain, 50% loss in storage space. 20GB for an OS? Even with all apps installed on another drive, he'll run out on space pretty soon.


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## AsRock (Aug 14, 2008)

btarunr said:


> But still, 0% performance gain, 50% loss in storage space. 20GB for an OS? Even with all apps installed on another drive, he'll run out on space pretty soon.



With Vista probably pending on what version he's using and if he uses system restore.  Then again there's the compatability folder which people are seeing at large sizes too.


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## alexp999 (Aug 14, 2008)

btarunr said:


> But still, 0% performance gain, 50% loss in storage space. 20GB for an OS? Even with all apps installed on another drive, he'll run out on space pretty soon.



Raid 1 isnt 0 performance gain. You get the same gain as Raid 0 for read speed, but no improvement in write speed. Though like you say, you still end up with only 40gb.


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## TIGR (Aug 19, 2008)

Hey Ace, it depends on the specific models you have.  What brand and models are the 40s and the 250?  My answer will depend a lot on that.

If everything was equal and you wouldn't mind reinstalling your OSs in the event of a drive failure, I'd say RAID the 40s, partition them with Vista at the beginning of the array and then XP after that, installing programs closest to the beginning in order of their priority, and making sure to leave a few gigs free on each partition.

Then, regularly back up anything you don't want to lose to the 250, and use that for file storage.  But again, it depends on the models!


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