# Making more then 1 partition in a RAID array a bad idea?



## HTC (Nov 11, 2010)

I have 6 HDDs Samsung 1 TB: 4 in RAID 10 and 2 others.

Yesterday, i made 2 partitions in RAID 0 for the other 2 HDDs but have yet to put anything in them.

I plan to make 2 partitions in RAID 10 the next time i install my OS, instead of the 1 partition i have right now, but first i would like to know if this is a bad idea or not.


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## slyfox2151 (Nov 11, 2010)

nothing wrong with having more then 1 partition...


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## Bundy (Nov 11, 2010)

There shouldnt be any issues that you will find. Are you using on board RAID 10? I once had an array like that and it still failed anyway so I only use RAID 0 plus external back up now. The RAID 10 also struggled with the page file, often slowing the rig to a crawl. I'd recommend installing your OS onto RAID 0 instead


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## HTC (Nov 11, 2010)

slyfox2151 said:


> nothing wrong with having more then 1 partition...



On non-RAIDed drives, yes. On RAIDed ones, dunno, hence asking.



Bundy said:


> There shouldnt be any issues that you will find. *Are you using on board RAID 10?* I once had an array like that and it still failed anyway so I only use RAID 0 plus external back up now. The RAID 10 also struggled with the page file, often slowing the rig to a crawl. I'd recommend installing your OS onto RAID 0 instead



Using this controller: http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/support/raid/sas_raid/SAS-3405/


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## Bundy (Nov 11, 2010)

ok partition as much as you like - it will work.


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## HTC (Nov 11, 2010)

Bundy said:


> ok partition as much as you like - it will work.



I know it does because, as stated in OP, i already did it with the other 2 HDDs.

What i want to know is if it has a higher failure rate or something like that when compared to a RAID with a single partition. Also, how does RAID work, in the case of a failure in *1 of the partitions*, for example?


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## Bundy (Nov 11, 2010)

Ahh I see. I'm not sure sorry but think the RAID would only see all the drive as an array with no partitions whereas the OS would not see the array but see partitions. On that basis partitions would not affect the RAID reliability.


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## kenkickr (Nov 11, 2010)

When it comes to failures the Raid controller doesn't give a crap about the partitions.  If the raid controller is getting error detections from the *hard drive* in Raid 1 then it will notify in some way(beep from the controller board, windows raid software, or Raid Bios prompt) and should note which drive is bad.  I would not think creating multiple partitions on a Raid 1 setup is going to increase failures.


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## HTC (Nov 12, 2010)

kenkickr said:


> When it comes to failures the Raid controller doesn't give a crap about the partitions.  If the raid controller is getting error detections from the *hard drive* in Raid 1 then it will notify in some way(beep from the controller board, windows raid software, or Raid Bios prompt) and should note which drive is bad. * I would not think creating multiple partitions on a Raid 1 setup is going to increase failures.*



Actually, it's a RAID 10.

I can't do RAID 0 until i fix the damn connection of the HDDs: i've had several failures where 1 or 2 drives stopped *being detected* but, luckily, the HDDs that "failed" were on different RAID 1 (RAID 10 is a RAID 0 of two RAID 1 arrays). Simply picking up the case to open it (change VGA card, for example) causes this and i haven't been able to fix this, yet


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## Solaris17 (Nov 12, 2010)

like a normal array, partitioned should not effect performance nor should the failure rate go up. however if it does fail well you know...


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## Tatty_One (Nov 12, 2010)

Apart from organisation, in terms of HDD houskeeping, there is little other point partitioning a drive, it adds nothing to performance (with a couple of exceptions) and in the case of a fast raid array, may actually hinder performance in some circumstances... for example, seek time across partition walls can at times increase.... well thats as I understand it anyways.


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