new hard drive

Stu_Allcott · 15 Jul 2011 at 01:36

I need to wack a new hard drive into my computer, realized that im on red with both of mine now, i have 2 500gb ones at the moment but im thinking of adding another, i was thinking a 2tb one but i was wandering how many hdd's i can put in raid and what raid mode i will need to put them in?

thanks

Destination · 15 Jul 2011 at 09:25

Do you know what raid is, or what you would be seeking to achieve using it?

Why do you want to raid, reduncancy, or increased speed?

Stu_Allcott · 15 Jul 2011 at 17:05

yeah i know what raid is, and too increase speed, ive just never put more than 2 hdd's in raid before lol.

in raid 0 atm

Surveyor · 15 Jul 2011 at 18:46

Stu_Allcott said:
yeah i know what raid is, and too increase speed, ive just never put more than 2 hdd's in raid before lol.

in raid 0 atm

For RAID 0 you need drives of identical size and performance for best results.

Three 500GB drives in RAID 0 = 1500GB.

Two 500GB drives + a 2TB drive still = 1500GB as only 500Gb of the 2TB drive will be used.

If you want to use more than the two drives you have now you'll need to reinstall everything as you can't migrate from a 2 drive RAID 0 array to a 3 drive RAID 0 array.

I hope you realise that the more drives you have in RAID 0 the greater the chance of losing everything.

If one drive fails everything is gone.

Stu_Allcott · 15 Jul 2011 at 21:28

all of what i have on my pc is backed up on an external hdd and i also have a ghost image incase windows dies on me.

is there any way then that i can keep what i have now in raid and get a 2tb one for storage and just plug it in?

Surveyor · 15 Jul 2011 at 22:01

Stu_Allcott said:
all of what i have on my pc is backed up on an external hdd and i also have a ghost image incase windows dies on me.

is there any way then that i can keep what i have now in raid and get a 2tb one for storage and just plug it in?

Yes, just plug it in and go into disk management to allocate a drive letter and format.

Stu_Allcott · 15 Jul 2011 at 23:05

cool, that seems like a better idea, thanks for the help, and the advice.

Surveyor · 16 Jul 2011 at 00:52

You're welcome.

Destination · 16 Jul 2011 at 08:16

If you are low on space then it might be best to reinstall a fresh install to your nice new big drive, and then shift things across, slow stuff not often accessed, and keep your raid for games etc.
You might find a new drive is actually quicker than a pair of drives that are several years old, depends what model you purchase.