2 x RAID 1's - Is this possible?

rlculver · 23 Nov 2008 at 19:09

Hi,

I have been aasked this question : -

Is it possible to have a RAID one for a windows install (2 hard drives).

Another RAID for 2 larger hard drives. Is this possible or can you only have one RAID enabled on a system?

Also, if you have two or more RAID's setup, is windows vista able to cope with this? or should we be looking at windows 2003 / 2008 server.

The question is related to a server!

Thanks

semi-pro waster · 23 Nov 2008 at 19:53

It will partly depend on the controller but if it is passably decent then you should be able to set up a couple of Raid arrays independent of each other. Windows doesn't give a stuff about Raid arrays, they are done at a lower level so as far as Windows is concerned you've just got the one hard drive (or however many arrays you have) and the hardware controls the writing to it.

You're probably already aware but I'll just emphasise that Raid1 is not a backup solution, it is merely an availability solution so if one hard drive dies you can replace it and rebuild the array. It can't counter user error or accidental deletion of files etc.

rlculver · 23 Nov 2008 at 21:32

Thanks for this info.

So will windows vista allow for 3 different RAID configs?

Thanks

P.S - Would you just have a RAID 5 config, instead of seprate RAID configs for OS & Data?

What advantages does it give you to have different RAID configs.

fobose · 23 Nov 2008 at 22:41

I have a RAID 1 640GB for my OS drive (96GB OS / 500GB data) and a 500GB RAID 1 for more data, they are both on the same ICH9R controller.

gordan · 24 Nov 2008 at 01:48

As it's been said, this depends on the controller you are using. On my ICH9R system I have 2 disks split into 2 RAIDs. First, smaller array is RAID1 for the OS, and the 2nd, larger RAID0 array is for the data (which also gets mirrored in real-time and backed up daily to 2 other machines, so data loss dangers arising from RAID0 aren't a problem). Note - this is 2 arrays, both over 2 disks, which is a weirder setup than most. 2 arrays without sharing disks should be easily possible on just about every RAID controller.

Pandobear · 24 Nov 2008 at 09:22

I would avoid using a Raid 5 configuration as without a decent hardware card they are very slow in writing data. Raid 10 may suit your purpose better, four drives, a two drive striped array, mirrored. Gives you the best of both worlds

gordan · 24 Nov 2008 at 09:36

Actually, ICH9R RAID5 performance isn't too bad. The important thing seems to be to keep the RAID block size sensible (8 KB works very good for me on most modern drives). This also applies to RAID0. Upping the block size to over 16KB will see the performance plummet.