4x HD in raid

[Locky]

currently have 2x 250gb WD RE in raid 0

would it be best to use the same drive for having a 4x raid

or can i use other makes of hard drives like the WD AAKS or seagate?

or getting 2 WD RE drives

cheers

 

[rpstewart]

You don't need to use identical drives but it is recommended. If you do go with non matching drives then the controller may have to wait for the slower drives to catch up so there is a performance penalty but with the drives you have and the ones you're looking at it will be small at worst.

I'm not sure about the rest of your setup but you might be able to do an online capacity expansion of the array but this won't expand the partition(s) you already have on it, you'll need to use diskpart or Partition Magic to do that. If your controller doesn't support OCE then it's re-install time I'm afraid.

 

[Locky]

im not botherd about a reinstall anyway cus im using XP at the moment

this is for my vista setup

just want to know if i should stick to the same make drives for the extra 2

or buy 2 different ones like the AAKS series

 

[Mr Jack]

It makes almost no difference in RAID 0. The array will run at the speed and block size of the slower and smaller drives. If you were running RAID 5 there can be a benefit to using drives from different manufacturers as it reduces the risk of simultaneous failure.