Advice on Raid and partioning for new Install please

shortone · 30 Aug 2007 at 20:00

Hi All,

After 3 years i have finally decided for a PC upgrade my new Q6600 and Abit IP35 pro, 2gb Ballistix has arrived.

Would you guys mind helping me work out the best partition and sata setup for a dual boot of XP32 and Vista64 please.

I have 2 X 74gig Raptors and one 300gb Sata Seagate

I will be using Vista for gaming and hopefully the majority of other apps, I will be using XP for video editing as my software is not Vista compatible

My intention was to go Raid 0 for the raptor and partition it into 4
1:Vista System 40gb, XP System 10gb, 3:Games 40, 4:Movie Editing 50

Then the seagate into 5

1:My Documents 50gb, 2:Music 60gb, 3

ownloads 40gb, 4:Movies 50gb, 5:backup 100gb

Does this make sense ?

What is the best stripe size for the raid 0 ?

Anything else I should think about ?

Thanks

Shorty

jbloggs · 30 Aug 2007 at 22:02

Shorty:

I would make the partition for XP, 15GB, Vista 30GB, and the remainder of the RAID volume leave as it is, and just install your games in 1 folder, which really is a kind of partition in itself (ie a container to store data), and use the rest of that partition for your Movie editing installing the programs either in XP or Vista.

For a dual boot, you need to install XP 1st, then Vista.

I would not bother partitioning the Seagate, but just make individual folders for your purposes.

I suggest a RAID0 stripe size of 32KB

shortone · 30 Aug 2007 at 22:41

Jbloggs,

Thanks for the reply

shortone · 31 Aug 2007 at 19:34

One thing I meant to question about not partitioning is this.

I am going to be capturing a lot of avi from camera which is usually over 10gig and then overtime deleting. Is it not better to have partitions to reduce fragmentation ?

jbloggs · 31 Aug 2007 at 21:07

Is it not better to have partitions to reduce fragmentation ?

The larger the file, the less prone it is to fragmentation, so I don't think there is going to be a problem with fragmentation with a 10GB file, especially with using NTFS (as I presume you are).

FunkyCowie · 2 Sep 2007 at 21:35

Video editing requires fast drives... so I would RAID 0 the raptors and use the seagate partitioned thusly

C:VISTABOOT = 15-20 (don't use it so not too sure)
D:XPBOOT = 10
E:GAMES = depends how many you got
F

ROJECT = 40 (For all small project files and reference footage)
G: STORAGE = Whatevers left
H: RAIDARRAY = the two raptors

mine is set up as this http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17674305&highlight=username_FunkyCowie

Scoobie Dave · 4 Sep 2007 at 13:20

Is the Abit IP35 pro's onboard Raid any good?

rpstewart · 4 Sep 2007 at 13:23

Scoobie Dave said:
Is the Abit IP35 pro's onboard Raid any good?

The internal ports are connected to the Intel ICH9R controller, it's as good an onboard controller as you'll get.

Scoobie Dave · 4 Sep 2007 at 14:19

rpstewart said:
The internal ports are connected to the Intel ICH9R controller, it's as good an onboard controller as you'll get.

I have never tried raid before, I fancy having a go at this if my internal controller is ok. Might try and see if I can pick up another 150GB raptor cheap enough and Raid 0 them together.