Can I change the stripe size without loosing data?

Mint_Sauce

Mint_Sauce

Mint_Sauce

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I've been reading about onboard controllers in an attempt to save some cash over buying a dedicated hardware raid card. So far, i've found that you can get huge increases in performance with onboard just by changing the strip size to 32kb (for a 5 drive array). Apparently due to the onboard controller being "dumb".

Anyway, I'd like to give it a go before splashing out any money on a dedicated card and was hoping there's a way of changing the stripe size on the fly without loosing all my data. I can't copy the data off as there's over a TB of work photos on here!

Can something like partition magic do this stuff without data loss?

EDIT: Have been reading up on it and seems you can't change the stripe size without starting over. :( So, my new plan is to buy 2x1tb drives and use them in my NAS which currently has 1x 500gb hdd in. Then I can not only back up all my data (which I need to do anyway) but would also allow me to try a new stripe size/experiement then if that fails lump the cost of a proper raid card.

Can anyone recommend some good 1TB or 750gb drives that are reliable? :)
 
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All my files are in .dng and .cr2 format.

My current set up is 5x500gb in Raid 5 and in my NAS I just have the one 500gb although this is half full of rips I did from family VHS. :(

Not sure what to do, SiSoft Sandra confirmed my fears and puts my raid write speed at around 32Mb/s :(

Code: 
Benchmark Results
Drive Index : 132 MB/s
Results Interpretation : Higher index values are better.
Random Access Time : 14 ms
Results Interpretation : Lower index values are better.

Windows Experience Index
Current Drive : 5.9
Results Interpretation : Higher index values are better.

Performance Test Status
Run ID : 28 March 2008 at 01:16:33
Platform Compliance : Win64 x64
System Timer : 3.6MHz
Operating System Disk Cache Used : No
Use Overlapped I/O : Yes
I/O Queue Depth : 4 request(s)
Test File Size : 8GB
File Fragments : 7
Block Size : 1MB

Detailed Benchmark Results
Buffered Read : 2436 MB/s
Sequential Read : 228 MB/s
Random Read : 54 MB/s
Buffered Write : 3048 MB/s
Sequential Write : 32 MB/s
Random Write : 18 MB/s
Random Access Time : 14 ms

Drive
Drive Type : Hard Disk
Total Size : 1863GB
Free Space : 880GB, 47%
Cluster Size : 4kB

Physical Disk
Manufacturer : Intel   
Model : Raid 5 Volume
Version : 1.0.
Serial Number : henarray
ANSI SCSI Approved Version : SCSI-4
Rotational Speed : 28524rpm (estimated)
Removable Drive : No
Queueing On : No

Performance Tips
Notice 5008 : To change benchmarks, click Options.
Notice 5004 : Synthetic benchmark. May not tally with 'real-life' performance.
Notice 5006 : Only compare the results with ones obtained using the same version!
Notice 5209 : Consider using the Removable Storage/Flash Benchmark for Flash devices.
Tip 5202 : Use cache on to measure Windows performance.
Warning 5205 : Low write index. Check write verify is off.
Tip 2 : Double-click tip or press Enter while a tip is selected for more information about the tip.
 
I've been eyeing up the Highpoint Rocketraid 3520 which can be had for £286 which is 8 port and looks pretty good.

With the onboard stripe size thing I was talking about, some guy did a lot of tests and noticed his write speeds jumped to ~220MB/s. He nailed it down to getting the right stripe size and also a few other things so that data coming in wasn't converted more than it had to be or something. :D I think it was to do with the different stages and having a certain size meant the onboard controller didn't have to think about certain things meaning it would be faster. I can't find the link now, typical..

I'm seriously just considering getting a 750gb drive for my NAS box and then also spending out on a proper Raid card just to get it sorted. Which 8 port Raid5 card would be a good bet, I've checked out the rocketraids which look great but mixed feedback around the internet on their reliability.

The Dell Perc 5i cards, I would need an 8 port jobby, I don't want to buy the wrong thing on eBay, which one would I need to buy to support my drives?

Thanks for all the help, I'd be up **** creek without it.
 
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Found an 8 port Perc card from Germany, looks ideal as far as I can tell.

DELL PERC 5/i 256MB @ 8-Port SAS/SATA zu PCI-E RAID

Found on a popular auction site (can I link to it?)

I think this is exactly what I'm after. Can anyone confirm so I can get it ordered? :)
 
Great, bought it! It was the Raid 5 version and also purchased the backup battery which wasnt much more. Can't be bad for £146 delivered. Thanks loads for all the advice and info, you all saved me a packet! :)

EDIT: Oops, need some of those cables from the Perc to my SATA II drives, where can I get them from?
 
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Just bought two of these cables.

SAS/SATA Internal Cable 50cm Multilane to 4x SAS FanOut (SFF8484 to 4x SFF8482)

Hope I got it right!
 
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Cheers smids, now to wait until it all arrives. When it does arrive, is there anything special I need to do as it's not an off the shelf solution.
 
I have an Abit IP35-Pro so should be ok?

The guys I bought the cables from contacted me and said they didn't have two of those cables and recommended these instead:

Multilane HOST to 4x SATA DEVICE FanOut (SFF8484 to 4x SATA)

So, when it arrives just plug it in, plug the hard drives in and the motherboard and PERC will get on with booting in to Vista without fodisking my drives or anything? :D
 
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1 drive raid array! I suppose you could errr.... partition the drive in to 30 disks then raid them :D :P (jk!)

Should be interesting when it all arrives, I can see a nervous few hours ahead..
 
Ok, I got my Perc 5/i but it didn't work in my motherboard. After some investigation it seems only one person online out of the many has it working but he has disappeared. Anyway, after some looking about I came across a page which showed covering pin 5 and 6 on the Perc card will allow it to work in P35 mobos and also some X38 ones.

http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?t=90200

I've done that and it's now booting but the card hasn't been picked up in Windows. Do I need to enable the second PCI-e slot in the BIOS or something?
 
Can't install the drivers as the card isn't picked up at all. It also doesn't show anything in the bios boot sequence before booting Windows, that's why I was wondering if the second PCI-E is disabled.

EDIT: Are any led lights on the card as the one I have has nothing on it to indicate it's on and functioning. I thought I noticed one or two of the tiny leds on the board when installing.
 
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Well, I've found what the problem is...

Inspecting the card closely I've found that a few of the tiny resistors are hanging off the card hanging on only by the tiny threads of the circuit. It's a refurb job for sure but obviously a very bad one. Bit annoyed as this could have shorted or damaged my mobo.

Back to the seller I go, hopefully he won't try and palm me off... :(

http://www.henleyb.com/webstuff/perc_pcb.jpg
 
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Is that typical damage for someone removing the card from a blade or similar? Just want to know incase he comes back saying the card wasn't like it to begin with. I'm a bit suspect as it was listed as a buy it now with another 5-10 units available. The listing guaranteed the unit worked and had been tested which is why I'm not convinced he's going to admit liability.
 
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I guess so, still it sucks that I waited over a week for it to arrive and now no doubt it's going to be at least anohter week of working slow. I'm tempted to buy another from someone else off the bay so I can get up and running and see how this one pans out. Problem is if he offers to swap it for another I end up with two cards.

EDIT: Thought sod this and bought one from Rome. I guess I can sell the second one if it comes to it.
 
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The seller apologised and is sending another which is a great relief. Looks like I'll end up with two now. Hopefully be able to sell pretty near the price I paid.
 
New Perc card turned up this morning \o/

Can I simply migrate over to the new card from my onboard software Raid 5? If I plug all my hard drives in to the card and configure it to RAID 5 will it pick up and see all my data and carry on like normal?

I want to make sure it's not going to see 5 hard drives and think it can wipe them, starting a new Raid 5. :o
 
Just as well I checked :eek:

Card has just been installed, worked with the tape trick over pins 5 and 6. Now to flash it to LSI and re-instal Vista then move all my data back over..
 
What's the best firmware to flash to on the Perc 5/i and how do I go about it? I looked on the LSI website and downloaded the 8408E stuff.

EDIT: Figured it out now. :D
 
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Perc card arrived and trying to get it running properly. I've noticed my drivers for Disk Drives on the Perc are pretty old, are there newer ones? I can't find anything myself.

I flashed the card to an LSI 8408E card and then updated the drivers to LSI ones from Feb of this year. I can't think what else might be giving me slow read and write speeds?

Here's some pictures:

perc3.jpg


perc4.jpg


This picture shows the Microsoft drivers for the Disk Drives bit.
If you look below at the Storage controllers part on this picture (past the Disk Drives bit circled in red) you can see the LSI Logic 8048E instance, that is running LSI drivers from Feb this year.
perc_driver.jpg


Can anyone tell what might be up?
 
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