General Enquiry about RAID and partitions.

the-void · 9 Dec 2006 at 15:02

I have read the sticky at the top of the forum, and I have not found the answer in my search (although I may not have searched correctly). Its a pretty basic question but never having used RAID before its probable best to ask.

I am buying a new SATA drive. Currently I have two PATA drives. I would like to arrange either a RAID 0 if possible but most likely RAID 1 on my old drives. However I don't think this is possible because one is 120gig and the other is 160gig. They are both from the same manufacturer.

Would it be possible to RAID them if I partition the 160gig to 120gig?

ns400r · 9 Dec 2006 at 16:30

You an still raid them. The 160Gb drive will effectively become a 120Gb when raided, to match the smaller drive.

the-void · 9 Dec 2006 at 19:38

Brill. That's excellent news. I don't mind loosing the 40 gigs, as I am intending to use the PATA drives as the my documents drive storing emails, pictures, home movies, etc. I will feel better knowing I have some redundancy if one of the drives fail. Of course I still perform a regular backup for off site storage.

The 120gig drive only has a 2mb buffer whilst the 160gig has an 8mb buffer. Would this make any difference?

Roll · 9 Dec 2006 at 19:46

the-void said:
The 120gig drive only has a 2mb buffer whilst the 160gig has an 8mb buffer. Would this make any difference?

It won't make any difference so far as the array will work fine, its just that you won't get optimal performance using non-identical drives where one is larger/faster than the other as the controller will have to wait after reading data from the faster drive for the slower one to catch up.

Hope this helps

the-void · 9 Dec 2006 at 20:26

It does indeed. Cheers guys.

beast · 11 Dec 2006 at 14:41

Sorry to hijack, I've just bought two identical drives and would like a RAID 0 setup. I've read the sticky but it doesn't actually tell you how to set this up. Is there a how-to at all on the site?

rpstewart · 11 Dec 2006 at 14:57

The method for creating a RAID array will differ from controller to controller. You're motherboard manual should have instructions on how to do it.

Be aware, however, that you'll lose any existing data on the drives and have to reinstall Windows.

beast · 11 Dec 2006 at 15:34

Alright thanks. I'll have a look at the manual tonight. Both of the drives are brand new and thus contain nothing anyway.