Need Advice On RAID Setup (2 RAID 0 HDDs + 2 Non RAID)

Janusz

Janusz

Janusz

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27 Oct 2007
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131
Hi Guys,

I'm starting this thread so I can get your advice on setting up my RAID system. I've read through a lot of the posts here and on the Cubase.net forum which address the issue in quite some detail. I do have some questions which I cannot find the answers so I'm turning to the OC.co.uk masters to help me :)

Below is my system setup:

Intel Q6600Quad 2.4 GHz Processor
GIGA GA-P35-DS4 Motherboard Revision 2.0
4 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 HDD
ATI Raedon 512 MB DDR 3 GPU
2 x 1 GB Crucial Ballastic 8500 1022 DDR2 RAM
OCZ 600 W PSU

Ok so I want to know where do I start if I want to achieve the following setup - 2 SATA Drives not in RAID and 2 SATA Drives in Raid 0. My OS and apps will be installed on the non-Raid hard drives and all my music libraries (I'm creating a music production system) will be installed on the stripe 0 hard drives.

So to sumarise:

2 x Hard Drives will be non-RAID (OS and Apps & Data)
2 x Hard Drives will be RAID 1 (Sample/VSTI Libraries)

1. All my hard drives are connected and plugged into the mobo. What do I do next? How do I achieve the setup I want from BIOS? I have no OS installed so I need to know from the beginning

2. I also will be creating a multi boot system and am looking to partition the main hard drive. Windows XP will be my main O/S on one partition and Vista 32 on the second partition

3. Besides the motherboard driver what other drivers do I need for a RAID setup and are these installed both in BIOS and when installing Windows (via F6 command)
 
god where to start. Bit of a complicated setup if you ask me. anyway

1) you plug all 4 drives into the mobo. To create a raid array, you enter your motherboards RAID tool. This usually appears just after the bios. In there you can create the array, and specify who many disks, what array etc.. So specify 2 for a RAID 1 array and leave the other 2 alone. You dont touch bios usually, apart from to enable the RAID controller, and to enable the programme for (not always necessary, depends on the board)

2) you need to partition one of the 2 un RAIDed hard drives. Then have C: D: (disk 1) E: disk 2 and F: (disk 3/4 in RAID 1)

3) you need to the raid controller driver for windows to recognise the RAID array, the others should be recognized without issues.
 
Thanks MrLOL for the starting point, it makes sense :)

The setup looks complicated but I do have good reasons. I could have just left all the drives in a non RAID setup but I'm looking for disk performance to stream sample intensive material from my hard drives and the RAID-0 combination helps me to achieve my goals.

The un-RAIDed hard drives combi is where I'm going to store my OS and Data as this a safer thing to doas apposed to having these on a RAID system.

Thanks for info
 
Why not have a reduncy on your OS and data by creating a RAID 1 array with 2 disks, then have RAID 0 (for performance) on the other 2 disks?

If one of your hard drive fails on the RAID 1, your computer will simple carry on as normal and alert you that one of your drives has broken, and should be replaced.
 
That is a framework which I did consider. I think the only thing which drew me away from that setup was the performance overhead in the mirrored arrangement not to mention the loss of a significant percentage of my HDD space.

Am I correct in my interpretation?
 
Your right, you do lose a bit of write speed, however read speed is increased which I think is more important. You may have loss of hard drive space, but what if that hard drive failed? You would be hard drive space short, plus a lot of your data ;)
 
I personally like the fact that I dont have to worry about reinstalling windows and setting up my PC if my hard drive did fail. Yes you could just ghost an image of your drive every week or day but thats to much hassle for me.
 
Ok so I'm setting up my RAID in the BIOS RAID Controller Menu.

I'm configuring the Strip Array and it is asking me to set the 'Stripe size' from the values 4kb to 128kb

I have no idea what this relates to. can anyone advise me? I'm seting this system for Audio Music Production if that helps in any way. What would the optimal setting be?

EDITED: I have just read in the Cubase.net forums that for optimal audio settings the Stripe Size should be set to 32kb. Check out the link below and let me know your thoughts as the information contained is a bit old and might not be relevant with the current advances in technology

http://www.cubase.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=11774&highlight=stripe+size
 
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Hi 8igdave - I decided to use my original setup of 2 HDD paired with another 2 HDD in RAID-0. The entire setup will be backed up with an external eSata storage device :)

I just need to know what advice people can give me on the "Stripe Size" for Audio production. 32kb seems to be favorable. does anyone know what the drawbacks would be for selecting larger Stripe Sizes such as 128kb?

Edited: After some further research I have decided 128kb would be optimal...I could be wrong but hey lets see.
 
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