quick hard drive set up question

andybenn

andybenn

andybenn

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4 Apr 2008
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166
Right new system ordered can I do the following?

Going to use 1 f4 Samsung for OS set that 1st to get going,

Then after install can I set another two f4's in raid 0 for games and more used programs.
Note... I will need to set this up after os install cus won't have other drives till later, this is my concern If it can be done, I'm a raid noob

Then I'm going to use a 500 for general stuff music, film etc
And use my last 500 in a USb 3.0 enclosure for transporting stuff about.
Cheers
 
You can do what you want but you'll need to set the motherboard SATA controller into RAID mode before you install the OS on the first F4. That way you won't have any hassles when it comes to creating the array later.
 
Yes you can its very easy, don't bother setting the motherboard RAID up at all. Set up Windows on the 1st drive then connect the other drives and use Windows drive manager to format two as a RAID0 stripe and the last one as a normal drive. Windows software RAID is faster and more reliable than motherboard on-board RAID.
 
ubersonic said:
Windows software RAID is faster and more reliable than motherboard on-board RAID.
Click to expand...
Have you got anything to back that up?

It's also worth noting that the Home Premium versions of Windows don't support Dynamic Disks and hence can't create striped volumes.
 
rpstewart said:
Have you got anything to back that up?

It's also worth noting that the Home Premium versions of Windows don't support Dynamic Disks and hence can't create striped volumes.
Click to expand...

Not offhand but if you search the forum various people have done benchmarks and its faster, it basically comes down to motherboard firmware RAID and Windows software RAID both relying on the CPU to handle things, the difference being with with MB RAID it happens at a level above the O/S but with software RAID Windows is in charge of it and its more efficient.

The reliability factor come from the fact you can pull the drives and plug them into any PC running a version of windows With support for software raid stripes, whereas if your motherboard has on-board Intel raid you cant exactly stick them into any other pc to get the data if your motherboard dies.

Ahh I did not know that Home versions of Windows 7 have software RAID disabled, thought it was a standard feature now (has been around since like windows 2000 server), is it possible to enable it via the registry like you could in Windows XP?
 
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