RAID0 questions

[Guitarman0]

I have got two wd black caviars and am contemplating wether to pu them in RAID 0 or not. I have two backups so that is not an issue but I have a few quick questions.

1. Will I ever see a performance decrease due to time taken to recompile the files

2. I have the gigabyte 790XTA-UD4 and was going to use the onboard RAID controller but should I use the SATA 3 ports with a stripe size of 64k (unfortunatly that is the max for those ports) or 2 standard SATA ports with a stripe size of 128k. This rig is mainly used for gaming and occationally some video editing.

3. I originally built my rig with one drive and have just finished getting the os just how I like it. Would I be able to clone the os I am using and put it straight on the RAID drives so I don't need to set everything up again (as in a full clone).

Thanks

 

[PistolPete]

1. Not sure what you mean by recompiling, I'm guessing you mean a file that is big enough to exist across the stripes. There is a very small amount of time it takes but the fact you are pulling from 2 disks at the same time more than negates this.

2. As the drives are only 3Gb/s SATA then there is no benefit of running the 6Gb/s SATA ports. Use the standard ports as that should be able to set teh stripe size to either 128k or 64k, leaving the faster ports for when you get faster drives.

3. Yes and no. If you built the system without RAID drivers, then if you clone the current system, RAID the drives then try and re-write the image, then the system wont boot as there are no RAID drivers installed.
What I would do is to find 2 any old sata drives, add those to the existing system and setup a raid array on those. Then boot into Windows, at which point it'll ask for the RAID drivers, install them and make sure you can see the array OK. NOW you can image the OS drive as the RAID drivers are in place.

It's not ideal, but does work MOST of the time. You'd be better off starting a fresh.

 

[uv]

1. no
2. standard, 128k
3. As well as the driver issue above, it depends on whether your current OS is installed with AHCI on in bios or not. If you change the AHCI settings (ie enable raid), it's likely your OS will fall over when you try and boot - it's a well documented issue. You may be able to use the boot CD to fix the issue though. In all fairness, it'll be easier to backup any important files and go for a fresh Winstall.

 

[Guitarman0]

1. no
2. standard, 128k
3. As well as the driver issue above, it depends on whether your current OS is installed with AHCI on in bios or not. If you change the AHCI settings (ie enable raid), it's likely your OS will fall over when you try and boot - it's a well documented issue. You may be able to use the boot CD to fix the issue though. In all fairness, it'll be easier to backup any important files and go for a fresh Winstall.

Thanks for the replies. Would it be better to install with AHCI enabled in the bios?

 

[Guitarman0]

Any ideas?