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RAID-0 hard drive setup
Odinthedark1
Member Posts: 330
in Hardware
So basically after buying 2 new hard drives cause my old ones fried, i installed them but the RAID system was no longer intact, now my system only reads one hard drive instead of both and im at half memory capacity...anyone know how to set up the RAID system again or point me to where i can go for help....(Not sure if Geek Squad at best buy would know how)
Comments
Suggestion: replace with SSD.
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Moved to hardware
yea sorry didnt notice the hardware thread, but anyways is there anything an amateur like me can do then to utilize both hard drives? whats SSD not an abbrev ive seen before.
Edit: never mind i see it means Solid State Drive...even so im still confused as to what it is really in terms of how it could help me or what it does, wikipedia throws advanced lingo left and right lol...
TLDR: SSD is WAY faster than any available HDD wishes it could be. They also produce less heat (typically speaking) thanks to no moving parts.
Unless you have a very specific reason you are insistant on a RAID setup and have never experienced the joys of SSD over HDD I highly suggest you take the leap. Dollar for dollar you lose storage space to be sure but the overall performance increase in just about every application you have installed the SDD IMHO FAR exceeds that loss.
Let's look at in terms vehicles, in this case I would compare it to a minivan vs sport car. At the $40k+ range you can get yourself a pretty damn nice mini van with room to haul a lot of people and storage to boot but don't expect too much in the way of overall performance in speed/acceleration/handling. On the other hand you have your typical sports car in the same range that offers the exact opposite. While sparce on seating capacity and storage it more than makes up for it in terms of the aforementioned 3 performance areas.
I realize that last analogy may not mean much to those who haven't experience the difference a SSD can make over a HDD but I fairly certain those that have will agree it makes perfect sense.
There is also the fact that SSD's don't have any moving parts unlike the platters in HDDs. Sudden movement is less an issue and they also happen to generate less heat on average as a result.
Well atm i dont have money to spare, is RAID the only way to get both hard drives for the moment? if so then yea i would insist on a RAID setup cause im running low on memory on my first drive and need the 2nd one operational.
Raid-0 at first may seem a good idea, but the down fall is OS data size chunks and game data size chunks, where one is small in size and other large, and the way the raid 0 array set to deal with one or the other and can't be effective at both at the same tme and actually impacting overall system performance. It's better to go SSD for OS and HDD for games, or no SSD and just invest in a couple good brand HDD's with large cache and put page file on different hdd etc you'll have a much better over all smooth gaming experience performance wise.
Raid 0 not worth 10 seconds faster you gain in loading a game,but overall performance of data is affected based on how you setup you raid 0 array to deal with data chunks. if you set it large OS suffers, if you set it small games suffer. If you have 3 HDD then raid for OS with small data chunks and install games 3rd HDD if you really want to raid and have enough HDD.
It all depens on your RAID Hardware, I would assume it's integrated on your motherboard, check those manuals. Also not all SATA ports are part of RAID so you might need to check if you have connected both HDDs on right ports (again check your RAID HW manual). Usually after BIOS boot the RAID system will boot (if it's activated on BIOS) and you see splash screen with instructions how to access that RAID controller software(usually something like ALT+F2). Keep mind when you make RAID array those HDDs that you want to be part of array will be cleaned, so backup all material. If you have already HDD(that is not part of your RAID array) with system on it, you can usually find RAID software where you can make RAID array more easily than in BIOS style RAID bootloaders.
if it purely a performance increase you are looking for I suggest you look at the following link (funds aside),
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=raid+0+vs+ssd&oq=raid+0+vs+&gs_l=hp.3.2.0l4.0.0.1.399.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0...0.0...1c.thHFBfs2lJw&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=3d04e930a01db91d&biw=1920&bih=955
If space is all you're concerned about then why bother with RAID 0? Just use them as two independant drives. That way the loss of one drive doesn't cause you to lose everything.
Performance wise, RAID 0 looks good on paper but real gains are minimal.
If you're really hell bent on doing it, are you using a software or hardware raid? They both have their pros and cons.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.
-- Herman Melville
Be careful with hardware raid setups unless you know for a fact you can replace the raid controller for the life of the hard drives. They use proprietary formats which will not be compatible with other boards (vendor lock in).
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.
-- Herman Melville