Raid settings

[R600]

Hi, I'm thinking of getting a second HD in which I hope to set up a raid configuration. I just want to ask everyone - what is the best raid setting if I wanted it for performance? I'm a bit confused with the (0, 1, 0+1, JBOD etc) settings for raid.

Oh, I think I'll leave the 'backup' configuration out because I don't really need it.

Any ideas?

[midnight.commander]

Raid Level 0 = PERFORMANCE, you need a minimum of 2 drives

Raid Level 1 = BACKUP (mirroring), you also need a min of 2 drives

Raid Level 0,1 = is a combination of the above, you need 4 drives

There is plenty of other raid-levels, but the one for you would be "Level 0".

One more thing you will have to think about is whether you make a hardware raid or a software raid.

Hardware Raid: Uses a raid controller (some mainboards have one built in e.g. ASUS P4PE or P4C800, or you get a PCI-card). This is the expensive method, but it has a better performance.

Software Raid: You can use Windows' integrated software raid functions. Windows XP Pro supports Raid 0. Other raid levels are only supported on server editions.

It the inexpensive method (no cost, exept a hdd), but it also shows lack of performance in comparison to a hardware based raid.

Raid Info

[midnight.commander]

One more thing:

MY suggestion is to forget about the raid!

I asume you intend to buy a new hdd. So instead of getting expensive raid equiment or risking a no-performance-enhancing software raid think about getting a faster hdd

e.g. Western Digital 360GD Raptor 10,000 rpm 30GB

It is an expensive drive with low storage capacity (36GB) but it will boost performance!!!

[ggtyh]

Another hint:

You should use to identical drives, otherwise, the drives will auto-adjust to match the size of the smallest, so if you have a 20 GB in a stripping array along with a 40 GB, you'll have 40 GB available. The remaining 20 GB of the 40 GB drive will be lost... (if you want to recover to 20 GB, you'll have to use 2 40 GB drives or unmount your array)

[R600]

Can anyone tell me what's the difference between setting 0 and JBOD?

Still unsure about going for raid or as mightnight.commander suggested - the raptor 36GB HD

[midnight.commander]

JBOD = Just a Bunch Of Disks, several drives operating independently.

RAID 0 implements a striped disk array, the data is broken down into blocks and each block is written to a separate disk drive

[Tinker]

RAID comparisons...........

Here is some good information on the topic..........