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Converting to RAID-0 - use Windows or BIOS to configure it?


idbirch2

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Hi all, I'm after a bit of advice and hope someone here can help. I'm running Vista Ultimate which is installed on a 20GB partition of a 500GB SATA drive. The rest of the drive is consumed by a second partition used to store HD movies. I have just ordered another 500GB SATA drive (same make/model) which I will receive on Friday. I want to merge the the two 500GB drives into dynamic disks to get all my movies on 1 drive. If possible, I'd like to enable RAID-0 and have the O/S benefit from the increase in I/O throughput. There's a few things I'm not sure about:

1) My BIOS has a utility for setting up RAID-0 but warns that all data will be wiped on both drives. Do I have to use the BIOS utility or can Windows' own Disk Management do this for me? I know that I can convert the disks to dynamic using Disk Management but will this simply span the volumes or enable RAID-0?

2) If I use the BIOS utility and wipe everything, can I still partition off 20GB on one of the drives for the O/S or does a new RAID-0 array not allow any partitions to be created?

3) Is there any way I can enable RAID-0 on the two 500GB drives and keep windows installed on the 20GB partition of the original 500GB drive? i.e. no loss of data?

Thanks for any help.

Edited by idbirch2
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1. you have to use the BIOS and it will wipe everything.

2. after that is all done and it is in RAID, you cant treat it just as you had before. so yes, you will be able to parition it, do this in windows set up or a partioning program once in windows.

3. see#1 ..?

and do you really need RAID? it wont give you that much of a performance boost and its not like you really need it. it will only shave a sec off in game loading times.. :/

Edited by ripken204
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The RAID drive would contain the Windows installation and lots of high definition movies ranging from 10-30GB each. The demands on the HDD when straming 40Mbit/s video is quite high I think so I assumed RAID-0 would help with this. Won't the Vista operating system benefit from the RAID too though?

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well if your using it for that then i would so to go ahead and do it. from what ive read RAID is only really usefull when handling large files, and those are really large files. but you are going to lose that data... so find a way to back it up first.

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but you are going to lose that data... so find a way to back it up first.
and as a side note to ripkens last post, hopefully you have all that data (movies etc) backed up. on a striped array w/o parity, you loose one drive, say bye to all that data... :hello:

Not really a side note as Ripken already said exactly that. What's with your avatar and motto anyway? "I stab pedestrians"? That's pretty lame, go see a therapist.

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Not really a side note as Ripken already said exactly that. What's with your avatar and motto anyway? "I stab pedestrians"? That's pretty lame, go see a therapist.

yes, he did. i was enumerating further on his statement. as for your personal opinion, pm'd.

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