RAID0 With 2 Different Sized Drives. SSD

Cosmin Ciulin · Mar 7, 2016

Storage 1 = 250GB
Storage 2 = 1TB (1024GB) I dunno why google thinks 1TB is 1000GB

I want to do a 2x250GB RAID0 while also getting the rest of storage out of the 1TB.

I am a home user, I am not a server. I don't need redundancy, I really couldn't care much if my game's save files got corrupted due to a fault, not worth the extra money for a RAID10.

So is this possible to have 2 drives into RAID0 and using the rest of the storage from Drive 2 as a different partition?

Thanks in advanced.

theyeti87 · Mar 7, 2016

Why are you trying to stripe a raid configuration with SSD's over SATA?

rgd1101 · Mar 7, 2016

Cosmin Ciulin :

Info: Hi there, before you comment with "do your research" or "it doesn't work" please don't comment at all. Because I know it works, I am on RAID0 with 2 different sized drives and different makes. I had absolutely no problems and no need for redundancy. I believe that I run RAID0 without having need for redundancy for 10 years before any sort of problem failure happens.

SPEC: So I need help because I have a Crucial MX250 ssd (250GB) and a Samsung 850 Pro ssd (1TB).

Problem: If I do RAID0 between these 2, I have no problems but the only thing is that I get 500GB in RAID0 config compared to 1.25TB without RAID0. I do not not redudancy since.. I don't even know what could be so important to lose out on and since its SSD they wont get bad sectors after 3 years of usage.

Quick to the point: I want to a Strip Raid (RAID0) which is possible MAX up to 500GB, which is fine for me. But I still want the extra 750GB that the Samsung has spare. I cannot figure out how to get hold of it. It is spare and waste, it cannot be used. I want the 750GB to be a normal config partition. Is it possible? I tried the Disk Managent but the extra volume is not there.Is there other RAID configs? To have 25% of the drive in a raid and the other 75% of the drive to be in another configuration or RAID?

if you "do your research" you should know you can't use the 750GB.

theyeti87 · Mar 7, 2016

JBOD confusion?

fluffa · Mar 7, 2016

use storage groups in windows to create a storage pool pick your raid level and off you go

ex_bubblehead · Mar 7, 2016

You cannot use that extra capacity as long as that drive is in a striped set (don't call it RAID, it isn't).

Cosmin Ciulin · Mar 7, 2016

rgd1101 :

Cosmin Ciulin :

if you "do your research" you should know you can't use the 750GB.

I did my research and couldn't find a solution..

Cosmin Ciulin · Mar 7, 2016

ex_bubblehead :

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/291891-32-simple-spanned-striped-partition

Striped is RAID0 and Mirrored is RAID1.

I am using RAID0, therefore it is striped. Both mean same thing, expect that RAID0 gives more details.

Cosmin Ciulin · Mar 7, 2016

theyeti87 :

I don't know what that is, but I am getting speeds of 2gb/s going down to 1gb/s and slowing down to 800mb/s when coping a file in Windows 10 Enterprise Edition 64 bits.

Cosmin Ciulin · Mar 7, 2016

theyeti87 :

Is there a problem with RAID configuration of SSD? What has SATA got to do with the RAID? I am using RAID0 with a minimum copy paste file of 800mb/s.

rgd1101 · Mar 7, 2016

Cosmin Ciulin :

rgd1101 :

Cosmin Ciulin :

if you "do your research" you should know you can't use the 750GB.

I did my research and couldn't find a solution..

I donno, maybe because there isn't one.

Cosmin Ciulin · Mar 7, 2016

fluffa :

This seems like the answer but could give more details please? Give a link to a video or to a wiki would be great. Thx for your help.

A raid configuration is made in the BIOS.

ex_bubblehead · Mar 7, 2016

Cosmin Ciulin :

No, they do not mean the same thing.

Striped is just that, the data is spread across (in this case) both drives. Lose one drive, lose the contents of the set.

Mirrored is just as it sounds, the contents of one drive are mirrored to a second, what happens on one happens on the other. However, lose one of the mirrors and you can continue to function on the remaining drive.

RAID 0 != RAID -- There's no Redundancy (The "R" in RAID)
RAID 1 = RAID -- There IS Redundancy (and therefore is properly called RAID)

Either way, you cannot use the extra space as long as the drive is in an array, unless you create a JBOD (also not RAID)

Cosmin Ciulin · Mar 7, 2016

rgd1101 :

Cosmin Ciulin :

rgd1101 :

I did my research and couldn't find a solution..

I donno, maybe because there isn't one.

Why isn't it possible? It seems that you know more.

rgd1101 · Mar 7, 2016

Cosmin Ciulin :

rgd1101 :

Cosmin Ciulin :

I donno, maybe because there isn't one.

Why isn't it possible? It seems that you know more.

Because that how they design how RAID work.

USAFRet · Mar 7, 2016

In addition to the array size constraints, read this all the way through:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485.html

Cosmin Ciulin · Mar 7, 2016

USAFRet :

Hi there, thanks for answering my question. What should I read about it? Or if you could point something out. The article is extremely long. Thanks.

USAFRet · Mar 7, 2016

Cosmin Ciulin :

One SSD Vs. Two In RAID: Which Is Better?

The conclusion, specifically:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485-13.html

tl-dr : Except in certain limited use cases, don't bother.
In some cases, a single larger SSD performs better than 2 x in RAID 0.

Cosmin Ciulin · Mar 7, 2016

USAFRet :

Thanks, that is nice. But what about the insane read and write speeds that I achieve? I get 800mb/s write just from a copy and repaste a dummy 2gb file. From these kind of 200% performance I wouldn't concider a downgrade to 400mb/s to have 5 applications launch 1 second faster. Bare in mind, it's only 1 second faster per 5 programs. what would it be for a single program, 200ms extra?

I don't understand as to why people are so concerned about the poor redundancy or worry so much. You are only a home user with game saves files. That's probably the only thing that is the most important really. Pictures would be backed up onto an external hard drive and music would be in online playlists like Spotify.

Oh yeah, 200% performance is equivalent to say for example equivalent to this scenario: 2 x i-7 4790k. And guess what, the extra processor is for free. Its not hard to reinstall windows for an equivalent of 2x performance. Also how about game loading times? How much faster would it be?

USAFRet · Mar 7, 2016

As it says in that conclusion, moving large blocks of sequential data can benefit greatly. The gotcha is only if you are moving that to another RAID 0 that can accept at that speed.

For instance, SSD RAID 0 copying to an HDD....overall performance (time to finish) doesn't depend on how fast the RAID 0 can read, but how fast the HDD can accept that data and write.

Insane read/write speed is only within that RAID 0, or another RAID 0, or directly to RAM.

I don't understand as to why people are so concerned about the poor redundancy or worry so much. You are only a home user with game saves files.

Some people use their PC as something other than a fancy Playstation.

Game loading is precisely the scenario where it probably not make much of a difference. You are reading dozens/hundreds of small random files. Not a large sequential block.

And then you have the drive size issue laid out in your original post... :heink:

RAID 0 does not add like that.
250GB + 1TB = 500GB RAID0.
Downsides - Loss of drive space. Potential for fail. No real performance benefit.

Upside - A single drive letter for that 500GB.

But...go for it. Let us know if you see any actual performance benefit over those same drives without RAID 0.

Cosmin Ciulin · Mar 7, 2016

Ok anyway, Great for all of the answers. In fact I was only looking to see if it was possible to have RAID0 with 2 different sized drives. Yes you can, but you will get a maximum of the lowest size doubled. So in my case, losing 750gb of SSD is not worth it. I will have 2 partitions I guess, I don't want a JBOD. Don't know how to set it up and not bothered. I was 1 the C: to be the 1TB one, and the D: to be the 250gb as a dump files, like servers, vmware, etc. seems more like it.

USAFRet · Mar 7, 2016

Cosmin Ciulin :

What I would do?
OS and applications on the 250GB.
Games, VM's, etc on the 1TB.

That is pretty much how my system is set up (with a couple other SSD's as well)

Cosmin Ciulin · Mar 7, 2016

USAFRet :

Nice but I would do it the other way around. It is not XP era anymore

so no need to reinstall OS and with the new windows 10 feature, you can just refresh operating system without affecting any files.

RAID0 With 2 Different Sized Drives. SSD

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