RAID 0+1 with three drives?

[AP-123]

Okay now I'm confused...Sorry if this is a double post.

Went to Best Buy to purchase 10,000 drive for System drive. "GeeK" Squad seemed knowledgeable and recomended I use a Raid 0 configuration would be better for price and performance.

that is fine - I bought it. I got two 320 gb drives and intended to do a 50 gig partition for System and Applications, 8 gigs for Swap file and the rest for Data on a windows Vista system. Here is where I lost it.

Then the guy said I can take my 750 gb drive and mirror the 320s in a raid 0+1 configuration. This sounded very interesting but now when i read up on it , Raid 0+1 looks like you need 4 drives. Am I missing something.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated with my now 3 drives.

 

[shata]

Hmmm........

Yeah for Raid 1 you need a Even number of drives thats why 1+0 isnt working for you. Dont quote me though. Wait for someone else to comment on this thread cause im not 100% sure.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

Then the guy said I can take my 750 gb drive and mirror the 320s in a raid 0+1 configuration. This sounded very interesting but now when i read up on it , Raid 0+1 looks like you need 4 drives. Am I missing something.

True RAID 0+1 (or RAID 10, similar but not the same thing) requires a minimum of 4 drives and a hardware controller that supports it.

However, you can get similar function (with some slowdown and CPU usage) by using dynamic disks in Windows Disk Management.

Set up your 2x 320GB drives on the hardware as RAID-0. You'll then set up partitions like you like -- system, pagefile, data. But then make the data partition a dynamic disk (mirror) to the 750GB drive. Now you have a dynamic disk mirror set for the data partition that will read pretty quickly (from the RAID-0 and the 750GB), and write at pretty close to standard speed. The other partitions (system and pagefile) won't be redundant.

 

[AP-123]

Thanks for the insight - I'll have to read up on dynamic disks.

Any reason system and swap file shouldn't be mirrored?

this is new for me - at this point I'm still looking for good recommendations for a speedy system disk and data protection.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

Thanks for the insight - I'll have to read up on dynamic disks.

Any reason system and swap file shouldn't be mirrored?

this is new for me - at this point I'm still looking for good recommendations for a speedy system disk and data protection.

Pagefile shouldn't be on any disk subsystem that slows access to it, because once your system is heavily using the pagefile, it's slow as molasses anyway. Best to have the pagefile on the fastest drive in the system. (Better yet, get more RAM so the pagefile isn't used. 8) )

Windows does not allow you to use dynamic disks as the boot partition, so that precludes using dynamic disks to mirror the system. If you want to mirror the system, you have to use hardware RAID-1. Alternatively, if all you install on the system partition is the OS + applications/games, then a perodic Ghost image works pretty good for backup.

 

[AP-123]

More or less this is the new system yet to be assembled. Still waiting for a few parts.

1 Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 Conroe 2.66GHz LGA 775 Processor
1 ASUS P5B Deluxe Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard
1 Thermaltake W0106RU Complies with ATX 12V 2.2 & EPS 12V version 700W Power Supply
2 CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400C4
2 Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
1 Seagate Barracuda ES ST3750640NS 750GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
1 PNY VCG7900SXPB GeForce 7900GS 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
1 OR 2 DVD/RW+-R DRIVES FROM PREVIOUS COMPUTER
1 ANTEC NINE HUNDRED CASE

So the question remains - how to configure the raid. I've never used one before.

Can a Raid 0+1 be used or am i making things more complicated then they need to be?

Should I swap out the 2 320 drives for a 10,000 system drive?

 

[croc]

I think that you are really looking for a raid '5' setup... But that would be a huge waste of a 750 GB drive....

 

[Guest]

Should I swap out the 2 320 drives for a 10,000 system drive?

Yes.

Grumpy

 

[z0sense]

4 drives are required for RAID 0+1


You take 2 "pairs" of drives, stripe them into a single logical drive(RAID 0), and then mirror the two logical drives you just created (RAID 1)

 

[z0sense]

They may have told you to stripe (RAID 0) your two new 320 GB drives. This would create one large 640GB drive.

Then they may have suggested you mirror your RAID 0 array (640 GB) with the 750GB you have.


This can be bad for a couple of reasons.

1. First off, it really would not be considerd RAID 0+1

2. By mirroring 640 with 750, you will lose 110 GB. The 750 will be reduced down to 640 as to create a "mirror" image

3. There would be no point in stripping (RAID 0) the 320GB drives, as any performance increase would be reduced to the speed of the slowest drive, the 750.

There are a couple of different software solutions that could be implemented, but it would not appear practical in your case.

The Intel chipset allows upto 2 arrays on a single set of drives, but not necessarily in the configuration you inquire about.