Rookie RAID 10 ?

It depends on the RAID controller. Some will let you mix drive sizes but only use the space equivalent to the smallest drive - for RAID 1+0 that would be 1.5TB of usable space: (6 x 500GB)/2 = 1.5TB.

your RAID will result in a single 1.5 TB volume if your controller supports this. You are actually better off going with two raid volumes. One RAID 10 with the 4x500GB drives and a RAID 1 with the two 1TB drives. Then you will have 2 TB of space available.

Thank you for your answers. I like the idea of using the two RAIDs though I don't understand how it would work. Would the 1 mirror the 10? Sorry for my ignorance.

No, I dont know your motherboard/chipset so I cannot tell you exactly how to setup your system. You will have two RAID volumes that are independant of each other. You 500 gigs will all be in a RAID 10 volume that is seperate from the other two 1 TB drives in a RAID 1 volume. When you boot windows you will see two different drives, both 1 TB is size.

Okay I understand. Thanks for clarifying. My mobo will not support 10, only 0,1,0+1, so I am going to be looking for a controller card. Then again I may be going about this all wrong. What I ultimately wanted was my 4 500gb drives to be in a 0 configuration with my 2 1tb as a mirror. According to the first response I can do that with a 10 if I am willing to forgo some drive space. Financially I am forced to work with what I have. Other than the drives I mentioned I have a 5th 500gb drive.

I could use the 4 500's in a RAID 0 and then use a backup or cloning program to make a copy on the 1tb drives. I was hoping to do something a little slicker than that though.

what is your motherboard? If you have in intel chipset, then that RAID 0+1 is actually a RAID 10 aka Raid 1+0. I dont know about AMD.

My motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P with an AM3 socket. The manual says it will support RAID 10 but their website does not. I emailed them and asked about it and never got a response. I asked a couple of other guys who have the same board and they don't use RAID so therefore had no answer for me. With all of the errors I have seen in manuals over the years I am thinking the web site is correct and the manual is wrong.

The website also says that it's supported, but they support RAID 0+1: Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 0+1.

I always say, when in doubt, try it out. You will have an option in your RAID "BIOS" to setup a RAID to, if that is indeed supported, of not then you dont have the capability.

As goobaah mentioned, "RAID 10", "RAID 1+0" and "RAID 0+1" are all identical.

RAID 10 (RAID 1+0) is not exactly the same as RAID 01 (RAID 0+1).

While you're technically correct, in terms of functionality, RAID 1+0 and RAID 0+1 are equivalent. There can be some performance considerations depending on the controller/software you're using, but for the purposes of the OP's questions the differences really aren't relevant since his controller doesn't give him a choice.

I will go with the RAID 01 and some sort of automated daily backup. I appreciate all of your comments very much.

I agree and using RAID0 01 is very good, but if the OP had a choice, RAID 10 would be safer, particularly when using several hard disks. The performance difference between RAID 01 and RAID 10 should be minimal.

FWIW here is the answer I received from Gigabyte themselves.


"It can support raid 0, 1 and 10
0+1 is the same as 10"

As explained on Wikipedia:

RAID 1+0 (or 10) is a mirrored data set (RAID 1) which is then striped (RAID 0), hence the "1+0" name.

RAID 0+1 (or 01) is a striped data set (RAID 0) which is then mirrored (RAID 1).

While they are similar, they are not identical.