I want a RAID 0 Array w/2 750gb hdd for hd video editing

[Illuminate88]

I found this software on the Intel website, but when I try to install it an error message appears that says my system does not meet the minimum requirements for the software.

Is this the software I need or is there another way I can do this?

Also, when I perform the configuration I will need to select a cluster size. What would the recommended cluster size be for HD (720p) video editing with Large files?

Thanks for the help

Just to be clear, I want this raid array to work along side my single system drive that I have the OS running and stored on along with all my other programs and crap. The raid 0 array is just meant to save and store my large HD files while I capture and edit them.

 

[photonboy]

Since you don't say what your hardware is then I don't know if this is the proper software.

I'm not sure exactly how you are transferring the HD video files to the hard drive. Are you sure that you even need the extra bandwidth?

You need to post more information on your hardware:
1) motherboard (so I can find out what RAID controller you have; if you know post it instead)

2) method of capture and transfer (i.e. Sony Handycam model#xxxx via USB2)

I'd be surprised if you had any need for RAID but I'll help if I can. Keep in mind that RAID0 is slightly less reliable than two single drives. Personally, I'd go use the second drive as backup with RAID1 (mirror) or use the free version of Syncback to automatically copy from one hard drive to another.

 

[Illuminate88]

MSI X58M

WD7501AALS 750GB

Blackmagic Design Intensity Pro

That's the hardware I've installed into the chassis, I don't have any of it "working" though.

 

[goobaah]

I could be wrong, but I dont understand the necessity for a RAID 0 for video editing. The current drives stream over an average of 100 MB/s while HD video is 35 Mb/s max. That is megabits (3.5MB/s). Maybe you could use one drive for the source and one for the destination so that you dont have a speed reduction with seeking? Along the same lines as photonboy, I would go with a setup that protects your work. Backups, etc.

 

[Illuminate88]

Videoguys NLE Video Storage FAQ

Does this explain my reasoning for wanting a RAID 0 setup?

 

[goobaah]

No not really. They have nothing to back up their claims at all. RAID 0 is 100% efficient when it comes to space usages. That is good. What they seem to be selling is the idea that you need to buy more hardware. During video CAPTURE your hard disks need to be able to write at a speed meeting or exceeding that video data stream. If other programs use the same disk you are saving too, then you have and increased change of missed writes to the drive. That is why they suggest having a seperate set of disks for capture. Not a bad idea. Are you working with 720p in compressed form as you capture? or uncompressed? If you are capturing compressed then it is safe to say you do not need a raid 0. Then numbers they state on their site fortheir 720p uncompressed are probably not motion, jpeg or something manageable. Its probably raw. For this the RAID 0 is necessary with the drives you selected. Why dont you just try things with a single and go from there?

 

[Illuminate88]

All of this talk of whether I need to run a Raid 0 is inconsequential because I already bought the hdd and connected them to everything in my chassis; I already bought the capture card and installed it; I'm not losing any "space" from my HDD when they're set up in this fashion; I'm just one step away from being able to capture HD video and Lots of it and that is the configuration of these two new hdds in a raid 0 array.

Honestly, I don't know what type of video I'm going to be working with, whether it's going to be compressed or uncompressed is just going to have to wait until I know more about what I'm doing.

BTW, if you're curious I've never edited a video in my life but it's something I've thought long and hard about, such that I'm willing to spend the $400 dollars on the equipment to find out if it's something I want to work with.

So please if you know of a certain key-push I need to do during start-up to enter a raid configuration window or a particular software please tell me. I can't find any exact information on how to configure raid with my motherboard on any webpage or in any of my documentation.

 

[vvhocare5]

Hi Illuminate

I use an Intel X58 motherboard so the key strokes will be similar - but different.

First go into your BIOS and on the last screen (or so) you need to select an option that displays boot messages. Im guessing you are currently set to quiet mode which does not display the keystroke messages.

You also want to go into the Drives menu area and make sure you select RAID over IDE or AHCI. If no RAID select AHCI. Make sure your drives are recognized here. In the BIOS are also selections to enable/disable other RAID controllers - make sure you know which one you are connected to.

On the Intel X58 board - we press CRTL-I during boot to access the RAID menu - should be similar for the MSI. For video editing most people use 128k stripe sizes. Since you indicate thats the only reason for this drive, thats good. The BIOS will show you available drives and options, you select RAID0 and it will build the drive at that point.

While I store and edit videos on my RAID0 array without a single loss, there are people who have lost their RAID0 arrays. Be sure to make backups of anything you cannot afford to lose. I will never go back to anything less that RAID0 - it rips.

The reality is you have a lot more bandwidth than you will need for playback or capture - but re-encoding or editting will fly. People who have not tried it do not know what they are missing....

good luck

 

[goobaah]

Set you controller in your BIOS to RAID. Save. after reboot, hit control-I to get into your raid configuration. It is step by step and easy from this point. Stripe size does not matter too much, but select the largest since you are dealing with really large files. Now, if you already have windows installed, and you have to changed your controller settings from IDE/AHCI to RAID, you will have problems booting. There is a sticky on how to handles this in the storage forum.
On another note, people here are trying to understand your problem and help you. If that help involves talking you out of a system configuration that is not necessary and a better approach, then you will get that opinion. Lots of people use RAID 0 for reasons that are completely worthless. From our persective, you are wanting to invest time in capturing and editing video and this time has value to you. This work, whether it is just a few hours, or several days, can be potentially lost if you have a disk failure with RAID 0. In fact, I have a RAID 5 with 6 disks, and I had one of them show a failure after a reboot this weekend. I marked it ok and the array rebuilt in a couple days. I lost nothing, and I could work with my data. Not at crazy fast speed, but HD tach showed I could still read at over 70MB/s during the rebuild. Not bad at all considing I am using intel's PCH which is free. You run into these same problems with RAID 0, but they are often unrecoverable and you lose work, which means your time. Sometimes you might lose something that you just cannot get back. Just consider something in addition to that RAID 0 for permanent storage. That is the biggest thing. Good luck with the video editing, I've dabbled in it, but never really liked it. All I wanted to use it for was to take my parents old VHS's of the family and put in on DVD. That way they can throw away the VCR's and VHS's. Nowhere near what you are getting into. I started that with a 5 year old 120 GIG hard drive. Never had a problem.

Good luck.

....

I must have not hit refresh before writing this. haha. Read above too.

 

[Illuminate88]

Thank's for the replies. I've been busy lately and I haven't had much time to put into this project of mine.

But this sunday I was able to set up the 2 hard drives for raid through the raid controller (ctrl+I).

Even though the hard drives are set up for Raid 0 windows 7 isn't detecting any additional storage and I don't see another hard drive under My Computer.

Edit: I take what I said back. I found the Raid listed under disk drives in device manager

Edit #2: Though the raid is listed in device manager I can't do anything with it. Do the drives need to be formatted before the raid is set up? Can I format the drives from the motherboard raid controller?

Edit #3: I did some searching, found what I needed, and now the raid is currently formatting in windows.

 

[RetiredChief]

I'm a day late and a Dollar short

A little late reading your post, But as already mentioned, strip size should be => 128K, I would use 256K. More importaint is cluster size. The default is 8 K which is good for the operating system plus programs as over 50% of the files are =< than 8K. For large files (is dot VOB can be 1 gig) it is not the best. When you write a large file each clustter contains a pointer to the next cluster that is to be read. I used 32K, or 64 K (at work so not sure) cluster size for my disk containing Pitures and video. The size of the file allocation table is also reduced by using the larger cluster size.

 

[Illuminate88]

Best answer selected by Illuminate88.