SSD+HDD's , Need Help!

[Oliumen]

Hello, I have currently purchased an SSD and a few HDD's for my PC. The question I need answered is how should I set this up?

SSD = Boot Drive
HDD's = Raid 0 = Storage

I have 2 HDD's that are 7,200 Rpm and they hold 1 TB each. I have them in Raid 0 but I don't know how I should set the allocation size or if I should enable folder and file compression.

What should I do? How much should I setup the allocation size? How should I setup the type, NTFS , FAT , FAT32?

I'm using 64 bit.

 

[tecmo34]

I would set your system up like this... IMO

SSD = Boot Drive
1TB = Programs / USER Folders
1TB = Games

I won't worry about setting up a RAID0 than go allocation size to specific needs (programs, games, etc.). It isn't worry it IMO. Just setup the 1TB drives as their own drive and use the full drive for whatever need. To set the type, you set it up during formatting of the drive, which I recommend setting it up as NTFS.

 

[Oliumen]

What is the difference in allocation size? I just have them in RAID 0 so that I could combine them for storage for everything I have, games, files , you name it.

 

[tecmo34]

I guess it depends on what you mean allocation size. Partition Size or Allocation Unit Size?
■If you are talking about setting up the 2TB RAID0 to a single partition size, say 1.75 TB (example only), I'm okay with that...
■If you are talking about setting up the 2TB RAID0 into different partition sizes (3 partitions of 750GB for example only), I wouldn't recommend that...
■If you are talking about Allocation Unit Size, I would set it at the biggest setting (I believe 4096Kb??). This will provide the fastest speeds, in that sense.

 

[Oliumen]

It says I can set it more then 4096kb should I? I just have them in RAID 0 because I'm going to use them both for storage and I heard if you RAID 0 them they work faster. Am I right?

 

[tecmo34]

I would leave it at 4096kb, as that is truly the default setting through Windows. Yes, RAID0 is faster but there is that higher risk of data lost. If one hard drive goes down, you will loss all of your data on your hard drive. I recommend with a RAID0 to make sure all important files are backed up regularly.

 

[Oliumen]

I have had RAID 0 computers forever, never have I lost the data that was on the arrays.

 

[Oliumen]

If I made the allocation size larger than 4096kb what would happen?

 

[tecmo34]

Larger allocation sizes would cause your hard drive run faster but fill up quicker, in sense, decrease the capacity.

Example, say you set it to 10,000kb... When you save a 4kb file, it takes the whole 10,000kb cluster, so you are losing 9,996kb of space, in theory. But on the flip side, if you save a 20,000kb file, it is only using 2 clusters and your speed increases versus having to search through 5 clusters.

 

[Hawkeye22]

What is the difference in allocation size? I just have them in RAID 0 so that I could combine them for storage for everything I have, games, files , you name it.

If one drive fails, you'll lose 2 gigs of data. I'd leave them as single drives. Also, why do you need that kind of performance from a storage drive? The RAID would be better used for the pagefile and applications. Even then you've got an SSD that is way faster than a mechanical drive or a two drive RAID 0 setup.

 

[Hawkeye22]

I have had RAID 0 computers forever, never have I lost the data that was on the arrays.

Yet, "How do I recover files from a failed raid" seems to be a fairly asked question on these forums.

 

[Oliumen]

If one drive fails, you'll lose 2 gigs of data. I'd leave them as single drives. Also, why do you need that kind of performance from a storage drive? The RAID would be better used for the pagefile and applications. Even then you've got an SSD that is way faster than a mechanical drive or a two drive RAID 0 setup.

Whoa Whoa Whoa... Calm down guy... I RAID 0'ed them because I have never had a problem losing data with RAID array's and I didn't want to see 2 seperate drives. I just wanted to see them both as a single drive but I am willing to listen to you two will do what you guys said and just drop the raid and use indivdual drives. Thanks.