SSD raid help

[sadfacebunny]

I have a corsair force gt (the red one) its 60gb and after my os install i have roughly 4-2gbs left and i wanna buy a new ssd to and raid it to my existing one so i have more space. So do i need to buy the exact same one? do the speeds need to be the same? Do they both have to use the same interface (sata III)? PLease let me know also im new to raiding so any tips on raiding ssd's or guides would also be greatly appreciated.

 

[RealBeast]

Best to use matched drives for RAID. Try optimizing your drive to get some space back, like move your paging file to a HDD and turning off system restore, which eats up a lot of space. You might also want to run Ccleaner to clean out caches and temp files in the meantime. Here is a good guide to SSD optimization: http://thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/the-ssd-optimization-guide-2/

Also if within your budget consider another alternative: get a larger SSD and use the current one in another machine/laptop or use it as a second drive on your current machine.

 

[Dereck47]

The performance of a RAID array is based upon the drive with the smallest capacity and the drive with the slowest Read/Write speeds, so it's best to use matched drives for maximum performance.

 

[inzone]

You must have installed more than the OS to have used up so much space already. Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit will only take up about 20gb of space. Having a raid of two SSD's is not the same as just having a single drive with the OS if something happens to one drive you lose the raid.
I would look at what you have for budget money and get as big a SSD as you can aford and then just have the OS on the 60gb one and your games and apps on the new larger SSD. For $300 you could even consider the Western Digital Veloceraptor 600gb sata3 , this is a 10,000 rpm HDD with a lot of space and is very quick for a regular HDD. That's my setup , although my SSD with the OS is a little bigger.

 

[sadfacebunny]

Idk what it did because all I did install was the OS 64bit idk how I got so low? The computer has been running for 2 or 3 weeks and I haven't downloaded much ?

 

[RealBeast]

Idk what it did because all I did install was the OS 64bit idk how I got so low? The computer has been running for 2 or 3 weeks and I haven't downloaded much ?

Sounds like the paging file + system restore points + temp files and caches are using too much space.

 

[sadfacebunny]

what are paging file and how do i delete old restore points that i wont need ?

 

[tomatthe]

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Delete-a-restore-point

Info on deleting restore points.

 

[sadfacebunny]

I deleted the restore points I'm up to 5 gigs free

 

[RealBeast]

I deleted the restore points I'm up to 5 gigs free

Now move the paging file. Start>rt click Computer>Properties>Performance Setting click advanced button > select Advanced tab> click change button for Virtual Memory. Now for the C drive (your OS drive) click No paging file and hit the set button, then for a HDD click on it and make it a custom size, for initial and maximum type in 4000 or 8000 (however much you want) for each, then click set, then OK. You should have to restart then and you will have a lot more space.

Then download and run Ccleaner: http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download

 

[sadfacebunny]

i dont this it opens the right window because all i can see after properties is performance info and tools and it takes me to the windows score thing for my computer

 

[RealBeast]

i dont this it opens the right window because all i can see after properties is performance info and tools and it takes me to the windows score thing for my computer

Akkk -- missed one, after properties in the scoring page, click on advanced system settings, then the settings button next to performance and continue on as above.

 

[sadfacebunny]

it says that it may not save data about errors when they happen ? will having the hdd with the virtual memory change that?

 

[RealBeast]

Yes, it is not used often, so just in case you have it on the HDD.

 

[sadfacebunny]

Alright thank you i have it setup currently so that it uses 5gb instead of the 20 it was using so i may extend it to fully gone later today when i shutdown

 

[sadfacebunny]

Best answer selected by SadFaceBunny.

 

[RealBeast]

Alright thank you i have it setup currently so that it uses 5gb instead of the 20 it was using so i may extend it to fully gone later today when i shutdown

Great! Now you have some working space. Sounds like you have 16Gb of RAM, while you probably will never write to the paging file I keep one of fixed size on a HDD just in case. Last thing to do is grab Ccleaner and clear out those temp/tmp files and caches for another Gb.