Connecting an SSD with raid 0 hard drives

[don2xify]

Hi, I recently raided my old and new hard drive and I wanted to make my computer faster so I thought about getting an SSD. But can I still get an SSD and connect it to my already raid 0 hard drives? I mean, will I lose anything? I'm going to use the SSD as boot drive and the raid 0 hard drives as storage.

or maybe I should Raid 1 them and just have them all separate... My SSD for boot drive and my 2 hard drives in raid 1 as storage... idk... I'm confused.. what should I do?

I was thinking of getting the 128gb kingston hyper X SSD... but idk.. what kind of SSD should I get?


I really like playing games but I can't really call myself a gamer since I only have a few games..but I do play a lot.. lol

 

[WyomingKnott]

Let's see.

1) Do not RAID the SSD with HDDs in any way or form. It will kill the performance of the SSD.

2) It is the current "standard" configuration to have an SSD as the boot drive with HDDs for data storage. Most efficient use of the expensive SSD space, except in rare instances. For example, people who do video editing may have a data SSD for their active project.

3) If you are confused about RAID levels, my recommendation is not to use RAID. Each level addresses a particular need, and should only be used to address that need.
Drives in RAID0 are subject to a higher risk of data loss than single drives, and recovery after a failure is well-nigh impossible.
RAID1 makes two copies of everything, so that if one drive dies the system keeps on going. But it is NOT a substitute for backups. There are many events that can wipe out all data in the machine; backups should be kept externally.
Another reason to use RAID is that it is fun to play with. This is why I have done it. All kinds of RAID. But I never used it for my main data.

--------------------

Start by making an external backup of everything that you have on the drives.

My advice is to re-install the OS on the new SSD after reading the various stickied articles at the top of this forum on how to do this. You will have to re-install all your games. Read this first: http://www.computing.net/howtos/show/solid-state-drive-ssd-tweaks-for-windows-7/552.html

Then check that your backup is good and break the RAID0. Reformat the drives as individual drives and restore your backup to them. You may need to split the backup across both drives, as it may be bigger than either one.

Have fun, and good luck.

 

[yoji]

I wanted to do something similar - I wrote up what I did and how I did it here - it may help give you an insight.
Though if your system is all included in one single partition on your Raid0... you wont have the option I had.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/280885-14-install-experience

Anyway - hope it helps in some way.
Cheers

 

[don2xify]

Best answer selected by don2xify.