New to RAID, wanting to run ISRT

elcid79

Honorable
Dec 27, 2012
10
0
10,510
Hello,

My MB is a GA-Z77X-UD5H version 1.1, it has a mSATA port integrated onto the mainboard.

My HDDs drives are divided as such,

128GB SSD (System Partition.) OCZ Vertex 4

2TB HDD - patritioned for 500GB ~ Less frequented programs, 1.5TB - Data

300 GB HDD - From old PC, as just a backup at the moment.

What I was wondering, I am considering ordering another SSD, a 32GB msata one, this will allow me to set up Intel Smart Response Caching. I will be Caching the 2 TB drive. In order to use this you MUST be in RAID. I am not that familiar with RAID, functionally, but I do understand the theory behind it. I was a computer science major in college. What I am concerned about is two fold. 1, will this even be possible with the mish-mash of drive types and sizes that I have. And 2, will I still be able to partition the drives?

My thought was set up independent "Arrays" for each hdd? Is this even possible? and one last really stupid question. If you set up RAID can you still use external HDDs that are NOT RAID? ie, I have a drive that I bounce between 2 or 3 (Non RAID) computers to store backup data, not mirrors, just documents and such. Thanks!
 

mmaatt747

Distinguished
Sep 26, 2011
563
0
19,060


I'll let other people answer your previous questions, but I can answer this one: Yes you can have a combo of raid and not raid. I have 2 SSD's in RAID and 1 HDD not in RAID.