does size matter in raid 0?

[fulgore_123]

If I have 2 hard drives, ( 20 gig and a 5 gig) can I use raid 0. Or do I need both drives equal in size (20 gig and 20 gig).

Since we cannot get what we like, let us like what we can get

 

[Lars_Coleman]

Bad thing about RAID 0 in your case is that your 20gig is only going to show as 4gig and you lose too much space.

Here is a clip from Promise's web site:
"RAID 0 (known as "striping") basically links each drive in the array as one huge drive. Storage capacity is determined by the smallest drive in the array. That capacity is then applied to format all other drives in the array. If using a 4GB, 6GB, 5GB drive in a RAID 0 array, your system will see one huge drive of 12GB (4GB x 3) versus 15GB. RAID 0 offers double or more performance under sustained data transfers when one drive per IDE port is used. In such a configuration, unlike SCSI, IDE drives are always available to the system. SCSI requires more management of the SCSI bus."

Hope that helps you out! *:O)

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[Guest]

What do you mean by "...Unlike SCSI, IDE drives are always available to the system. SCSI requires more mangement of the SCSI bus"

SCSI rips on ATA in a RAID config simply due to the command queing and request resequencing of the drives. ATA sucks compaired to SCSI.

Mike

 

[Lars_Coleman]

You are full of opinions. Like I said this was from the Promise website. If you didn't know any better Promise does IDE RAID, Not SCSI. Anyways, they are talking about IDE being Cheaper then SCSI, not which one is better.

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[fulgore_123]

well, Thanx guy. It's been helpful.

Since we cannot get what we like, let us like what we can get

 

[Guest]

Oh S#$T, sorry it was late and I didn't notice the "From Promise web site" at the top, I have seen that BS before in another post but it didn't register. Neither here nor there though, ATA RAID is a GREAT thing in the home box and for the small business looking for reliable and fairly fast storage on the cheap. As far as the SCSI performance thing it is not my "opinion" but fact that SCSI RAID has much greater performance than ATA based RAID. I have both ATA and SCSI RAID systems and the ATA is fast but the SCSI just smokes!

Again sorry for the mix up.

Mike

 

[smn198]

I think what the website was trying to say is that its easier to setup a IDE RAID then a SCSI. I've not tried SCSI but I can say that ATA100 is a pain with win2k. I'm sure SCSI isn't hard.

Any one know what "...Unlike SCSI, IDE drives are always available to the system. SCSI requires more mangement of the SCSI bus" is supposed to mean anyways?


It ain't falling in the water that kills you; it's staying in there.

 

[Guest]

My only guess os that there is a controler between the drives and the CPU to handle I/O and mayby they want us to think that is a bad thing to unload the processor disk I/O to a dedicated controler. As to SCSI being harder to setup than ATA I have found it no harder and in most cases it was easier since the DMA drivers for most of the chipsets are badly written at the start and have caused me allot of trouble on new machines though they are much better than just a couple of years ago.

Mike

 

[Guest]

The quote in question apparently refers to the RAID levels 2, 3, and 4 (available only in SCSI). In such configurations one (levels 3 or 4) or more (level 2) hard drives is/are used for storing the parity information, and as such not "available to the system."

Leo

 

[Guest]

That clears it up, quoted out of context the info is most misleading.

Thanks again for the info.

Mike

 

[peteb]

except of course that some of theose raid levels (3 and 5 at any rate) are available on IDE as well as SCSI

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[Lars_Coleman]

To tell you the truth, I think that is the last time I will quote anything from the Promise web site! LOL

I was just doing it for the information about RAID. They do have some pretty good information there but I think it causes way to much confusion. There information has always worked for me. I don't use SCSI though .... *:O)

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