HD Performence ?

[utcomputerboy]

Does anyone know which would give be a better setup:
2 ATA100 HD, Duel boot debian and win2k.

1. Setup a software raid 0 for the swap space across to drives. While the OS's are installed on one only.

2. Put the swap space on the second drive only. OS's on other drive.

In both cases each drive is master on its own channel.

 

[camieabz]

When you setup a RAID 0 array, you create one logical drive. Unless you partition it into smaller logical drives you have to have the OS ( and everything else) on both.

You can put the swap file on another partition, but I advise against it, as it can cause problems if you decide to rejig everything at a later date. The swap tends to want to stay on the original partition.

The best place apart from C: is at the beginning of the most used partition of the least used drive, or on the primary of another physical drive away from the OS drive(s).

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[lhgpoobaa]

and you realise with raid 0 if you loose one drive both installs will be destroyed.

swap files are best placed at the start of any media. i just have a small (5gb) system directory with a fixed swapfile.

besides, ideally you really shouldnt be using the swapfile. You should get enough ram so that all your applications dont need to dip into the slow swapfile. (and thus run faster)

512Mb of system ram is usually sufficient for most heavy applications... 1Gb if your an extreme user.


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[utcomputerboy]

I have 512mb, have used a 1g before (with swap). I was thinking of 1-2gb of ram. The reason for the question was that I've seen where there will be lots of ram left and Windows will use some of the swap for no reason! I new about the total data loss of RAID 0. Thinking now either RAID 1 or nothing. Thanks.

 

[Scotty35]

Some programs like to know one is there and won't run properly without a large enough swap file present.

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[utcomputerboy]

My swap is 1.5 gb, ram 512 mb. Running Photoshop, several IE's and some other stuff with 200+ mb ram left it shouldn't use the swap, right?

 

[Scotty35]

Photoshop likes the swap file to be there, sounds like you have set about right anyway.

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[ejsmith2]

"My swap is 1.5 gb"

Recktum?

Damn near killed 'em!

C@lling it like I c it...

 

[r2k]

From what I've learned on my Red Hat 7.2, a Linux swap file resides on a dedicated SWAP partition that's NOT accessible by Windows. So you can't mix and match swap partitions because Windows uses an ordinary file on an ordinary partition (FAT32, NTFS, whatever) and Linux wants a dedicated (with the size of ~2x your RAM) raw partition called SWAP.

Am I wrong with any of this?

 

[lhgpoobaa]

well there IS raid 0+1 (also called raid 10)
combines the best of 0 and 1, 2 striped drives and 2 identical backup striped drives, but needs 4 drives to use.

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[Scotty35]

1 Drive is redundant with raid 10?

Anyway I have a partition just for a swap file at 1.5Gb, its big but I am makin sure and it is easy enough to set if you have the space.



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[utcomputerboy]

You are correct on the swap partition. I have one for Windows 2k and another for Debian Woody 3.0. Both are 1.5 GB and run on my laptop. This was for a system I was thinking of building, maybe the Shuttle 51? Curious as I hadn’t tried it and didn't want to (data risk) if someone already had.

 

[utcomputerboy]

RAID 10 has two disks that are done in a raid 0 then the other two mirror them in raid 1. So you have a fast raid 0 and a second one to back it up incase it breaks!

 

[lhgpoobaa]

yep... raid 1 or raid 0+1 are the only ones i would consider doing.

0+1 is nice as it combines 0 and 1 (derr)
you get speed and redundancy. problem is of course that u need 4 drives to do it. somewhat costly.

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[Ncogneto]

Just curious here. Originally the poster inquired about a softraid setup. You can't do 01 in software. You can do Raid 5, however it is pathetically slow ( in software). Raid 0 can be done in software with good results, but you cannot install your OS to it. This leaves but a few options.

1) three drives
2) a hardware Raid controller

It's not what they tell you, its what they don't tell you!

 

[Ncogneto]

You can put the swap file on another partition, but I advise against it, as it can cause problems if you decide to rejig everything at a later date. The swap tends to want to stay on the original partition.

I do not understand this comment. The swap can easily exist on another partition, preferably on another drive altogether. Some apps (photoshop) strongly recomend this.

It's not what they tell you, its what they don't tell you!

 

[EvilHammie]

indeed. software rade is pretty lame.
if one is going to do raid one may as well do it properly!

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