Questions many need answered for RAID, Partition,

[dariushou2]

I'm in the process of building a new PC and have quite a few questions that i hope will finally get answered. I've searched and searched all week with no definate answers, so here it goes.

Components:

Raid controller: Adaptec 3400s (4 channels)
SCSI controller: Adaptec 39160
Hard Drives: 4 Fujitsu 15K U160 SCSI
1 Fujitsu 10K U160 SCSI
1 Seagate Cheetah U160 SCSI
1 Maxtor 160GB IDE (backup)
OS: XP

Setup: 3 of the 4 Fujitsu 15K Hard Drives will be Stripped in RAID 0 (each on its on channel)
--1st partition will be 750MB Pagefile
--2nd partition will be 30GB for video and audio data files
--3rd partion will be the left over for the rest of V/A files

The last Fujitsu 15k drive will be on the 39160 with 2 partition
--1st partitions of 5GB for Windows XP
--2nd partition is for programs

The 10K fujitsu and cheetah will also be striped on RAID 0 on the last channel of the 3400s.
--1st partition will be 750MB Pagefile
--2nd partition will be 10GB for video and audio data files
--3rd partion will be the left over for the rest of V/A files

So for the questions:

1. How do i change clustersize in Winows XP? Can i do this once windows is loaded? If not, how do i set the clustersize before windows is loaded on? Please take into account that i plan on using NTFS as the file system. Also, can this be answered for both basic and dynamic disks, pretty please.

2. Can dynamic disks be partitioned? Or must you just have one big partition.

3. I plan on putting my pagefile on the outer edge of both of my RAID 0 arrays, but what is the optimal clustersize for such a partition? Can the clustersize even be differnt for differnt partitions within the same RAID array? What about different file systems for the pagefile (FAT vs NTFS).

Answers to these questions would be greatly appreciated as i'm having a hell of a time finding answers. Any other comments or suggestions will also be greatly appreciated

Thanks a million

 

[dariushou2]

Ok, i figured out how to create multipe partitions/volumes using NTFS on XP with a Dynamic Drive, but how in the would can you change the clustersize.

Thanks ahead of time

 

[sjonnie]

Man, what a total waste of money. But I guess you have it coming out of your ears. Seems to have so much that you never heard of the command <b>format</b>.

format c: /fs:ntfs /v:winxp /a:64K

 

[dariushou]

How's it a waste of money--i sure don't know. Anyhow, i did try the command line before and again after you suggested it, but that does not work. When i check the drive information under XP it still says my "clustersize is 4K" Well under "SiSoftware Sandra Standard (Win32 x86 Unicode)" it does. Any suggestions?? I've heard using nortons ghost to take an image file and then converting to Basic Disk from Dynamic and changing it with partition magic 8.0 and resize my clusters from there will work.

 

[dariushou]

remember this is for a dynamic drive and not a basic one. Changing the clustersize is simple. The Norton Ghost routine is the only one i know if with Dynamic Disks.