RAID Without Additional Hardware: Do It Yourself With Windows 2000

SiSoft Sandra 2001 Performance Index

Conclusion

Windows 2000 support for stripeset media proves to be a mighty utility. Depending on the amount of drives, you can boost data transfer rates up to the limit of the PCI bus (133 MB/s in theory). In systems with 64 Bit PCI, you can even reach much faster performance - provided that more drives and more controllers are deployed. Many applications are programmed in order to run most of the source code in the processor cache or the main memory, so the hard drive performance becomes secondary.

Software stripsets are just perfect for high-performance temporary storage required by demanding applications. You could, for instance, use stripeset drives for Windows swap files or for data that tends to remain static and are frequently backed up (e.g., software that is regularly installed over a LAN). It is not recommended for data storage, since the data is at a much greater risk than with single drive configs or redundant drive arrays, so don't go storing large databases and other important files on striped drive arrays.

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Patrick Schmid
Editor-in-Chief (2005-2006)

Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.