Setting up RAID 0?

aaf

I just got a 2nd HD yesterday and I'm gonna set up RAID 0. How do I go about doing this? I just built my pc a few months ago. I now have 2 Samsung Spinpoint 1614C's. Motherboard is an ASUS K8V Deluxe. It has SATA connectors and I've obviously used one. Running XP SP1. Will I have to reformat the existing drive and start from scratch? I have all the latest drivers from ASUS website so I'll have to put the required drivers onto a floppy I presume as that's what I had to do to get my existing HD up and running. Don't really want to have to format HD as it's gonna take me an age to get everything setup the way it is now. I just know you lot are gonna tell me I'll have to format and start from scratch. neokenzo, you've done this haven't you? Cheers

Mutant_Fruit

Yup, format and start from scratch .

If you really don't want to lose everything, make an image of your harddrive, and store it elsewhere, then when the raid is set up, just restore the drive image.

BloodBath

Yeah your going to have to start from scratch. Format both the drives and boot up. Press F4 to get to the RAID setup screen to set up the array then install windows. Use to floppy to install the drivers beforehand.


BloodBath

Civilian_Target

Yes, you're going to have to reformat.

Originally posted by Bloodbath
| Thermaltake Lanfire case |

They're really really ugly cases. All gimmicks and fans and stuff. Give me a cheiftec brick-****house case any day.

BloodBath

They're really really ugly cases. All gimmicks and fans and stuff. Give me a cheiftec brick-****house case any day.

That's your opinion. I personally hate chieftec cases. They are ugly massive heavy pieces of crap.

What's gimmicky about them? They are only 4kgs with 4 good fans and a fan contoller with two temp sensors. It's really well built as well. The only thing gimmicky is the flame on the front. I move my machine around a bit so it makes life a whole lot easir not having to carry a 30kg machine breaking my back.


BloodBath

aaf

Originally posted by Mutant_Fruit
Yup, format and start from scratch .

If you really don't want to lose everything, make an image of your harddrive, and store it elsewhere, then when the raid is set up, just restore the drive image.

How do I make an image of my HD? Does that basically just copy everything into one big file that you can restore? I have Nero 6 installed and I've noticed a Nero Image icon in my control panel. Is this the utility for making a drive image. Not in front of my home pc now.

Civilian_Target

Originally posted by BloodBath
That's your opinion. I personally hate chieftec cases. They are ugly massive heavy pieces of crap.

What's gimmicky about them? They are only 4kgs with 4 good fans and a fan contoller with two temp sensors. It's really well built as well. The only thing gimmicky is the flame on the front. I move my machine around a bit so it makes life a whole lot easir not having to carry a 30kg machine breaking my back.


BloodBath

On the otherhand, cheiftecs are cheaper, come with a good PSU, solid as a rock, lots of space, plenty of room for cooling, plenty of fan access, removable drive bays and incredible build quality. Great if you don't move them too much....

unkel

Hehe talk about off topic

Have the Lanfire myself and the tacky flame had to go of course. Good case though and very light. Fan control works well. Intake fan on right side of case sucking in air to blow over the two RAID0 SATA Samsungs (on topic!) is very effective

Had a chieftec dragon before it and it was ok but a bit bland and the PSU, although solid as well, would not be up to scratch for my current setup

On topic: as the lads said, but research it a bit more cause you have to make decisions that will impact on performance.

I would recommend Norton Ghost 2004 (2003 is fine too) for creating a bootable DVD system image. If something goes horribly wrong with your installation, you'll be back up and running with a perfect installation in 15 minutes :cool:

Col_Loki

Have a look at this link for a very nice and simple guide to setting up a Raid 0 array . Its pretty common to forget to set the cluster size the same as the strip size which is bad for performance. Basically get the newest drivers and follow the guide.......

http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?threadid=37734

aaf

Originally posted by COL_LOKI
Have a look at this link for a very nice and simple guide to setting up a Raid 0 array . Its pretty common to forget to set the cluster size the same as the strip size which is bad for performance. Basically get the newest drivers and follow the guide.......

http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?threadid=37734

Cheers for that link. Having done a bit of research into it now, I'm debating whether to setup RAID 0 or RAID 1. Might go RAID 0 and do a monthly image on DVDRW. I still have one or two questions.

1. Will I need more cooling now that I'll have 2 HD's? I have an Antec Sonata case that comes with a 120mm case fan.

2. When creating an image, what does it back up exactly? Does it backup absolutely everything on your hard drive? I've got about 30-40 gigs worth of stuff on my HD so that means I would need a good few DVDRW's which aren't cheap!

3. Do I need a hardware RAID controller card or will I be ok just using the latest software drivers? I've read that you can get these and that they're recommended for increased reliability but I'm real sort on cash for the next month or so .

Col_Loki

Might go RAID 0 and do a monthly image on DVDRW. I still have one or two questions.

If you have a small IDE drive you could use that either? I take it you will have your music / films / etc etc backed up already.......

A raid0 for a big performance boost, a raid1 for security ........... im using raid0.

Will I need more cooling now that I'll have 2 HD's? I have an Antec Sonata case that comes with a 120mm case fan.

Its always recomended. There is a place for a 120mm fan in the sonata at the front, that blowing air in at 5v would be perfect (and pretty much silent - get a quiet one in the first place aswell). But you could always chance it without!! The samsungs run a good ammount cooler than other hard drives........ im thinkin about it myself not too sure as another fan mite annoy me.



3) Im just using the the standard raid, no controller....... You would want to watch when overclocking with that board as it is very easy to mess up your array if you put the FSB too high.

CyberGhost

i've got one question if you don't mind aaf

Can you have 2 Raid controller cards installed in your pc at the same time?

I want to buy 2 - 4 IDE raid cards, I want to make sure they don't conflict