3 Raptor Hard Drives Should I raid or should I not?

[Digital_Trans]

I've got Qty. 3 Western Digital Serial ATA Hard Drives and I was thinking about setting them up for a raid configuration. Now I've never tryed out a raid setup before. Infact, I don't even know how to set it up. My motherboard model is the Asus P5N32-SLI Deluxe Intel Edition. It fully supports raid.

Here's the layout of my drives

1.) WD Raptor-HDD 36GB 10,000 RPM 8MB Cache

2.) WD Raptor-HDD 75GB 10,000 RPM 8MB Cache

3.) WD Raptor-HDD 150GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache

The 4th HDD is a Western Digital Caviar SE 250GB with 16MB Cache - Storage only.

[Roadhog]

for raid they all have to be the same size.

[Digital_Trans]

Originally Posted by Roadhog

for raid they all have to be the same size.

Okay, thank you for the info! This will save time and effort.

[flurry]

Absolutely not true! A RAID 0 can be created with disks of differing sizes, but the storage space added to the array by each disk is limited to the size of the smallest disk—for example, if a 120 GB disk is striped together with a 100 GB disk, the size of the array will be 200 GB.

[Digital_Trans]

Originally Posted by flurry

Absolutely not true! A RAID 0 can be created with disks of differing sizes, but the storage space added to the array by each disk is limited to the size of the smallest disk—for example, if a 120 GB disk is striped together with a 100 GB disk, the size of the array will be 200 GB.

Sweet! so how do I configure raid?Another question? How do I know if the hard drive I purchased used is infact a 150GB-Raptor with 16MB Cache? Windows XP see it has Model: WD1500ADFD-00NLR0 (140GB)

[john19055]

With them drives ,they are already pretty fast and if you do put them in a Raid-0 yes it would work but you would lose a lot of space ,If you ran the 36gig and 75gig in a Raid-0 you would only have around 72gigs for both drives and lose almost 36 gigs,since when you put them in a raid it uses the lowest gig hardrive,so if you use the 36gig and the 75gig ,the 75gig would become a 36gig.and the Raid-0 would be around 72gigs for both drives.

[Digital_Trans]

I'll just stick it out with 3 seperate WD Raptor HDD so I don't loose space.
The drives are very fast!

[ViN86]

i wouldnt raid em unless you dont care if you lose information. im not saying that raid causes a loss of info, just that if you raid em together in a striped array (raid 0) then if one drive fails, you lose all the info on both disks. you could do a raid 0+1 config. that would require the third drive to be the size of the sum of the other two.


in that case, your 150GB would be the backup drive. thatd be a waste imo.

[Digital_Trans]

Originally Posted by ViN86

i wouldnt raid em unless you dont care if you lose information. im not saying that raid causes a loss of info, just that if you raid em together in a striped array (raid 0) then if one drive fails, you lose all the info on both disks. you could do a raid 0+1 config. that would require the third drive to be the size of the sum of the other two.


in that case, your 150GB would be the backup drive. thatd be a waste imo.

Exactly! Anti-Raid lol I'm not going to raid them ever. I need all the drive space I can get for the future.

[Digital_Trans]

Last request, guys I did a google search on my hard drive Model: WD1500ADFD-00NLR0 I think this drive is infact a Raptor 150GB-HDD but, could you guys do some research just to back me on this?
I want to make sure the dude that sold it to me didn't sell me something else but exactly what I paid for "A WD-Raptor 150GB SATA 10,000 RPM with 16MB Cache " Again, the model number is WD1500ADFD-00NLR0

[ViN86]

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/pro...sp?driveid=189

yea its a raptor. see the model number under the pic?
the last set of letters/numbers probably refers to whether it has the window (like jAkUp's has) or not.

[Digital_Trans]

Originally Posted by ViN86

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/pro...sp?driveid=189

yea its a raptor. see the model number under the pic?
the last set of letters/numbers probably refers to whether it has the window (like jAkUp's has) or not.

You Rock! Thanks a million!