2 Part RAID Question

[Seidell23231]

PART 1:

BACKGROUND ~~ I have 2 identical drives, both Seagate 360GB. When I setup
the RAID yesterday, I had both drives labeled and the second drive formated,
but empty. After the RAID had completed setting up, I noted that the second
hard drive changed from formatted with a label to "UNALLOCATED". The RAID
indicates the total space available at 670. Which would indicate it is
including the second UNALLOCATED hard drive. The RAID Controller and Intel
Matrix Storage Console, both show both HD's and the total available space at
670. The Computer Management / Disk Management, show the second drive, but
UNALLOCATED. The only difference is the My Computer area, wherein the
UNALLOCATED drive is not showing and it is not showing its number anywhere.

QUESTION ~~ Is the second drive's UNALLOCATED designation correct? Why did
it change from Formated and labeled to UNALLOCATED? As always, Thanks for
all the help!


Part 2:

I know there are camps on both sides of the fence, so I come to both with
this question:

I will be using my HP Pavillion Elite m9150f, Intel 2 Core Quad QC6600, 3GB
PC-5300, 2 HD Seagate 360GB @ 7200, to do daily work, which means a lot of
time in MS Office 2007, specifically Excel and Access. I am in the process
of writing a book, so Word will be used in a large scale. Of course daily
backups will be the norm. I will be surfing the internet of course and
finally I will be spending 3-4 hours a day in Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and
Shivering Isles with a bried visit to Neverwinter Nights 2, Mask of the
Betrayor. For those not into the gaming worls, let me give a bried
description. They are all Stand Alone Role Playing Games. Yes they can also
be played over the internet, but I just don't enjoy it as much in that venue.
They are HEAVY duty games which require the top dog CPU's and Video CPUs as
well. So, with that being the consumption of daily use, will the RAID 0 be
of benefit or not. please provide a percentage, such as 80% benefit, 20% no
benefit.

Thanks! ~~ Gunny

 

[Seidell23231]

PMcGarr,

Gotcha and Thanks! Now what about the UNALLOCATED HD? Can you look at PART
1 of my main entry. THOUGHTS???

THANKS! Gunny

 

[Bob Willard]

I took it one step farther and installed my system on RAID0, and I keep
my data (config settings, email, documents, mp3's, videos, etc) on a
RAID5 array. I'm lazy, and with this config, I don't need to back
anything up.

No backup? I don't think you understand.

RAID0 is less robust than a single HD because any failure of either HD
in that RAIDset will make all files unreadable.

RAID5 is more robust than a single HD, but it only gives protection
against failure of one of the HDs in that RAIDset; there is no protection
against any other hardware failure (CPU, MB, RAM, PS, cable, etc.) and
no protection against software or environmenal glitches.

If you have data that you value, back it up.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I can't give you a percentage because I don't quite understand what you
mean by that. RAID0 will give you huge hard drive performance
increases. That's not an opinion, but a fact. Anything that uses your
hard drive a lot will perform better.

It's not a fact at all. It's an opinion, and an incorrect one for the
great majority of users.

The performance difference is usually very slight. In my own case, I
recently took RAID0 off this computer. I perceive *no* performance
decrease at all.

I see that you back up your stuff. You'll need to keep doing that

Correct.


because RAID0 offers no fault tollerance.

I can't think of a single reason not to go with RAID0 except for the
fact that you need to know how to get it set up.

There's a very good reason not to use RAID0. It entails *much* greater
risk. Without RAID0, the loss of one drive means the loss of whatever
is on that drive. With RAID0, the loss of either drive means the loss
of everything on both drives.

For some of us, it's
easy...for others, not so easy.

I took it one step farther and installed my system on RAID0, and I keep
my data (config settings, email, documents, mp3's, videos, etc) on a
RAID5 array. I'm lazy, and with this config, I don't need to back
anything up.

Yes you do. If you care about your data, running without a backup is
foolhardy. RAID 1 (mirroring) is *not* a backup solution. RAID 1 uses
two or more drives, each a duplicate of the others, to provide
redundancy. It's used in situations (almost always within
corporations, not in homes) where any downtown can't be tolerated,
because the way it works is that if one drive fails the other takes
over seamlessly. Although some people thing of RAID 1 as a backup
technique, that is *not* what it is, since it's subject to
simultaneous loss of the original and the mirror to many of the most
common dangers threatening your data--severe power glitches, nearby
lightning strikes, virus attacks, theft of the computer, etc. Most
companies that use RAID 1 also have a strong external backup plan in
place.

The same is true of your RAID5.