[averydonovan]

I need to upgrade my hard disks again. I just planted an 80GB disk in this machine two months ago, with my old 40GB also installed. The 40GB has 12GB left, and the 80GB has 38GB left. Sure, that may seem like a lot, but I also want to re-rip (again) all my CDs in FLAC so I can end my re-ripping every few months. And my MP3 collection, including my ripped CDs, has hit 25GB and is due to grow a bit due to constant downloading off of Emusic and obtaining new CDs. So I need more storage, a LOT more storage. It might be a few months before I can afford the upgrade, but I need to do it pretty soon before I run out of space.

I want to run two Western Digital 200GB JB-series drives on a RAID 0 array so I can get 400GB of storage. Or if 250GB drives have come down when I get them I may get two of them. My main question is I've never dealt with a RAID setup before and I'm not sure which adapter card to get and which ones require additional software drivers. I want to get a card that makes both drives appear as a single drive with the OS's standard IDE drivers. I fear that if I get a RAID card that requires special drivers in the OS and **** Happens™ that I'll be screwed with complete data loss. Does something like this exist, or at least one that will work with an OS's standard drivers without any fuss? I'll be using Windows XP, but Linux/BSD compatibility is a major plus. Thanks for any advice.

 

[bootman]

First of all a raid 0 will not offer you any protection if a drive fails.
You lose a drive and your data is gone.
Raid 0 buys you speed not safety.
Raid 1 (mirroring) gives you safety because if you lose a drive you still keep your data.
Downside is that you need to double the storage.
Example with two 200meg HDs
Raid 0 - total storage is 400megs but no protection
Raid 1 - total storage is 200megs but with protection
(and a small hit in speed due to the fact that you write the data twice)
You can create a raid array in xp without a card but i don't think that it will be seen by Linux.
(I haven't tried this.

)

http://www.linuxraid.org/
Is a good site to look up any compatibility issues.
Just about any card works in XP.
(highpoint, promise, adaptec etc.)

 

[averydonovan]

Thanks, bootman. I mainly wanted RAID 0 for the capacity. I won't be getting IBM Deathstar drives, so I'm not as concerned with one of the drives failing. I'm more worried if Windows XP decides to flake out and a repair with the install CD doesn't work, I want to be able to bail out my data by booting up Linux or BSD, which would likely be installed on one of the disks I have now. Thanks for the link, I'll definately check it out.

 

[blip]

Or you can always try my ultimate dream array a Raid 0+1 system built with those new 10k IDE drives!


What's your motherboard situation anyway? Lots of performance-geared mobos already have RAID controllers built in.