raid setup ?

can you setup RAID without re-installing the whole operating system.
never messed with raid but i've heard it's a lot faster

If you just want to add a Raid configuration to your system you wont have to reinstall the Os. Unless you want your Os on that Raid also.

As for speed, Raid can be faster or it can be the same. It all depends on what type of raid you choose. If your looking for speed, Raid striping is very nice. It spreads the data of your files across the 2 (or more) drives you have setup in the raid.

And there is also mirroring which is more for data preservation instead of performance increase.

These two types of Raid require 2 or more of the same kind of drive.

There are other types but I don't think you really need them.

I would recommend Raiding your Os if you can. It may be a pain to redo it all but its definatly worth it.

That said, I run Raid myself but I am by no means pro. If any mistakes are here please feel free to correct them. I don't want to be giving false info out to anyone.

AtomicNoVa Pretty dead on actually

(edit) toastgodsupreme = Opps I messed this up didn't I

Raid 0 = Disk Stripping (make one big HD) - One dies lose everything
Raid 1 = Disk Mirroring (must have even number of drives) - Back up mirror

Mirroring actually can provide a read performance boost, since the drives can provide data faster. Write-speeds are the same as a single drive. I've found this to be noticable with GW, especially when loading new maps and towns that have already been visited.

Launching of applications, files, etc, from disk are faster than a single drive, too.

http://www.epidauros.be/raid.jpg

My next upgrade will be a complete, semi-redundant raid setup.

Raid 0 - 2x74Gb 10k RPM hard drives (debating on this, prices are still hanging around $2+ per gigabyte for these drives. I may give up on the Raid 0 for primary and go with a Fujitsu MAU).
This provides max speed for reads and writes. OS, programs, and games will be here. Currently, with all programs that I use and OS, I only use about 5-7Gb, leaving quite a lot of space for game installs. Acronis TrueImage will be used for scheduling a weekend backup to the mirror array (see below).
THE PROBLEM WITH RAID 0 IS THAT IF ONE HARD DRIVE DIES, THE DATA IS TOAST. Hence the backup.

Raid 1 (you'll need a separate raid controller) - 2x200Gb hard drives
This provides a backup area. The backup is mirrored because this also contains MP3s, documents, pictures, etc. Plus it will store the backup image of the Raid 0 array (should come out to about 50-60Gb compressed).


That, for a desktop computer, is the best setup I can perform within a budget. I hope it gives you some ideas for your setup.

Btw, if you have a motherboard that supports it, get a SATA2 drive. They seem to be performing REALLY well. You may not even need a raid setup.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...4&postcount=99

Just food for thought (no, that's not mine, just giving as a comparison between SATA1 and SATA2)


Edit:

Burst speed is comparable to two 74gb 10k raptors in raid0. The difference will be in sustained reads and random access times.

Raptors in raid 0 will have around 6-9ms random access times and sustained reads of 100mb\s through the whole drive.


Edit 2:

Think of sustained reads as when you're moving a large file over the network, running a particular game like BF2 which loads a TON of stuff into memory, programs that do a ton of writing to the page file, etc.

Go grab HDTach (trial version) and compare your current setup to what you're seeing here. If you can, post a screenshot. I'm curious where you're at right now with your setup.

untill the other day, i was running raid0 with 2 raptors, it is incredibly fast. if you can afford it go for it.
the only reason i stoped running that config was to try out some new OS's. free bsd likes its own drive or to be the primary OS so i gave it its own drive.

Raptors are fast either way. I have 2 of them in RAID 1 and games load about 30% faster, give or take.