Raid on different drives?

Hello,

I have a 120GB SSD and a 750 GB SATA 7200 RPM drive. Is it possible to partition 120GB for raid for data redundancy then use 620GB for storage? Is that even possible?

Thanks
Jeff.

 

RAID is at the disk level and the partitions are created on the logical disk so you can't use the BIOS RAID to do what you want, but what you are describing is possible through other methods. I haven't tried this before, but you may be able accomplish through software mirroring by either creating a 120GB separate partition or creating a 120GB VHD and presenting that to the OS (I'd recommend the latter because repartitioning is a pain).

-Byshop

 

On the other hand, though, that kind of redundancy for the OS partition is usually not necessary. Much of the files on the OS partition would be restored via an OS reload. If you're concerned about data loss, backing up your Users folder will capture all your desktop, docs, email, savegames, etc and will consume a lot less than 120GB of space on your data drive.

Also, scratch my suggestion about the VHD. If you want to go this route do it as a separate partition since you wouldn't be able to boot off the VHD file.

-Byshop

 

Thanks for the info,

Yea, I may just end up getting in the habit of doing backups regularly. My 2nd hard drive I bought 2 month's ago just died and had some information I needed... I figured I was safe because it was new. I guess I learned my lesson. Backup important files no matter what hardware/software you use!

Although, in my particular case I thought I was backed up, it wasn't until I tried to restore my backup that I noticed I missed a few important files that will set me back a few weeks or more.

Eeep!!!!!

STUPID SEAGATE HD!!!!!!!

 

If you want local redundant storage get two or more traditional hard drives and make an array in RAID1 or RAID5. Even with that, I still recommend online or remote backup in addition to that. I do some photography and I use a 4 disk RAID5 array for local image storage and also back it all up online daily.

For the OS, you don't need it. The only reason to use any form of RAID on your OS partition is for speed, eg. RAID0. Just put all your data on the redundant and/or backup up volume.

 

Since you are limited to two internal drives on your laptop RAID 1 is pretty much out unless you want to use identically configured drives. That means either dropping the storage capacity of your 750GB or dropping the speed benefit of your SSD. Software RAID can work in the configuration I described but you'll take a CPU hit.

Mirroring your OS drive is only really needed in high availability scenarios as all it'll give you is a hotswap OS partition you can boot from in the event of the failure of the primary drive. As a rule, mirroring is used for high availability and not backup. This is partially because certain types of failures such as data corruption can be duplicated onto the mirrored copy as well.

Best bet is backup your Users folder to your second drive. You'd have to reload the OS in the event of a primary drive failure but you'll save a considerable amount of space.

-Byshop