RAID requirements

I know that RAID requires 2 hdds, but do the HDDs have to be the same size and speed? (rpm)

 

It would help if you would state which mode you are talking about but as a general rule no. You will either give up performance, capacity or both by not using "matched" drives though.

 

RAID drives have be identically matched

 

I'm talking about RAID 0, but the answers helped me already.

 

It is not necessary, but it is best/ideal to use identical drives in RAID 0, to avoid wastage of space and performance.

 

I don't think the RPMs have to match, though.

 

RPMs have to match as well, since high spindle speed is accountable for a major increase in performance (Read/Write and Seek times).

RAID 0 5K320 and 7K320, and you'll get 5K320x2 RAID 0 performance, rather than the higher 7K320x2 RAID 0. (The 7K320 will run at reduced performance to match the 5K320)

To get the absolute best out of RAID 0, one must use identical HDDs.

(Its more or less the same way RAM downclocks. Install DDR2-533 and DDR2-667, the DDR2-667 will run at reduced frequency to match the DDR2-533)

 

You also have to have a RAID capable chipset...what PC are we talking about?

 

the m1730, it's raid compatible, i know, the dell guy who was one of the designers of the m1730 said it's compatible, and i saw that it indeed have a second hard drive slot

 

Just to clarify 1 more time, the drives don't HAVE to match but for a Raid 0 configuration it's pretty silly not to do it that way.

 

The M1730 has the ICH8M-E Controller and it definitely supports RAID.

 

the M1730 may have raid, but it has a software raid controller, so you will see little to no performance increase by running a raid 0 stripe in your laptop.
The only beneficial raid your system supports is raid 1. That will keep all of your data mirrored on both drives, so when one drive fails teh system still runs fine.

Laptops which have software raid controllers need to have the same capacity and same model drives.
the raid manager will not let you install a raid 0 array on two different drives. I tried this on my friends ASUS and it says that the drives need to be identical for a raid 0 array to be created

K-TRON

 

Hi K-tron, ur U709 failed again? Just saw: The sad owner of a highly customized Voodoo ENVY U709 heavyweight server replacement which does not work....

 

yup, a friend told me to upgrade my Bios and keyboard firmware, and in the process the computer killed itself and is no longer booting. Not cool at all. Tons of stuff to figure out. I am really getting frustrated with that thing, and I think I am just going to put it out of comission. Its sad cause i only put 1012 hours of use on it and $10k into it and its dead within 14 months.

K-TRON

 

^ Have you tried the external floppy method? Apparently it works on some laptops (placing BIOS files on USB floppy drive, pressing sequence of keys).

 

oh, I have tried the external floppy all right. Thats the only way I install Bios upgrades and its still dead.
Last night it used to boot from floppy, but today the system does nothing at all

K-TRON

 

There must be a crisis disk available for the BIOS utility.
You can also replace the BIOS chip on the motherboard, irrespective of the fact whether it is surface-mounted or socketed.

 

I have an X205 SLi5 with two 160GB HDD@7200rpm with a srtipped down barebones BIOS. This feature (RAID) appears to be disabled. I have made several attempts in trying to get a true hardware RAID 0 configuration on this beast. The PM965 chipset is more than capable but the firmware is restricting it. A Toshiba rep told me tonight that there is a "main competitor" (he didn't say who) that has a model out that uses the same identical motherboard and that if I knew what exact model this particular laptop is, then I would be able to simply upgrade the BIOS using that "main competitor's" site. Anybody know anything about this?

 

scvsmark, please do not even look for that other system. I can guarantee that if you flash another manufacturers bios onto your system, it is going to brick your system.
Its not worth your time to find it because 1) raid 0 is not worth it, and 2) you will destroy your system installing a different motherboard bios on it.

The Toshiba X205 has a software based raid controller, so the performance increase you will get is going to be < 10% more than if you just had a single harddrive installed. That performance increase is hardly worth it. If tha laptop had a hardware raid controller, than things would be different, because the performance increase would be around 80%.

K-TRON

 

K-Tron,
Thanks for your input. Do you know of any options that may be available to configure a hardware RAID on my laptop; something that I can install?