Setting up raid 0 by oneself

Couldn't get much info searching the net, figured I'd ask here.

Is it possible to set up raid 0 by oneself? I'm by no means expert but I'm familar with windows reinstall and quite comfortable opening up my rigs.

What would be needed to set it up? Obviously you need a rig that supports dual drive and 2 HDDs/SSDs, are there anything else hardware/software wise?

 

It's extremely simple... you have the 2 identical drives connected, reboot the pc and enable RAID in the bios under SATA settings.

When the computer is booting you will see an intel raid controller screen, with a message to press whatever to enter the bios (its ctrl I for me).

In the bios you select create new raid disk, if you only have the 2 drives connected it should select them automatically. Select stripe size (128k), and create disk.

Voila... install Windows to the new "disk" and your done.

It's really that easy.

 

Sounds simple enough, thanks.

 

I've read the descriptions of RAID, but I just don't seem to understand what it is. Could someone kindly explain what it is, and the benefits? I know it isn't an external drive. But that's about it.

 

RAID is not necessarily an external no internal disk array. RAID actually stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks* where a "logical" drive is created from a grouping of disk drives... There are different RAID levels (configurations) which can give you redundancy protection in the case of a disk failure as well as levels which can increase performance. This is implemented by a RAID controller and can be configured on internal or external devices depending on your controller.

Probably best if you go over something like this - RAID - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


* - Note, In the late 1990s, the I in RAID used to stand for "Inexpensive", but at some point that part of the acronym was changed.

 

You can also do a software RAID. While 'old', the following articles will give you a good idea of what to expect/look for:

See:
RAID Without Additional Hardware: Do It Yourself With Windows 2000 : IDE RAID Without Additional Hardware: Do It Yourself With Windows 2000

See:
Using WindowsXP to Make RAID 5 Happen : WindowsXP RAID 5 Features Exploited

See:
RAID on the Cheap: Windows 7 Software RAID vs. inexpensive “fake RAID” Kevin’s Blog


While hardware RAID requires actually having the hardware to accomplish, software RAID is available on almost all systems. The caveat is that you can't put your boot/OS drive on the RAID (negating much of the advantage).


You have a lot of information on how to get this going.

My question is why?

What do you expect to gain from RAID0 (except a lot of headaches - eventually)?

 

That sounds interesting, thanks!

And to answer your concern, I can't afford a SSD but would like to increase the performance of my HDD. Plus I always liked trying out stuffs I have never done before

What headaches are you referring to? Would be nice to know before I set it up

 

Be sure that you FULLY understand AND practice the 'recover from error' options and procedures needed for Raid 0.

Most/many Raid 0 failures result in 100% data loss. 100%

be careful out there.

 

tiller is referring to the fact that in RAID Level 0, all your data is chopped up into bits (called stripes) and spread evenly across X number of drives. If (or when) one of those drives dies, that is it. You are done. If the drive is dead, and you cannot get the bits off of that disk, there is no real way to recover your data as those missing pieces are completely gone. The jigsaw puzzle of your data has holes and can no longer be used. So as you can see, RAID 0 can lead to irrecoverable data from the failure of the disks themselves.

If people do go down the RAID 0 route, they should be aware of the dangers and take extreme precautions (backup, backup, and backup) to prevent themselves from catastrophic failure.

One other note, as you increase the number of drives in a RAID 0 array, the likelihood of a failure increases per added drive. For example, 2 disk RAID 0 setup has 2x the probability of failure than a single disk. A 3 disk RAID 0 setup just under 3x the probability of failure than a single disk.

 

As stated above, if 1 drive fails you are pretty much screwed for data.

99.9% of non corporate customers don't "need" RAID. You would be better off with a SSD for your OS drive to get that snappiness, and replace your optical drive with a caddy for a secondary drive.

 

So you can setup raid 0 w/o a raid controller?

So would it work if I put a HDD in the ODD Caddy that's the same as the primary HDD? How would that perform compared to SDD?

 

You need 3 hard drives for software raid 0.

A primary boot drive and then 2 hard drives connected which you can use for raid 0.

You cant use a HDD in software raid 0 for the OS.

I have a machine with 2 HDD spaces. I then have a ODD to HDD caddy. I run my OS on the SSD and have the two 500GB drives in raid 0 for apps.

 

That is patently false.

 

OK:

1 drive (can't raid 1 drive lol)
2 drives (Don't have a drive to create the array and house the OS)

So how will you do it then?

 

Every OS I've worked with recently with lets you set up a software-based raid 0 set from the integral disk manager or lvm.

Raid 0 is nothing but a disk stripe. Windows and Linux both will auto-place a boot sector on both drives which in turn points to the rest of the boot files. The mbr keeps track of where file sectors are just as it would on a single drive install.

Which disk gets the actual boot action is dependent on how flexible the mobo bios is.

Give it a try. Pretty easy.

 

I *think* Meaker was trying to say that Windows itself must boot from a non-RAID 0 disk partition. However, I *think* newposter is also correct, and you can do software RAID 0 w/ just two disks.

For example, I have a 150GB drive and a 100GB Drive each on their own channel.
a) Partition the 1st drive into a 50GB drive and leave the 100GB space unpartitioned.
b) Install Windows 7 into the 50GB partion
c) After installation is complete, go to disk manager and convert both disks to Windows Dynamic Disks.
d) I think at that point, you highlight the two disks, and create a new partition. Choose Striped and away you go.

I don't believe I have all the details correct, but Windows Software RAID Guide has some more information regarding Windows software RAID. It looks like you can do this w/ just two disks - but a part of that first disk must be set aside for Windows installation, as it cannot boot from a software only RAID 0 partition.

 

Ah, I thought it could not be, but it must have been that pesky boot data partition stopping that.

Btw I would set aside an equal area on the second drive so that both drives are aligned.

Also when the drive is accessing the OS partition its going to kill your raid arrays performance. But I guess it is possible.