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    w520 RAID

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by pandalolwut, Nov 27, 2011.

  1. pandalolwut

    pandalolwut Notebook Enthusiast

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    On the lenovo website it gives me the option of having Internal RAID enabled. What does this mean? I heard that it had something to do with better expansion potential?
     
    pandalolwut, Nov 27, 2011
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  2. AMATX

    AMATX Notebook Consultant

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    Skip it. If you don't know anything about raid, you don't need it. Also, not the best reputation for working well long term.
     
    AMATX, Dec 1, 2011
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  3. AofI

    AofI Notebook Geek

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    The RAID option removes the optical drive and replaces it with another hard drive. So you will need an external cd/dvd drive if you want to install anything off of cd or dvd.

    You can have it setup two ways, RAID 0: sets the drives up so that you double your hard drive space and it writes to both drives at the same time. This makes things run quite a bit quicker.

    The other option is RAID 1: this sets the drives to mirror each other, it gives you redundancy and it'll read files a little quicker. If one of the drives dies, all your data is still on the other drive, you just remove the bad drive and stick in a new one, no down time, no lost data.

    If you are looking for speed RAID 0 is a cheep way to get it, but with the prices of Solid State Drives coming down most people go that route.

    As for working well in the long term, I have been running RAID 0 in all my computers for the past 10 years without issue. Just make sure you back up your important stuff on a regular schedule, if one drive dies it's all gone.
     
    AofI, Dec 1, 2011
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  4. TheDonkey

    TheDonkey Notebook Geek

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    Just a note about RAID0,

    If ONE of the two drives fails, you lose EVERYTHING.
    So as tempting as this option may seem, make sure you keep backups!
     
    TheDonkey, Dec 6, 2011
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