So, I want to set up a RAID 1 on my laptop (Gateway P-6860FX) Currently I have the original 320 Gig drive in it. What I was going to do was:
1. Obtain 2 WD5000BEV drives (Western Digital Scorpio 500 Gig Laptop drives)
2. Use Partition Magic (or similar) to mirror the 320 to one of the 500s
3. Put in that 500 and boot up to be sure it works.
4. Then I would install the other (blank) 500, enter the BIOS, tell it to set up a RAID 1 array (i guess it would then mirror the main drive to the blank one).
Is that all I would need to do?
Also, in terms of the drives, would it be better to get them from 2 different places? If I get two drives together, they would likely be from the same batch, so more likely to fail together, right? Or is two from the same batch better?
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What OS are you using? IIRC in Windows XP or later you can use the Disk Manager to turn the hard drives into Dynamic Disks and have Windows set them up as Raid 0, 1, or 5.
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Vista. But I'd sooner do it through the BIOS than trust Micro$oft
Well then, if you're going with a Basic Disk setup then the steps you listed in the OP is all you need to do. I would go with a pair of 1 TB disks instead if you are the type to store your DVDs on your PC, so you can watch one while playing on a game console.
Edit: If you have space for 4 drives maybe you can do a Raid 1+0 setup.
Edited, Oct 4th 2009 4:13pm by Shaowstrike
Edit: If you have space for 4 drives maybe you can do a Raid 1+0 setup.
Edited, Oct 4th 2009 4:13pm by Shaowstrike
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I can't find Scorpios in 1TB, and I'm a brand-loyal kinda guy.
Also, what about this:
Also, in terms of the drives, would it be better to get them from 2 different places? If I get two drives together, they would likely be from the same batch, so more likely to fail together, right? Or is two from the same batch better?
Also, what about this:
The One and Only ShadorVIII wrote:
Also, in terms of the drives, would it be better to get them from 2 different places? If I get two drives together, they would likely be from the same batch, so more likely to fail together, right? Or is two from the same batch better?
Manufacturing/Shipping batches won't make a difference, failure rate is random.
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^ This
I work at a company where all I do all day is build different systems. It doesnt matter what batch they come from, nor does it matter the manufacturer.
What DOES matter is the size of the drive, and if it is clean or not. You can not raid something that has an active partition in anything but JBOD. And you can not mirror drives that are of a different size, hence why its called mirroring.
Do not use a software raid, go with a hardware raid. If your mobo doesnt support it, then you can easily buy a 5 dollar encore 2 port raid card that is pci 1x and will do raid 0 or 1. (Striping or mirroring respectively)If you do want to do a raid, I would suggest raiding 2 cards that do not have your OS install on them. Its usually not a smart idea. Raid 0 is good for raiding your boot device.
I work at a company where all I do all day is build different systems. It doesnt matter what batch they come from, nor does it matter the manufacturer.
What DOES matter is the size of the drive, and if it is clean or not. You can not raid something that has an active partition in anything but JBOD. And you can not mirror drives that are of a different size, hence why its called mirroring.
Do not use a software raid, go with a hardware raid. If your mobo doesnt support it, then you can easily buy a 5 dollar encore 2 port raid card that is pci 1x and will do raid 0 or 1. (Striping or mirroring respectively)If you do want to do a raid, I would suggest raiding 2 cards that do not have your OS install on them. Its usually not a smart idea. Raid 0 is good for raiding your boot device.
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lightningcount wrote:
^ This
I work at a company where all I do all day is build different systems. It doesnt matter what batch they come from, nor does it matter the manufacturer.
I work at a company where all I do all day is build different systems. It doesnt matter what batch they come from, nor does it matter the manufacturer.
Good to know about the batches, then.
lightningcount wrote:
What DOES matter is the size of the drive, and if it is clean or not. You can not raid something that has an active partition in anything but JBOD. And you can not mirror drives that are of a different size, hence why its called mirroring.
I am not certain that I understand your reply here. The two drives making up the RAID 1 array will be of the same size. I am not sure what you mean by mirroring. Are you referring to the RAID 1 array itself or to the initial process of copying the 320 Gig drive to a 500 Gig drive? If the latter is the case, I am given to understand that partition management software can do this easily by simply making the partitions larger on the bigger drive. If the former is the case, the RAID array self-compensates by limiting the usable space on the larger drive (wasteful, but not impossible, and irrelevant in my case, since both my RAID drives will be 500 gig).
I have no idea what you mean by this business about active partitions, etc.
lightningcount wrote:
Do not use a software raid, go with a hardware raid. If your mobo doesnt support it, then you can easily buy a 5 dollar encore 2 port raid card that is pci 1x and will do raid 0 or 1. (Striping or mirroring respectively)If you do want to do a raid, I would suggest raiding 2 cards that do not have your OS install on them. Its usually not a smart idea. Raid 0 is good for raiding your boot device.
By hardware, I assume you mean via the BIOS. Which is what I intend to do. As for adding cards, perhaps you did not notice that this is a LAPTOP. As for your last sentence, it makes no sense. RAID 0 and RAID 1 perform completely different functions. RAID 0 makes two smaller drives seem like a larger one. RAID 1 provides data redundancy in the event of hard drive failure. RAID 1 is what I want.
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