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WTF does RAID mean? (1 Viewer)

King.BBjames

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ok...im getting a new HDD...most likely a 1.5TB

now ATM ive got 2 X 250gb.

my mate told me to RAID the 2 X 250gb HDD's and then make it the C drive.


wtf does that mean?

and how do i benefit from this?
 

zingerburger

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I don't know what it stands for, but it means making the two hard drives act together as one so that the computer can access information from them faster. That's about as far as my knowledge goes on that matter, though.
 

cxlxoxk

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Redundant Array of Independent Disks

It means using 2+ hard drives at same time to increase a computer's performance.

Source: I did IPT
 

King.BBjames

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umm...does it make my PC turn on faster? and umm....will it install shit faster?
 

me121

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another benefit is if one drive has a hardware/mechanical failure, you will have another copy of the data, (providing the other drive is okay)
 

vds700

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There are 2 different types as far as i know of:

Raid 0- Say you've got 2 drives in a RAID 0 arrangement, they kinda merge together into 1, so when u copy a file to the drive, half goes to each drive, hence making it a bit faster to copy and access files. Downside is, if 1 drive fails, you lose everything.

Raid 1- Basically, 2 drives in RAID 1 will mirror each other, so youve got a backup if 1 fails.
 

sunny

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There are many many kinds of RAIDs :) each with its own strength and weaknesses, have a read: RAID - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Most non-budget motherboards nowdays have support for RAID 0 or 1 (but its probably "fake" RAID). vds700 gave a pretty good summary of RAID 0 and RAID 1.

I have a RAID 0 set up on my PC with two Seagate 320GBs on my Gigabyte EP35-DS3, and together in RAID 0 they give a max read speed of 148MB/s, not too shabby at all :)
 

King.BBjames

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hey sunny, does that mean you can copy + paste between your RAID 0 drive and a non raid drive at 148MB/s? or just within the RAID drives?

also, if i RAID 0 my 2 X 250gb HDD's....would my computer turn on faster and install programs faster?

you see, i dont really copy/paste much from my C drive. only things in my C drive are installation files. everything else is going to be in other drives/
 

cutemouse

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There are many types of RAID configurations you can set.

The one that your mate mentioned is the one where you 'merge' your 2x250GB hard disks as one drive, ie. 1x500GB.

Honestly though, don't do it. It's a waste of money and serves no purpose for a personal computer, unless of course you are storing tonnes of data. It's really only for servers.

And no, it will not make your computer any faster (not noticeably anyway), and could even slow it down depending on the configuration, and what you use your computer for.
 

sunny

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hey sunny, does that mean you can copy + paste between your RAID 0 drive and a non raid drive at 148MB/s? or just within the RAID drives?
Imagine the two drives becoming one, theoretically faster drive, so you can read/write to it faster.

also, if i RAID 0 my 2 X 250gb HDD's....would my computer turn on faster and install programs faster?
You might expect some performance boost but its not guaranteed.

jm1 said:
Honestly though, don't do it. It's a waste of money and serves no purpose for a personal computer, unless of course you are storing tonnes of data. It's really only for servers.
Hey if he's got two HDDs, and a motherboard that supports setting up RAID then theres really no money lost is there :) Perhaps RAID 2 and above, but RAID 0 and 1 are definitely within the realm of the home PC.

Some people think RAID 0 doesn't give any performance boost in real world applications, some do. I'm one of those that think it does.

Have a read around, and you'll find mixed reviews for RAID 0. Theres no question it provides a theoretical performance boost, but whether it does anything for you in the conditions you use it under is another question.

RAID 0: Hype or blessing? (9/9) | Tweakers.net
Does RAID0 Really Increase Disk Performance? | Hardware Secrets
 

cutemouse

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Hey if he's got two HDDs, and a motherboard that supports setting up RAID then theres really no money lost is there :) Perhaps RAID 2 and above, but RAID 0 and 1 are definitely within the realm of the home PC.http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/394/6
Honestly I don't want to mess around with a RAID setup for my home computer. I think my motherboard has a RAID controller or something but I don't use it. But then again, I like to keep things simple.

Of course in a server environment RAID is definitely an option to consider. But still I wouldn't ever recommend using RAID as a backup solution. If there's a RAID controller failure then the data on the drives most likely will get corrupted. Note though, I'm not saying not to use RAID in a server environment; I'm just saying not to use it as a backup solution. ie, If you use RAID you should also have a backup solution aswell (eg. tapes, and offsite backups)
 

LtPhoenix

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You see the problem with RAID 0, is if 1 drive dies your screwed. But you might see SLIGHT speed increases.

There are a lot of different types of mirroring solutions e.g:

Raid 0, 0+1, 1, 5, Jbod, software RAIDS etc
 

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