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Raid 0. Worth doing?

seanbranagh
Grafter
Posts: 1,236
Registered: ‎02-08-2007

Raid 0. Worth doing?

I am experimenting with my new Asus M3N78 motherboard. I created an XP disk using Nlite with the RAID drivers as I have no floppy drive. I also included all my display, audio, ethernet drivers etc when I was at it aswell as creating an unattended install.
I have 2 x 250Gb SATA drives in this new machine and am currently installing with them set to RAID 0 (striped).
Am I likely to see a reasoable increase in performance?
I am not concerned about data security on this machine as everything (digital photos etc) is on my server which uses RAID 1.
8 REPLIES 8
HPsauce
Pro
Posts: 6,998
Thanks: 146
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎02-02-2008

Re: Raid 0. Worth doing?

Quote from: Sean
RAID 0 (striped).
Am I likely to see a reasoable increase in performance?

Only in extreme situations, e.g. editing broadcast-quality video in real time.
If you don't do that it's pointless.
seanbranagh
Grafter
Posts: 1,236
Registered: ‎02-08-2007

Re: Raid 0. Worth doing?

I am going to give it a go anyway just so I can at least have the experience. That is after I get over the BSOD  that I got when windows was installing the display drivers during install. I think this was because I slipstreamed both sets of drivers onto the disk. The ones supplied with the MB for the onboard Gforce 8200 and the ones supplied with my Gforce FX 5200 PCI. I am going to remake the disk and only include one set of drivers Gforce 1.75.16 just downloaded from the site. This supports both cards. I will give it a go. Fingers crossed. I am just waiting for a newer version of the chipset drivers to download from Asus than is supplied with the MB.
samuria
Grafter
Posts: 1,581
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎13-04-2007

Re: Raid 0. Worth doing?

Have you looked at the extra things you can set with Nlite? You can set tcip max connections, add users, and set all sorts of other options like add the key so you dont have to enter it saves messing about finding it next time you want to install it.
VileReynard
Hero
Posts: 12,616
Thanks: 582
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Registered: ‎01-09-2007

Re: Raid 0. Worth doing?

Software RAID0 will gain you nothing - except add an extra point of failure.

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."

seanbranagh
Grafter
Posts: 1,236
Registered: ‎02-08-2007

Re: Raid 0. Worth doing?

Yes, I have went through all the Nlite settings. Even switched to Windows classic view and classic start menu as I still live in the past.
I am only trying RAID 0 cos I just want to try out various options so at least I have gained the experience. I will probably not settle with it. As for failure it is not a problem on this machine as absolutely everything is stored on mapped drives on my server using RAID 1 as mentioned and now connected to the new machine via gigabit.
I am just about to burn the new disk now with the new graphics drivers. Hopefully they work this time.
seanbranagh
Grafter
Posts: 1,236
Registered: ‎02-08-2007

Re: Raid 0. Worth doing?

I have tried several times to install windows xp on the raid 0 array and encountered problems. It installs fine as I have slipstreamed the drivers in but on the first boot I get BSOD. It flashes on the screen too fast to read then the computer restarts and so the process goes on. I have tried safe mode but no luck there either. When I install from the same disk without using raid it is fine and all my other slipstreamed drivers/options work perfectly. Any ideas?
It is not a big issue as I do not intend to stick with raid anyway but I always like to resolve a problem when I come accross it.
I am currently installing using raid 1 to see if the problem is specific to raid 0 or just to raid. Will post results in about 10 minutes.
Thankfully this machine installs fast as this is about the 10th install in a row!
OK, the problem exists with raid 1 also....
samuria
Grafter
Posts: 1,581
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Registered: ‎13-04-2007

Re: Raid 0. Worth doing?

You have setup the raid in the bios ok? You will need the drivers on a floppy disk and press f6 on the start of install you have the drivers slipstreamed but this will install them with windows if you do the floppy widows will have them so it can see the drive on install. If it doesnt have them on the install it wont work as it cant see the disk properly.
seanbranagh
Grafter
Posts: 1,236
Registered: ‎02-08-2007

Re: Raid 0. Worth doing?

I have now fixed this problem. I had the drivers slipstreamed using Nlite as I have no floppy. When I added the driver folder in Nlite there was another folder inside it called "floppy" which had a second copy of the drivers in it. I remade the disk after removing this folder and it installed and ran perfectly.