First time using RAID, need lots of help.

[Radical_Edward]

So, I now have 2 WD 500GB HDDs I want to use in RAID. I was wondering what exactly do I need to do this? I wanted to use them as my boot drives, what should I do?

My motherboard.

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/790XT-G45.html#/?div=Overview

 

[Kreij]

What kind of RAID? RAID 0? RAID 1?

 

[mlee49]

It's not too hard, just follow the instructions from your motherboard manual. Here's the short version:

1) Install both drives
2) Boot into the BIOS and enable RAID
3) Reboot and enter the RAID configuration
4) Select Raid type and settings(example RAID0 w/128kb stripe )
5) Reboot and install OS to the new drive
6) Install any Raid software(Intel Rapid Storage Manager)
7) Enjoy

 

[Radical_Edward]

What kind of RAID? RAID 0? RAID 1?

Well, I'm not entirely sure at this point. I'm really looking for recommendations, although I hear RAID 1 is more reliable than RAID 0, which is faster. If I remember right.

 

[Kreij]

RAID 0 is striping. This writes to both HD at the same time improving performance.
RAID 1 is mirroring. This give you data redundancy (but is not a backup).

 

[mlee49]

Just FYI, I've had 2 of the last 4 RAID0 array's crash on me. Pain in the arse to recover, had to use a special raid recovery tool and it took hours to recover less than 100GB of photo's and videos. It's not worth the hassle to recover a mechanical hdd Raid array than invest in a single SSD that has 20-100MB better read/write's.

Even some WD black's in RAID0 still arnt 150MB/s read/write. A single Sandforce ssd easily get's 250+ read/writes and 120GB is a good price point to start with.

 

[TIGR]

Like Kreij said, RAID 0 is for performance and RAID 1 is for redundancy (Wikipedia RAID article). However, it is likely you will notice little or no difference in performance with RAID 0 across two drives vs a single drive—claims of amazing improvements are often exaggerated or due to placebo effect. It's also theoretically less reliable since you're using twice the drives and if either drive fails, you'll probably lose all the data stored on both drives. This is not to scare you away from using RAID—in fact I'd say go for it, if nothing else just to try it out for yourself and see what you think, as long as you've got the drives. Just don't entrust any important data to a RAID 0 array if it's not backed up elsewhere.

You might find RAID 1 handy. It's nice to know that if a hard drive fails, your data will be safe on the other drive, and that's what RAID 1 does. Some will tell you not to use RAID 1 for an OS drive because it'll drastically reduce performance. These claims, too, are often exaggerated. What I would say is, try it! See what you think and what you find useful. It sounds like you are curious and want to try something new, and that's great, even if just for the sake of learning more.

Also, to add to what mlee stated about failed arrays (NOT to disagree but to balance his experiences out with my own), I've never had a RAID array crash or in any other way fail. I've had individual drives in RAID arrays fail, and been relieved when RAID saved the data that was on them, but I've built more systems with RAID set up than I care to count and haven't had any RAID failures yet. And I'm not just talking about systems with dedicated high-end RAID cards, but also the same type of integrated RAID you're planning to use. Integrated RAID controllers are as good as any for many intents and purposes. But again, this is only to balance out what mlee stated, not to disagree: a failure can sure happen.

Try something new and have fun. You know you can count on TPU to be here and provide any help you might need.

 

[GaryLocke]

Have learned from your post,thanks!
By the way,no matter what you are going to do,do remember to make backup for your data.

RAID Recovery | Recover RAID Data​

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

Late in the game i know, but the link in my sig really needs to be stickied.