Confused about my Hard drive config

[justin82]

I currently have 2x80GB Seagate Barracudas and 1x120GB Maxtor Diamondmax 9. While the forums were down yesterday (for me at least) I asked over in the 2cpu forums how I should set the drive config up.

My requirements are... 1drive volume for my OS install and the apps. and at least 1 other volume for my media and music and stuff. So I dont mind doing RAID.

my initial thought was 2x80gb in RAID 0 as the boot drive and the 120 for the music, when I volunteered that thought I got this comment in return...

"Well, many ppl won't even boot off a scsi raid0 array, let alone ide. There are reasons why it is not a good idea, but you can try it. Who knows, it may last for years. It may last a few days..."

That comment confused me a little, I thought many people boot off a RAID 0 array. :-/


EDIT, I should mention that I installed in the above config real quick last nite at about 4 just to get something up I could post on. and my 120 is my drive with al the media on it. however it is in the NV SATA ports and the 80s are on the Silicon Image ports, in windows the 120 showed up as C:\ where the 2x80s (OS) showed up as E:\
However on the maxtor 120 there is a folder named "be033411834867534d298db1bc98bc" and in that folder is "i386" and it wont let me delete it or change any attributes? anyone got any ideas about this one?

 

[unhappy_mage]

The reason people don't use raid 0 arrays for a boot drive is that it's not any faster, and it decreases reliability by a good bit. However, if you've got a backup strategy and think it "feels faster", go for it.

 

[ilkhan]

The only way I would use R0 as a boot drive is if there was absolutely nothing on said drive that you dont mind losing. AKA, run a second drive (array?) for any and all storage. Basically the way I do it.

Raptor for boot, and the R1 array for *all* data. Besides the time lost, I have no fear of formats (desktop, favorites, mail storage, even trillian logs are on the array).

 

[justin82]

Ok, well I have kill disk'd the Maxtor and am going to try and use it for the system drive. I have the 2x80s that I guess I will run in Raid 1. The data is currently on 1 of the 80s, if I put them in Raid 0 will it automagically rebuild the second disk off the first? or will I need to copy the data off the 80 and create the array then re-copy the data to it? Also lets say one of the disks dies can I pull one of the 80s out that is still working right and retrieve the data?possibly from another computer? or will I have to get a second drive and let it rebuild them both?