Setting up RAID 0

Question

I have a dell dimension 4600 2 40gb's a Western Digital and a Samsung, both 7200rpm i believe. I want to know if i can even set up RAID 0 on this computer, if so how do i got about doing this. Im going to Reformat Both HDD's within the week, and i want to do it then, if i can of course. Message Edited by Ridlyn on 11-26-2005 06:56 PM

ejn63 · Answer

You cannot do hardware RAID on this system without adding a PCI RAID controller; there's no RAID controller onboard.

If you decide to go this route, be sure you understand the very significant downsides to RAID 0 - the risk of data loss doubles (lose either drive, lose everything) and if one drive fails or the array becomes otherwise corrupted, it's exceedingly difficult to recover data from a RAID 0 array.

ejn63 · Answer

The onboard SATA controller will show up as such, but it's neither SCSI nor RAID - it will support two independent SATA drives, but will not do RAID.

Ridlyn · Answer

So in order for me to do this i would have to buy a Raid Controller Correct?  Also will RAID 0 work with IDE drives? I dont have SATA.   I dont want to fork out money finding out that i cant even run this.

Ridlyn · Answer

In the Device Manager under SCSI and Raid Controller theres a SCSI/Raid Host Controller, it even gives me the properties, it also gives me driver details as well.

Ridlyn · Answer

Well i don't think im gonna run RAID 0, mainly for the fact that even if i did buy the RAID Controller, my IDE cable arent nearly long enough to reach the HDD's anyway, so i'll just stick with the configuration that i have right now.   So, what that article says even if i did put them in RAID 0, i would barely even notice the speed increase.

ejn63 · Answer

Yes, there are EIDE RAID controllers. Before you buy one, you owe it to yourself to read this article: http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2101&p=11

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