RAID pros/cons

DELL sells the same 8400 model PC with a 250GB HD or a RAID setup with two
160GB HD. I have no experience with RAID setup. Any input would be
appreciated. Thanks, Steve T.

Well, it is NOT an option for Win98 unless you use a RAID controller.

RAID can be instituted by either an OS such as Win2K and WinXP or by a RAID controller.
Originally RAID was the domain of SCSI but now it is common to see RAID with IDE RAID 0/1
controllers and SATA/PATA controllers.

RAID - Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks is a way to increase reliability and/or disk
space by using two or more hard disks in an "array".

The following is a good source of info.
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/R/RAID.html
http://www.uni-mainz.de/~neuffer/scsi/what_is_raid.html

You'll note that there are two definitions of the acronym RAID. The old and true definition
uses "inexpensive" while the newer phrase "independent" has come into the mainstream albeit
those like myself stick to the original "inexpensive" definition.

I will also note that RAID controllers are the *best* way to go.

Dave



"Steve T" wrote in message
...
| DELL sells the same 8400 model PC with a 250GB HD or a RAID setup with two
| 160GB HD. I have no experience with RAID setup. Any input would be
| appreciated. Thanks, Steve T.
|
|

Thanks David. I should have posted OT since those systems are XP. I just
thought I would get the right answers here. Steve T.
"David H. Lipman" wrote in message
...
Well, it is NOT an option for Win98 unless you use a RAID controller.

RAID can be instituted by either an OS such as Win2K and WinXP or by a
RAID controller.
Originally RAID was the domain of SCSI but now it is common to see RAID
with IDE RAID 0/1
controllers and SATA/PATA controllers.

RAID - Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks is a way to increase
reliability and/or disk
space by using two or more hard disks in an "array".

The following is a good source of info.
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/R/RAID.html
http://www.uni-mainz.de/~neuffer/scsi/what_is_raid.html

You'll note that there are two definitions of the acronym RAID. The old
and true definition
uses "inexpensive" while the newer phrase "independent" has come into the
mainstream albeit
those like myself stick to the original "inexpensive" definition.

I will also note that RAID controllers are the *best* way to go.

Dave



"Steve T" wrote in message
...
| DELL sells the same 8400 model PC with a 250GB HD or a RAID setup with
two
| 160GB HD. I have no experience with RAID setup. Any input would be
| appreciated. Thanks, Steve T.
|
|

Like I said, it is an option *if* you use a RAID controller.

You can use two SATA drives in a RAID 0/1 configuration using the following RAID controller
for ~$40.00
http://www.jdr.com/interact/item.asp...=MCT-SATA-RAID

The RAID controller is compatible with Win98/98SE so the topic isn't really OT.

Getting back to your original question... The Dell system is a WinXP platform. What you
need to find out is if this is a hardware or software RAID sub-system. Always go for a
hardware RAID sub-system over a software RAID sub-system.

Dave




"Steve T" wrote in message
...
| Thanks David. I should have posted OT since those systems are XP. I just
| thought I would get the right answers here. Steve T.
| "David H. Lipman" wrote in message
| ...
| Well, it is NOT an option for Win98 unless you use a RAID controller.
|
| RAID can be instituted by either an OS such as Win2K and WinXP or by a
| RAID controller.
| Originally RAID was the domain of SCSI but now it is common to see RAID
| with IDE RAID 0/1
| controllers and SATA/PATA controllers.
|
| RAID - Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks is a way to increase
| reliability and/or disk
| space by using two or more hard disks in an "array".
|
| The following is a good source of info.
| http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/R/RAID.html
| http://www.uni-mainz.de/~neuffer/scsi/what_is_raid.html
|
| You'll note that there are two definitions of the acronym RAID. The old
| and true definition
| uses "inexpensive" while the newer phrase "independent" has come into the
| mainstream albeit
| those like myself stick to the original "inexpensive" definition.
|
| I will also note that RAID controllers are the *best* way to go.
|
| Dave
|
|
|
| "Steve T" wrote in message
| ...
| | DELL sells the same 8400 model PC with a 250GB HD or a RAID setup with
| two
| | 160GB HD. I have no experience with RAID setup. Any input would be
| | appreciated. Thanks, Steve T.
| |
| |
|
|
|
|

Steve T wrote:
DELL sells the same 8400 model PC with a 250GB HD or a RAID setup
with two 160GB HD. I have no experience with RAID setup. Any input
would be appreciated. Thanks, Steve T.

You have two basic choices with RAID...

1. Write data to both drives simultaneously. Faster but if *either*
drive goes bad you are seriously up the creek.

2. One drive is used as an automatic backup for the other. Fine for
lots of people (businesses etc) but IMO it is easier and more sensible
to do your own backups when you want to.

If it were me, I'd take the two 160 GB, not use RAID, make a small
(about 8GB should be plenty), bootable primary partion on each and
various larger extended logical partitions. Periodically I'd copy C:
to the other primary p[artition (which should be same size as C. If
C: gets screwed up open the case, swap cables, boot from the backup
drive and restore what was C:.

--
dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.05...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

"Steve T" wrote in
:

DELL sells the same 8400 model PC with a 250GB HD or a RAID setup with
two 160GB HD. I have no experience with RAID setup. Any input would be
appreciated. Thanks, Steve T.




Many people believe that RAID is not very beneficial for desktop systems.
Take a look at:

http://storagereview.com/

Checkout the forums.

Also, there is a reliability penalty when running multiple drives
configured as a RAID system.

See Also:

http://www.uni-mainz.de/~neuffer/scsi/what_is_raid.html

See:

http://faq.storagereview.com/tiki-in...leDriveVsRaid0
http://forums.storagereview.net/index.php?act=idx

The information on the "What is RAID" page is very out of date and somewhat
technically incorrect - the author tried to make the subject too simple and
as a result the contents are skewed.

RAID for a workstation can be extremely beneficial, the newer the hardware
platform is the more it cries out for a RAID disk system. When you have a
processor and memory bus capable of moving data at up to 100mbps and a disk
system capable of only 100-133mbps it's easy to see where the bottleneck
will be. :-)

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User]
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* for the benefit of all. Private mail is usually not replied to.
* My website, such as it is ... http://rgharper.mvps.org/
* HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"John Smithe" wrote in message
. 1...
"Steve T" wrote in
:

DELL sells the same 8400 model PC with a 250GB HD or a RAID setup with
two 160GB HD. I have no experience with RAID setup. Any input would be
appreciated. Thanks, Steve T.




Many people believe that RAID is not very beneficial for desktop systems.
Take a look at:

http://storagereview.com/

Checkout the forums.

Also, there is a reliability penalty when running multiple drives
configured as a RAID system.

See Also:

http://www.uni-mainz.de/~neuffer/scsi/what_is_raid.html

"Steve T" wrote in
:

DELL sells the same 8400 model PC with a 250GB HD or a RAID setup with
two 160GB HD. I have no experience with RAID setup. Any input would be
appreciated. Thanks, Steve T.




Here the original article by Paterson and acssociates:

http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~garth/RAIDp...atterson88.pdf