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How stable is this really ?? I have been useing Raid 0 for a month now, and not had any problems. However, I have not put anything important on it I dont have enough drives to do a 0+1, and dont want to lose the speed on just a 1, and I am selling my old system parts, So was just wondering how stable this is, and if i should get rid of it before I start to put stuff on it. Origionally, I did thi just to see what raid was like, and how easy it was to impliment, now I kinda like the speed I most likely would have the important stuff on other drives, but who knows. Thanks!!

It's not a matter of "stability" it's a matter of risk.

You now have 2 drives instead of one, with no redundancy, so you've essentially doubled (maybe more, according the the mathmaticians) your odds of a catastrophic hard drive failure.

That doesn't mean that the array might not run just fine for years, just be aware that you have increased your risk somewhat (compared to having only 1 drive).

Another thing to be aware of is that if this is an on-board RAID controller, than if the mobo ever fails, you will probably NOT be able to read the data off those drives unless you find an identical mobo. If you are going to use RAID then I would recommend you buy an add-on RAID card like a Promise card. That way if the mobo dies, you can just move the array and the card to another rig.

Originally posted by FlyingPenguin
Another thing to be aware of is that if this is an on-board RAID controller, than if the mobo ever fails, you will probably NOT be able to read the data off those drives unless you find an identical mobo. If you are going to use RAID then I would recommend you buy an add-on RAID card like a Promise card. That way if the mobo dies, you can just move the array and the card to another rig.

Even if it is an onboard promise controller??

thanks FP!!

I'd stray from anything onboard myself.. I lost about 120GB of stuff with my recent death of a DFI Mobo w/onboard raid. Nothing went wrong with the drives, they're both still chugging along, but the loss of that data really hurts as I spend many hours (over a year) downloading a lot of the video that was on those drives. The speed is nice, but it's nothing mission critical that I can't live without.

eGo

Originally posted by ShibasScotch
Even if it is an onboard promise controller??

thanks FP!!

Promise has compatibility between chipsets usually. Better than Highpoint at least. Watch out with onboard Promise chips though, sometimes they don't have all the features of the real Promise chip.

I've run RAID 0 sets off an on for years and I wouldn't even think of having one without having another HDD in the box for use as a b/up. My MO is to ghost an image of the RAID 0 set once a week to the aforementioned HDD.

For example I have a pair 37GB Raptors currently in a RAID 0 set and have separate IDE Maxtor 80GB ATA133 hdd for storing critical data and Ghost '03 image files I make of the RAID array. I also burn things like financial info / My documents / favorites etc etc. to CDs anytime I add anything in between the Ghost process.

I learned my lesson the hard way ( mucho movie, music and data loss ) running a WD1200JB as a single HDD, dying on me 3 months after buying it. You don't have to have a RAID array to lose critical stuff. I usually have a miinimum of 3 HDD's in my main rig at any given time now.

Bottom line is, if you don't have the wherewithall to back up the RAID 0, I wouldn't mess with it. Conversely, if you put together a nice RAID 0 config, you'll never go back to using a single drive.

When in doubt.....back it up! :ithappens

hum, maybe in that case, i will keep only programs on the raid drives, and keep all the important stuff on one of the other 2 drives.. Currently, my rrommate and I are getting togther a server, that we are looking to use for file.game serving, Ill probally backup everything REALLY important on there.. banking, otehr documents, my computer tools ect. But I love the speed of the raid-0, over my singel 80gb wd se drive speed. For now, I guess that is what Ill do.. Thanks for all the response guys!

Even if Promise makes the onboard it doesn't mean it's compatible with their add-on cards. They usually customize the BIOS for their customers.

It's a good idea to only use it on your boot and applications partition(s) and not your data (use a seperate drive for that). You'll still get the benefit of improved performance without the risk of losing data. Another good use for a RAID array is for games. Modern FPS games take a long time to load and a array will sure speed that up (only thing I miss about using an array).

As mentioned above, with or without RAID, it's a wise idea to make a regular (monthly at least) Ghost image of your boot and program partition(s).

I ran an array for a year but I got real nervous about the risk and eventually opted for a single 160Gb drive when it was upgrade time. Since I use my system for business as well as pleasure, and it's mission critical, I didn't feel safe running an array.

I also use a file server and keep backup copies of important stuff, as well as my MP3 collection (which is backed up on DVD data discs) on it. You don't need a powerhouse computer for a server - even an 800 MHz Celery will do an adequate job - it's not number crunching just file serving.

yea, we actually have an older amd 900

I'm running SATA RAID-0 for a month now.
No problems.