SCSI and RAID 0

wertret · Sep 18, 2003, 05:13 AM

Well, i've purchased now two seagate cheetah scsi 73 gb each. It's secure to put them in raid 0 if i pretend to use them as the main OS and programs disks. I've read that the stripping mode could result in lossing data so that's my concern. Any ideas?...

krazy1 · Sep 18, 2003, 06:11 AM

go RAID 5 and the data loss will be no worry... you will need 1 more hard drive though for RAID 5. RAID 5 does parity so if one drive goes bad you drop in a new one and everything is written back to the new one. I use RAID 5 in my NAS Server & file server (Network Area Storage) and it is great.... It has saved my butt many times...... In the file server I have 3 60GB drives for the array. So I get 120GB of storage since 1/3 of the total drive storage is for parity. But I had a drive die, bought a new one droped it in and the other 2 drives re-created the lost one on the new drive..... gotta love that....

FluffyChicken · Sep 18, 2003, 06:15 AM

Loosing data as in. If on drive fails you will loose all data on both drives.

So either backup any important data OR put a seperate drive in and keep a backup on there.

You loose no more than if it was one larger drive dying BUT you do double your chance of loosing it all. ie chances of one drive failing compared to the chances of 1 of the 2 drives failing (2 drives means you double your odds)
If you really are concened about loosing any data then you need them in a mirror (although you loose the increased sapce and speed (unless you have a controller that can read from both at the same time.)

FluffyChicken · Sep 18, 2003, 06:18 AM

krazy1
but it looks like he's after performance (why else go RAID0)
So you'd need a decent controller that can actually handle RAID5 (and not via software)

wertret · Sep 18, 2003, 06:26 AM

OK, but each of this cheetah babes cost me around 600 euros each and my pocket is dead to buy another. I think i'm trying raid next time. Thanks for the help.

krazy1 · Sep 18, 2003, 06:53 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by FluffyChicken
krazy1
but it looks like he's after performance (why else go RAID0)
So you'd need a decent controller that can actually handle RAID5 (and not via software)

I understand he was looking for performance but he also was worried about data loss. I was explaining 1 option. If you want performance and Data parity you need to go RAID 1+0 which is RAID 0 with parity... only problem is it requires a min of 4 drives....

Well I have 1 mach. with a controller and the other uses the software option in Win 2k..... both run the same and with no problems. Sure If the Wn 2k mach goes down I could loose all the info on the RAID 5 aray but that is why you back-up.....