About hard drives..

[bandieramonte]

Hello,

I'm now presenting this issue where my hard drive and windows registries are too trashed. I mean, after many driver and software installations and un-installations and similar stuff I've been feeling my machine at half the speed relative to the first months of use. I've tried defragmenting my hard drive, using programs like CCleaner and others to clear my registries, driver cleaners, and many other stuff, but my system is still getting slower, when I've also got 100+ GB of free space, and huge loads of RAM memory.

So I've decided to format my system. But since I don't want to lose 30+ GB of important documents, I also decided to buy a new HDD to aid me in this process. I also do this because I've heard that a second HDD can slightly boost a system's performance when storing the OS in one HDD and the rest of the files in the other one. But I don't know whether to buy an external HDD or an internal HDD. My priorities are those: to format preserving my documents and improving performance with dual HDDs. I don't know if I can install a second internal HDD, transfer my docs in this HDD from the older HDD, and then format only the older HDD, transferring my files back again to the old HDD, and finally installing the OS in the new HDD. I also don't know if this can be done with an external HDD.

This dual HDD subject is new to me, so please clear this for me. Maybe there is a much easier way to accomplish the desired priorities.

Thanks.

[Skippman]

Dual hard drives CAN speed up a system in certain circumstances like a RAID 0 array. The idea is that while one hard drive is reading the other is seeking and vice versa.

It sound like for your requirements an external hard drive will be fine. Your primary concern is offloading your files. An external hard drive will accomplish that excellently and will also make for a excellent backup device. Copy your files off, format your old drive, and reinstall the OS. Once it's reinstalled I think you'll be suprised at what a speed diffrence that alone can make.

Also, choosing the right applications for your computer makes a huge diffrence. For example there's a night and day diffrence between Adobe Acrobat and FoxIt Reader. They do the same thing, but FoxIt is much more efficent and doesn't want to install a tray application. All those icon's down by your clock in the system tray are slowly robbing your machine of performance. Limiting them is a good step towards improving overall system performance.

[bandieramonte]

And will a external HDD grant me such a RAID 0 Array performance boost? Because this boost is as important for me as preserving my files.

I mean, what are the main differences between an internal and an external HDD (besides of course their physical location)?

[InspectahACE]

As far as I knew RAID was for internal drives only. Externals usually use USB or FIREwire so that is the main reason why I would say no to your first question on if it was perform better ..but with e-sata on the up and up I could imagine RAID on an external e-sata drive..but i dont know that all for sure.. I never really used RAID much..and the differences between internal and external drives mainly cosmetic..I opened up an external 2 months ago and inside was nothin but a bare sata internal HD hooked up to littel pcb board with power and sata to usb adaptor..unless they came out with somethin new that i don't know of, thats the only difference

[Skippman]

Using JBOD you can stripe or map to an external SAS or eSATA drive.

RAID 0 requires both drives be of the same make and model. You'd have to find an identical version of the drive in your machine. What board are you running? Does it have a hardware RAID controller?

As for external vs internal all an external drive consists off is a controller board, a power connector, and a cage. The physical drive itself is some version of either a 2.5" or 3.5" drive. You can hook the drive up to the computer directly by stripping it from it's housing.

[Bio-Hazard]

Here's what my E-SATA setup looks like................. , and I've still got one more on-board port E-SATA port empty as well.

[Major_A]

Then only speed boost I've ever heard of with two drives, non-RAID setup, is placing the swap file on the non-OS drive. Honestly I don't even know if there is that much of a performance increase or if it just helps with fragmentation.

As mentioned earlier, just pick up an external drive and call it a day. It will come in handy more often then you will realize.

[Bio-Hazard]

If you go external, I'd opt for something that's hot swappable or at least expandable as your needs grow.

[bandieramonte]

The model of the internal HDD I actually have is :

Western Digital WD3200KSRTL Caviar 320 GB SATA 3.5-Inch Hard Drive

and I don't know if it has a hardware RAID controller, but my motherboard (p6N Diamond) has a Raid controller factory installed.

So, this means that to do RAID 0 with an external drive, this drive must be also a Western Digital SATA 3.5-Inch Hard Drive ? Do they must also have the same storage size?

Please remember that I already have 30+ GB of important files that need to be preserved before doing RAID 0. I don't still know whether if the process of setting up RAID 0 would inevitably delete my files. The idea is to format my two HDDs, in such a way that I would then have RAID 0 installed with my files in one of the HDDs.

And Skippman, you said "Using JBOD you can stripe or map to an external SAS or eSATA drive.", I researched a bit on this, and many sources have revealed that this "Just a Bunch of Disks" mode does not deliver the performance capabilities of RAID 0. Some even say that this hurts the performance..

Then, would I be right on saying that there is now way to do RAID 0 between an internal and external HDD?

[Skippman]

Yes, you're correct. JBOD is not for peformance gains, but for putting extrenal and internal drives together for one bit volume.

To do RAID 0 you'd have to get another internal drive exactly like the one you currently have, off load the critical data to some form of storage device (thumb drives, DVD-R, etc) and then create the RAID volume. That would give you the biggest spead increase.

The problem is you're trying to do two diffrent things at the same time. Backup your data, and increase speed. Doesn't work that way.

[Major_A]

The only way you can do RAID with an external drive (in your current setup) is if it is an eSATA or SATA model plugged into the same chipset on your motherboard. There are NAS boxes that support RAID but this isn't what your are wanting/asking about. If you are so adamant about doing RAID 0 buy another "Western Digital WD3200KSRTL Caviar 320 GB SATA 3.5-Inch Hard Drive" and a cheap external drive. This way you can create a RAID 0 setup after you backup your important data to the external. Just know that to setup a RAID group for Windows you will need the necessary drivers before Windows is installed.

Windows XP:
Floppy drive - Press F6 during setup
nLite - Slipstream the RAID drivers into your install

Windows Vista:
Flash drive - put the drivers on a flash drive and tell the install where to look

Either way you will need to reinstall Windows if you do decide to go RAID.

[Skippman]

Knowing your whole set of system specs is really going to help. Doing a RAID 0 array can only help so much if your processer and RAM aren't up to par.

[Major_A]

For a direct comparison to what you have now I have this computer running RAID 0 with 2 WD Caviar 320GB drives.

System Specs:
Phenom X3 8450 @ 2.1Ghz
Foxconn M61PMV - nForce 430
2GB DDR2 800Mhz
9400GT
2x320GB WD Caviar Drives RAID 0
Windows XP Pro x86 SP3

[DMB2000uk]

I wouldn't worry about going RAID-0 just yet.

I don't know if anyone has said yet, but with going from a single drive to a RAID-0 array, your chance of data loss due to disk failure increases with the more disks you use.
With not having anywhere else to keep a backup of all your important data, a two drive RAID-0 array would double your chances of disk failure and complete data loss. So I'd strongly recommend an additional single hard drive is what you get (for now) to make sure your important files are safe and backed up.

An external hard drive will suit you just fine. eSATA if you have the port and need the speed (recommended), USB if you don't, or speed isn't critical.

Dan

[bandieramonte]

So I will conclude that since I want to preserve important files as well as set up RAID 0, installing an additional internal or external drive will not suffice, meaning that it's not possible to preserve files, having two HDDs, after having set RAID 0.

If I want to achieve both goals, then I will need an additional internal HDD to do RAID 0, and an external HDD to preserve my files.

So, after having determined this, please tell me if this internal HDD would allow me to properly set RAID 0 with the one I already have.

My concern is that the HDD is 250GB, while mine is 320GB, all else equal. I can't buy other 320GB HDD because of an extreme budget constraint I'm exposed to right now (also have to buy the external HDD).

Dan, certainly RAID 0's disadvantage is the increased chances of disk failure. But since the primary use of my system is extreme gaming, RAID 0's advantage, that is, increased performance, precedes its disadvantage. For this reason I'm attracted to RAID 0. But it's a pity all this can't be done by purchasing only and additional HDD.

Skippman, my system specs are:

4GB OCZ SLI-Ready Edition PC-6400 4-4-4-15 1T
(2x) Geforce 8800GTS Pcie 512MB GDDR3 3PORT Dual Dvi Tv Out Oc SLI
Western Digital WD3200KSRTL Caviar 320 GB SATA 3.5-Inch Hard Drive
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Sound Card ( 70SB073A00000 )
Thermaltake W0131RU 850W Toughpower SLI Cross-Fire Ready Modular Power Supply
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 quad-core processor @ 3.00 GHZ
Nforce 680I Lga 775 Dc MAX-8GB DDR2 Atx 4PCIE 2PCI X-fi Aud Esata

[Major_A]

No the drive has to be identical to the one you have already installed. You can buy two of those 250GB drives and set them up in a RAID 0 array.

[Skippman]

Buy a couple thumb drives and an identical drive to the one you have. Copy your data off to the thumb drives and build a RAID 0 array. It's the cheapest, most practicle solution to your problem. Thumb drives are cheap, portable, and take no space.

[hnzw_rui]

No the drive has to be identical to the one you have already installed. You can buy two of those 250GB drives and set them up in a RAID 0 array.

Not really. Most RAID controllers don't require that nowadays. Only problem is he'll only have 500GB storage (2x250GB). Don't see why the need to go with 250GB, though. I checked Newegg and the price difference between the least expensive models (WD2500AAJS 250GB and WD3200AAJS 320GB) is only $2.

Whoops... Just noticed the guy lives in Venezuela. Never mind.

[bandieramonte]

Exactly

In Venezuela it's extremely difficult to acquire electronic pieces, some of you here already know the big HUGE level of effort it took me to bring all the hardware pieces I just posted above.

So, I can only buy in Amazon, and I only have $54 officially allowed by the government this year to spend, and in Amazon, the 250GB drive comes for roughly $50, while the 320GB one costs around $63... I was so close

It's good to know that I can go RAID 0 with HDD of the same model and make, having different sizes, while I hope this would not damage the RAID 0's performance.

So I guess I got the solution here: buy that internal HDD, and some thumb drives which fortunately can be directly found here and are "relatively" cheap.

Thanks a lot to all who helped.

[Major_A]

Have you ran any tests that I included to see what your performance is now compared to what I have posted? I don't think you'll be very impressed with my results if you do run the tests.