Can somebody help me set up a raid configuration?

Any opinion is more than welcome.

My pc was configured in raid5 but I lost all the data. Since then I decided to go back to the classic drive C,D,E each by themselves. The point is that things are going slow / sometimes I try to access drive D with music and there is a significant latency in the hdd response. I can even hear the sleepy drive waking up.
I might want to aim to high but here is what I dream to do.
1. I want to go back to a raid configuration in which all those hdd(i have 3x 500 sata) to work hard for me.
2. Find a way to add the fourth one in which to save important data. I case of crash to reinstall vista and all the soft without losing all my projects. I am doing video editing.

My PC config is as it follows:
ASUS P5WDG2 WS PRO
INTEL QUAD CORE 2.94
2x ATI RADEON HD 2600 XT - crossfire
4g memory - SUPER TALENT T800 UX 4G C5
3 X 500 G HDD SATA.

My motherboard has a sata external connector.

What would you guys do with this configuration in order to set up a raid. Don t tell me trash it 'cause i won t. I paid more than 4000 bucks last year. Today might value less than
2000 ( hurts so bad). This is another reason I want to squeeze as much as possible from what I have.

Back to the question - Can I add a fourth EXTERNAL HDD to the three internal I have. The fourth sould be the one for holding all the projects and data/ the other three just for ACTION. I would like to have only two for ACTION and the other two(one internal one external) for STORAGE.

Is there any chance for me to get a nice RAID configuration without loosing data?
Do I need a Raid controller... is the one built in the AsusMTB strong enough?

I would appreciate any idea. Thx

Hi tonitsaurus everything you are asking for in this post is possible.

Let's try this, raid 0 two of your drives for C: and one as D: for data and/or backup, when runs out of room add another, internal or external they work the same. (my system's window experience index different between raided and unraid is 5.9 to 5.5)

You will have to free up two of the drives and have everything you like to keep save to you C:. If not enough room save them else where like DVD's or somthing.

About the raid controller, I heard people refers it to be "real raids"; sounds like it must be better. However, you have consider more card means less room for your x fire to dissipate heat. It is up to you.

Now set up the two free drives to raid 0 array, make sure it is set up to be bootable. When it is done, it boots up as a new drive with new letter assigned.

Then marrow C: into the new drive, I use Acronis TI.

When done, shut down and disconnect original C:. Reboot with the new C:. Shut down and reconnect original C: which will boot up as a new raw drive you can format and do what ever you like with it.

I wouldn't worry too much about raid 0 is being relatively insecure. All you need is system backup every once a while in case of crashing. It can be easily system restore with Acronis.

The process would very likely work for you 'cus I did it before. Good luck and post back.

Thank you Bruce2

I am glad to hear that I can configure my hdd so I can get some extra speed.
Unfortunately only tomorrow I can get the external sata 4th drive. Actually at a second though I think I can transfer everything I need to the third drive I have (500g 16mb) and mess up with the other two.
I still have some questions:
1. Whenever I will put the two (500g) hdd together I will DEFINATELY loose all the OS and software I have now on the drive C. Right?
On the new raid 0 configuration I must have a clean vista 64 install. Right? And then reinstall all the soft I have.
2. Is it worth to back up the soft I have or it s better to reinstall?
I don t even know if I can back up the soft.
3. This a possible scenario which looks logical to me. Aren t those individual 2 storage sata drive going to downgrade the other raid 0 two HDD- since the individual 2 storage HDD are not configured as RAID. Are they going to be a burden for the whole system?
I am just asking. If yes I might get rid of the 4th external one. 500 g is still a lot- meaning I will stick with 3 HDD. Even though, I will have a third one out of the raid, this might slow down everything. I am sure you have the right answer.

4. On the new RAID0 C drive I will have 500g +500 g =1T, or the second one will be invisible> I guess that will be raid 5. Just guess.

5. Is Acronis TI working on vista64?
Sorry for bugging you with so many questions.
The actual hdd data transfer score is 5.6- not very bad. Today I ll get 2 more extra memory sticks. I will let you know if super talent memory is able to get up to 5.9. I can t wait.
Thx a lot again for your time and help.

Hi tomitsaurus, let me try to answer your questions in detail:

1. I suggested to free up two drives other then the C: where you OS was installed. So every thing in C: is untouched. After set up your raid and then mirror (copy exactly including the drive name C) the C: to the raid drives which will became the C: drive when the mirroring is done. Later you will boot from the new C:. The original C: will became just another drive such as F: you can format it or delete everything in it or rename it for other usage.

2. If what you have in C: now is ok with you, then it is no better or worse then clean install. Only that you will save all the trouble of backing up and installing everything. Even worse, when you in some case don't know what to backup. Lol. I hate it when some time don't know if I left out something important, that is why I always system back up the whole thing.

4. Yes, the new raid 0 array will be shown as one 1T drive.

3. Logically, you are right about the unraided drives slowing down but only unnoticeably minimal. My suggestions would be put everything in your 1Tb C: because it will take a long time and lots of data and programs to fill it up. Only put those raerly used data and the once not needing speed in the 3rd drive. The external drive is going to be use for data backup or system backup for your C: and you can plug it in when ever backup is required. I have almost all the games you can think of and all songs and photos plus a bunch of junk stuffs in my raid drive which only took up around 80%.

5. Yes, Acronis is compatible with Vista 64.

Correction made on my previous post: (my system's window experience index different between raided and unraid is 5.9 to 5.5) not 4.9 to 4.5

Hope this would help. Post back.

Are you using hardware or software RAID?

Dynamic disks: Software RAID
hardware RAID controller, on-board or in a slot: Hardware RAID

Which one?

I have done SCSI and SAS RAID at home and on servers. I don't use dynamic disk (software RAID). This does not work well.

Never use dynamic disks on hardware RAID. You want basic and hardware RAID.

I would recommend RAID 0+1 with four identical drives on a on-board RAID controller. Most boards have SATA RAID that supports this. Don't mix drives. Same drives only for best performance. I also don't like more than one array = one partition. This prevent disk thrashing.

Hi Michael, I believe we are talking about on-board raid controller. By the way, my MB supports raid 0,1,0+1, and 5. Thanks.

Hi guys
Thank you for your help.
Please gimme some time to get back to you.
Both idea sound good to me. I am a bit afraid of what GURU SUGGESTED, because I don t want to lose everything again. You have to understand that you are talking to somebody who doesn t understands what raid 0 or raid 0+1 mean (boring).
I am looking for what you guys seek (and you already accomplished) fast and secure. I’ll buy the 4th drive (identical if I have to) and get to raid 0+1. I don t care about money I spend to fix this .. I already wasted a lot for too little.
But I need support and patience. It feels so bad to understand just a little bit about an issue and still be confused (talking about me-you guys are good).
Thx you so much for your help!!!!

BTW super talent memory 8g is a piece of crap. Same score (on Sandra).

This is t I found:
RAID 0+1: striped sets in a mirrored set (minimum four disks; even number of disks) provides fault tolerance and improved performance but increases complexity. The key difference from RAID 1+0 is that RAID 0+1 creates a second striped set to mirror a primary striped set. The array continues to operate with one or more drives failed in the same mirror set, but if drives fail on both sides of the mirror the data on the RAID system is LOST.

It s not fun to loose verything.
Is there any way to protect data on raid 0+1?

I have been running SCSI and SAS RAID at home for 15 years. I have used it on corporate networks for 20+ years. I would recommend a good backup solution along with RAID. I hope you did not mix dynamic disks (software RAID) and hardware RAID. This will cause total failure if the RAID array fails. LSI Logic and other RAID manufacturers require basic disks with hardware RAID.

RAID 0+1 is fault tolerant just like RAID 5. This difference is no parity writes. Your read performance will be slower than RAID 5, your write performance will definitely increase over RAID 5. I use SCSI RAID 10 and SAS RAID 10 to increase write performance. My HP 2012FC SAN on the corporate network uses RAID 10 for incredible write performance.

Protect your data by getting a backup drive and using it. Vista does disk to disk backups. Firewire 800 drives are fast and worth using for this.

Here is my SAS RAID 1 benchmark
Benchmark Results
Drive Index : 104.84MB/s
Results Interpretation : Higher index values are better.
Random Access Time : 1ms
Results Interpretation : Lower index values are better.

Windows Experience Index
Current Drive : 5.9
Results Interpretation : Higher index values are better.

Performance Test Status
Run ID : LSI MegaRAID 8708EM2 146GB (RAID, NCQ)
Platform Compliance : x64
System Timer : 3.58MHz
Operating System Disk Cache Used : Yes
Use Overlapped I/O : Yes
I/O Queue Depth : 4 request(s)
Test File Size : 16GB
File Fragments : 4
Block Size : 1MB

Detailed Benchmark Results
Buffered Read : 1.01GB/s
Sequential Read : 119.73MB/s
Random Read : 128.25MB/s
Buffered Write : 679.29MB/s
Sequential Write : 31.91MB/s
Random Write : 31.21MB/s
Random Access Time : 1ms

I back it up 2-3x a week on three server grade tape drives. I recommend a firewire drive with disk to disk backups.