Need an opinion on hard drives for raid setup

27th February 2007, 01:04

Hey all

Just want to know what your opinion is on sata hard drives, I'm currently running a 250GB western digital drive as my main that I'm running win media center, but I'm running out of space in a hurry.

I'm looking at 2 drives right now one is a western digital 500GB standard sata drive which is 140 bucks and the other is the western digital 500GB RE2 Raid enhanced drive for 170 bucks. I'd like to get the cheaper one but would it be harder to set up in raid with the 250GB I have now?

Basically I'm wondering if I should get the standard 500GB drive or the "raid enhanced" drive, seeming I've never had the need to set up a raid before I have no idea which one would be best. And I really don't want to lose my data.

thanks all

-Ray

jmke · 27th February 2007, 15:30

the difference in raid performance will be minimal at best not quite worth the extra cost unless you plan RAID 5 setup with very multi-user action.

do you plan to use RAID? RAID 0 is cheapest but quite insecure, RAID 1 is expensive with lower write speeds; if you don't want raid, the cheapest drive will surely do.

27th February 2007, 16:26

Ya i'd really like to get around using raid if i can, i just assumed that if you had more then one sata drive then you had to use raid. If i could just plug in a second drive and run it like a slave that would be ideal.

jmke · 27th February 2007, 17:31

you never have to use raid, sata & raid have nothing do with each other. RAID is just a redundancy method to either increase speed, increase data-security or do both;

SATA is serial attached HD vs PATA which was parallel (one master/slave).

SATA doesn't work with master/slave, what motherboard are you using? I'm guessing 4 SATA ports, each one will accept ONE device, you don't need to use RAID at all;

why would you use RAID? what would be your purpose? increase file security (RAID 1), speed (RAID 0) ?

3rd March 2007, 05:51

As i said i didn't need raid, i just thought if you had more then one sata drive you needed to use raid seeming it's not like parallel (master and slave). I guess i was mistaken, thats even better seeming i've heard that raid can be messy.

I'd rather it be alittle slower or what not then have to deal with the raid setup and loading drivers from floppies.

27th February 2007, 01:04	#1
mentalcrisis00 Posts: n/a	Need an opinion on hard drives for raid setup Hey all Just want to know what your opinion is on sata hard drives, I'm currently running a 250GB western digital drive as my main that I'm running win media center, but I'm running out of space in a hurry. I'm looking at 2 drives right now one is a western digital 500GB standard sata drive which is 140 bucks and the other is the western digital 500GB RE2 Raid enhanced drive for 170 bucks. I'd like to get the cheaper one but would it be harder to set up in raid with the 250GB I have now? Basically I'm wondering if I should get the standard 500GB drive or the "raid enhanced" drive, seeming I've never had the need to set up a raid before I have no idea which one would be best. And I really don't want to lose my data. thanks all -Ray

27th February 2007, 15:30	#2
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,022	the difference in raid performance will be minimal at best not quite worth the extra cost unless you plan RAID 5 setup with very multi-user action. do you plan to use RAID? RAID 0 is cheapest but quite insecure, RAID 1 is expensive with lower write speeds; if you don't want raid, the cheapest drive will surely do. __________________

27th February 2007, 17:31	#4
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,022	you never have to use raid, sata & raid have nothing do with each other. RAID is just a redundancy method to either increase speed, increase data-security or do both; SATA is serial attached HD vs PATA which was parallel (one master/slave). SATA doesn't work with master/slave, what motherboard are you using? I'm guessing 4 SATA ports, each one will accept ONE device, you don't need to use RAID at all; why would you use RAID? what would be your purpose? increase file security (RAID 1), speed (RAID 0) ? __________________

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27th February 2007, 16:26	#3
mentalcrisis00 Posts: n/a	Ya i'd really like to get around using raid if i can, i just assumed that if you had more then one sata drive then you had to use raid. If i could just plug in a second drive and run it like a slave that would be ideal.

3rd March 2007, 05:51	#5
mentalcrisis00 Posts: n/a	As i said i didn't need raid, i just thought if you had more then one sata drive you needed to use raid seeming it's not like parallel (master and slave). I guess i was mistaken, thats even better seeming i've heard that raid can be messy. I'd rather it be alittle slower or what not then have to deal with the raid setup and loading drivers from floppies.