advice on raid/storage setup?

i have a system that has the following: 2x80gb 8mb cache hard drives in a raid0 striping array and 2x60gb 2mb cache hard drives by theirselves. all spindle speeds are 7200rpm. i cant decide how to configure my system.

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i have a system that has the following: 2x80gb 8mb cache hard drives in a raid0 striping array and 2x60gb 2mb cache hard drives by theirselves. all spindle speeds are 7200rpm. i cant decide how to configure my system.
 
i used to install windows xp onto the massive raid0 array along with all my applications and games. i kept downloads, drivers, music, videos and etc on a single 60gb drive. i just added another 60gb drive and now im more concerned about my system's uptime/stability over the kickass raid performance. however, i now have windows xp installed onto a 60gb drive by itself. on the raid array i have the paging file and on the other 60gb drive i have nothing yet.
 
i have a few possibilities:
 
1] i install all programs on my raid array that i want to take advantage of it and install other small programs on my windows xp drive and keep the downloads on the other 60gb drive.
 
2] i install all my programs onto the windows xp drive, then move all downloads and etc to the raid array and use the other 60gb drive for encoding to the raid array [videos and etc]
 
3] i install all programs to the 2nd 60gb drive, keep all downloads on the massive raid array and leave windows alone on its own drive.
 
im sure there are many other combinations i could do, however, you get the idea. which scenario would be best performance-wise and logically correct? im also open to any other suggestions or ideas as well. ive been trying to decide for like two days now lol. any input is greatly appreciated.
 
-hydro

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ON my setup I have my Windows and all programs installed on the raid drive.
 
ON my backup drive I have all downloads, drivers, and music.
 
 
Best performance is running everything off your raid setup

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Well, for stability, RAID 0 is worhtless. I'm sure you know that if one drive fails, you lose everything on both drives.
 
For stability, you might be better off with RAID 1 on the two of the drives. That way you'll get some redundancy if one drive fails. You could use this for Windows and your apps.
 
Your games and other not so critical files could be put onto a RAID 0 array made of the other pair of drives.
 
I guess it will really depend on how much disk space you need for each.

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OP
yes i know raid0 is worthless for stability. as for your suggestion...i didnt even think about that. i might give that a go; thanks. but im still open for ideas.

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Quote:Well, for stability, RAID 0 is worhtless. I'm sure you know that if one drive fails, you lose everything on both drives.

For stability, you might be better off with RAID 1 on the two of the drives. That way you'll get some redundancy if one drive fails. You could use this for Windows and your apps.

Your games and other not so critical files could be put onto a RAID 0 array made of the other pair of drives.

I guess it will really depend on how much disk space you need for each.

A disk failure in raid is no different then you primary disk failing. Either way you lose data, unless of course you ALWAYS BACKUP

Then you can get perfomance and not worry about losing data


No way I would run my Windows and games on anything else then my dual raptors