Partitioning RAID 0 Drive

[beullar]

I am installing 2 WD RAPTOR SATA drives on an MSI 865 Neo2-FISR motherboard. I will be setting these up in a RAID 0 configuration using the Intel ICH5R chipset on the motherboard. Does anyone know if the drives can be partitioned either during install by Windows XP or after I install XP.

Or can PQ Magic 8.0 or Partition Commander 8.0 perform the partitioning? I read some people here used PQ Magic to partition their RAID O, but the PQ website states that it will not partition "Dynamic Volumes" and Partition Commander makes a similar claim, but also says it can partition the drives if the RAID array is hardware based and not the Dynamic volume as done by XP Pro.

I would like to partition the drives into 3 partitions.

Also does anyone recommend a stripe set size? Intel recommends 128byte but I have also heard others say 64byte


Thanks

beullar:cool:

[BipolarBill]

You can partition during setup - just pay close attention. It's easy to skip over.

Dynamic volumes do not apply here. Those are normally added after setup and are OS-dependent. You lose the data on them when Windows goes bye-bye.

Just be sure to always use Basic Disks when creating. PM, Ranish and Partition Resizer all will partition RAID arrays.

[beullar]

Thanks... You mentioned PM, which I have on my system now (V6), but Partition Commander has a boot from CD capability. And it does state that it will partition RAID and even change from a dynamic to a standard volume. So it sounds a little more capable..(?)

So the question is....I can partition during setup, but what about after OS install and I want to change or resize a partition? I assume that either PM or Partition Commnander will see the RAID arrray as a single drive and partition it as such?

Haven't heard of Ranish or Partition resizer. Are these available via on-line download?

Also, does the stripe size correlate to the cluster size? or can I use NTFS format and stripe at 128kb?

Thanks much.....:cool:

[BipolarBill]

Partition Commander is a joke next to PM8. Trust me.

Please just do as I say - either partition duing Setup or use PM8. RAID is not that special.