Suggestions for setting up Raid for expansion and performance

[RaidCake]

Howdy,

I have a 3ware 9000 series 8 drive controller running on XP pro. I've been running 4 drives with this setup for some time now, 2 arrays, 2 drives each array. I'm upgrading one of the arrays to to larger drives so I will be manually migrating the data over but I want to setup these new drives for performance and ease of expansion by adding more drives.

I understand that only dynamic disks can be expanded using the XP admin disk management tool. Other than using the dynamic setting or another tool for setting up the drive for the new array does anyone have any suggestions for setting it up?

The drives are Sata 1.5 TB. I use the server for media storage and media playback for high bitrate media, 12-15MBPS HD content.

Thanks,

~RC

[Midknyte]

You didn't say what kind of 2 disk arrays you are running; RAID0 or RAID1?

Let's see if I get what you're saying. You want to:
1. Backup one of your arrays
2. Remove the old drives
3. Install 2 1.5TB drives
4. Create a new array
5. Copy the data back to the new array

Are these your boot partitions? If not, I don't see why you need to expand disks. Just partition the arrays how you want, then copy the data over.

There are freeware partition tools out there like Easeus. Look in Best of Data Storage.

[RaidCake]

You didn't say what kind of 2 disk arrays you are running; RAID0 or RAID1?

Let's see if I get what you're saying. You want to:
1. Backup one of your arrays
2. Remove the old drives
3. Install 2 1.5TB drives
4. Create a new array
5. Copy the data back to the new array

Are these your boot partitions? If not, I don't see why you need to expand disks. Just partition the arrays how you want, then copy the data over.

There are freeware partition tools out there like Easeus. Look in Best of Data Storage.

I'm running a Raid 0 now and you are correct about the process but I want to do is set up this new array so that adding drives is easier down the road. From what I understand I need to format the new array as dynamic within XP but I'm hearing it's not the most reliable. I also want to possibly mirror this new array later.

Thanks

~RC

[RaidCake]

Oh and one more thing, mostly LARGE files on this array, 7-13 GIGS per file.

~RC

[Midknyte]

That's a problem. Since you're using 2 1.5TB discs, that would make the new array 3TB in RAID0. 2TB is maximum NTFS partition size unless you use GPT.

You need to have XP64, Vista or Server 2003 to use GPT. XP32 doesn't support GPT.

I'm assuming that this is not your boot partitions, since you can't boot from GPT disks.

Most entry level backup apps don't support GPT.

You could always partition the RAID0 array into 2TB sections, but that would defeat the purpose of adding drives to the array.

Here's some more info on GPT:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device...e/GPT_FAQ.mspx
http://www.carltonbale.com/2007/05/h...-system-limit/

[RaidCake]

That's a problem. Since you're using 2 1.5TB discs, that would make the new array 3TB in RAID0. 2TB is maximum NTFS partition size unless you use GPT.

You need to have XP64, Vista or Server 2003 to use GPT. XP32 doesn't support GPT.

I'm assuming that this is not your boot partitions, since you can't boot from GPT disks.

Most entry level backup apps don't support GPT.

You could always partition the RAID0 array into 2TB sections, but that would defeat the purpose of adding drives to the array.

Here's some more info on GPT:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device...e/GPT_FAQ.mspx
http://www.carltonbale.com/2007/05/h...-system-limit/

Ah, did not know that 2TB is the max for NTFS. I don't have to raid for this data, maybe I should just break it apart in to single drives. I don't want to complicate things or increase my risk of problems with data. Using Jbod will decrease performance from what I understand, can I configure Raid 1 with just 2 drives for backup purposes?

Thanks,

~RC

[Midknyte]

You could set up a 1.5TB RAID1 array for critical data. That would still be under the 2TB limit.