4 Drive RAID

you shouldn't create an array with drives of different sizes, so 2x 20 in one array and 2x 40 in another array is the best for you

it's best to divide an array over multiple channels, like you have already done

You can use RAID0+1(10) (mirror +stripping) if your controller support this.

My controller is the Promise TX2000 and does support RAID 0+1.  Would I gain anything by configuring it this way?  Also, what if the drives were all 40GB.  What would be my best configuration?

Yes if you want to do a 0 + 1, 4 40's would be the best bet.  Two would be for speed two would be for back up.  It all depends on how you plan on using the machine.  Good luck.

if you're going to do that, I suggest cross-channel stripe sets and then mirroring the masters (first set) to the slaves (second set)

Hi rinker97,
You've written "Is this my best bet or would something else be better?"  But this can't be answered until you let us know what you want from RAID.  Do you seek performance or reliability?  You can't have both.

Hi!

I would suggest you do like this!

Keep the drives as youhave written in question.

Do mirror on the two 20Gb and keep system and important applications and data on thoose.

Do a RAID 0 set of the two 40Gb.
This is for speed.

Don't do 0+1, the ide raid cards aren't really quick enough to handle that.

That way you get an 80Gb drive where you can put games music and such, but remebmer if one of thoose fails all data on them is lost.

As said earlier IDE can only read or write to one device at a time on any one ide channel.

So with only two ide channels on raid card trying to create a raid with more than 2 disks is almost meaningles, you won't gain any extra speed.

For this you need to buy some other promise ide raid card, there are such with up to eight IDE channels only allowing one device/channel.

Hope this helps a little.

Regards
/Hans - Erik Skyttberg

Don't use RAID0 (block striping) /This is not a raid -no redundancy/, if one of your drives crashes, ALL your DATA becomes unavailable.

You are correct that I didn't say what I was looking for out of my RAID.  Sorry I left this off.  

I plan on installing it on 2 servers at work.  I would like improved performance but I am mainly looking for security.  The reason I had the 20GB and 40GB in my original config was because I was trying to use some of my old drives.  I planned on installing the OS on the 20GB and then use the 40GB for data.  I want them both to be mirrored for redundancy.

I just got the Promise cards so I can return them (well one of them at least since I haven't opened it).  Is there a better controller that I should look at?

Thanks for everyones help.

Raid 0 on 2 disks = 2 * capacity of the 2 disks
                  = no redudancy
                  = fastest read/write

Raid 1 on 2 disks = 1 * capcity of the 2 disks
                  = redudancy
                  = slowest write

anyway, if you use or not use RAID, when you delete a file/directory, it's deleted, ok in the recycle bin
If your controller crash, you should replace the controller.

And Remember IDE RAID is not really RAID as used in server environment, NOT HOT Swappable

So Why using RAID in a desktop ?
You want to kill a fly with a hammer !!!!!!!!!

For what you are doing you want to use raid 1,  true that is not "true" raid because you can not hot swap it, however if it is a small business that can not aford the cost of server's with raid arays, raid 1 is a good alternative.  The bottom line is, if one disk fails, you will still have the info on the other disk.  And I use raid 0 on my desktop for games.  I do not care if a disk goes and I lose information, that is what a cd burner is for.  And, I might be lucky, but I have never had a disk go bad.  

if you're going to set up RAID-1 at work, you're cheapest solution will be to go for the Promise RAID-5 range

a mirrored stripe array (RAID 0+1) CAN be more efficient (RAID-5 increases both speed and reliability, but still can handle only one request at a time)
but you will need a special (expensive) controller which can distribute read requests across mirrors (with one mirror, two users/requests can be serviced simultaneously)

to jacgadm:

true, IDE RAID is definitely not as versatile as SCSI RAID
false, e.g. Promise has been rolling out hot swappable IDE RAID solutions for at least two years now

rinker97:
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