Hard drive advice

**guzler** · January 8th, 2010, 02:35

Hi guys,

I have bought a new pc with hard drive in raid 0 set up. Spec says:

2x 500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB Buffer (1TB Total)

Does this mean my operating system will be spread accross the two drives ?

I want to run FSX on a drive of its own, so do I need to buy a third drive to do this ? If so, can anyone recommend one ?

If there is only one disk drive with two disks on it, what is the general reliability of these as it appears twice as likely to fail ????

Any advice appraciated.

Thanks

Neil

harleyman · January 8th, 2010, 02:46

Yes it means just that..

I don't think FSX will have any benefit from running a Raid 0 Stripe what so ever.

The failure rate with a Raid set up using onboard controllers to me is not worth the risk..

If it were me I would loose the Raid, depending on what HDDS are installed..if they are cheapoes , with a small Mb Cache maybe keep it ..

I suggest the Western digital Blacks with a 32 Mb Cache for best performance

**guzler** · January 8th, 2010, 04:23

Poo !

I have just contacted the supplier and I can't adjust the spec as they are already on with it. So, is it possible to change the configuration so that my OS only runs off one disk allowing the other to be used for FSX ? The guy I spoke to seems to think it is, but told me it's better to speak to their technical chaps once I recieve it. My main concern is reliability, as I can get another drive for FSX.

Cheer

harleyman · January 8th, 2010, 05:57

yes...After you recieve the rig, it is fairly easy to enter the bios and kill the raid, effectivaly freeing up both HDDS

You will have to format,repartition and reinstall the OS though.And format and partition the second raided drive too before you install games on it.

but thats all easy, just having the software do the work is all.they can easily walk you through that in 10 minutes..

**guzler** · January 8th, 2010, 06:16

Thanks Harley.

I should of done more research before I ordered, but hindsight is a glorious thing !

Is there likely to be a noticable performance hit by going down this route as the hard drives are only 16Bm cache. If I buy a third hard drive for FSX as you mentioned above, will that be better or will the system still be hindered by the OS on a 32Mb cache disc ?

**txnetcop** · January 8th, 2010, 06:20

Actually your 16mb hard drives will benefit from RAID 0 stripe so I would leave them as they are and buy a third hard drive for FSX and like Harleyman said get at least a 32mb Black Edition
Ted

Just remember in a RAID 0 is one drive goes bad so does the other one in most cases. So when they croak buy another 32mb cache black edition for C but those that you have should last a while. The fact is Harleyman is correct when he says that onboard RAID is pitiful at best.

harleyman · January 8th, 2010, 06:41

Hey Ted...Was hoping you would shed some light on this..

Aren't we talking a few Milli-Seconds gain though on the raid set up?

Can we even percieve that or notice it actually?

**txnetcop** · January 8th, 2010, 06:53

actually on some games raid benefits immensely just not in FSX alone. You really will notice a difference in load time and fast disk access while playing CRYSIS or FAR CRY or any CALL to Duty game. However a seperate RAID card benefits you more especially in reliability
Ted

**guzler** · January 8th, 2010, 08:44

Thanks guys.

If I buy an extra hard drive then, can I definitley operate that drive as a single whilst the others are in RAID configuration ? I thought you couldn't do that. If you can, that's great, I will keep just the operating system on the RAID.

harleyman · January 8th, 2010, 09:48

Yup...You sure can do that...

Raid installs the OS onto both drives, giving you faster seek and read times, hence faster speed.

Ust the third drive for your Sims will do fine

**guzler** · January 8th, 2010, 09:52

Excellent, that sounds like a wopping great plan. Is it safe to assume that there will be somewhere to plug the drive into the system on the following :

ASUS P6T SE Mainboard

Thanks

***hey_moe*** · January 8th, 2010, 10:01

I used Raid0 for a few years. I really didn't see that much of a improvement using FSX.But it can move files faster and some games will benefit from it. The bad thing is if one of the drives fails you loose everything. I use the WD Raptor drives that are kinda fast and it works fine. The best way to see the difference is to format Windows and do a install on a standard drive then reinstall it again using Raid. You will see for yourself that it can run the OS faster and install programs faster....Mike

**guzler** · January 8th, 2010, 11:36

As long as I can add an additional drive, I am happy to leave it set up as RAID0. I will get into the habit of backing my documents up every week on my external hard drive just incase.

Chhers

harleyman · January 8th, 2010, 12:26

That P6T should have plenty of sata ports open...YUP

Just look and see

**guzler** · January 8th, 2010, 12:52

Ah ha, looking at a review, it has 4 sata ports. I'm on a big learning curve here.

Many thanks for all your help today Harley, it's really appreciated.

harleyman · January 8th, 2010, 13:06

My pleasuer..

So..two ports are for the installed HDDs

One port is for the DVDRW

That leaves one open unless you have more than one DVDRW

**guzler** · January 8th, 2010, 13:53

There is only one DVDRW, I have just ordered the one you recommend above (500Gb) and a power/data cable for it. As you say, if it goes tit's up, I will reconfigure to non raid and stick another disc in at 32Mb cache for the OS.

Sorry, another question though...

If this does happen, I could do with copying the registry values for FSX assuming I could then re input these into a reinstalled OS registry. Where would I find these ?

harleyman · January 8th, 2010, 14:42

Here is how its done...

Go to start....

Select Run

In the box type REGEDIT (no need for capitols )

Under File at the top select.. Export....

Do the reverse to Import it back into a fresh OS Install....

**guzler** · January 9th, 2010, 02:42

Wow, that was simple !

I fee slightly embaraased with all these questions, but when I come to install FSX on another disc (I have only ever installed on the C drive), I assume it will put the application data files on the drives of the OS, so I will have to back them up too I suspect ?

In sumary, there are 3 areas of files (please correct me if I'm wrong):
1. The game files
2. The application data files (I cal them this as they are in the application data folder on XP)
3. Registry files

Have I missed anything that would stop it from working ?

harleyman · January 9th, 2010, 03:48

That should do it... But FSX may rewrite everything back to C drive that you need..

Are you doing a fresh install of FSX? or are you trying to copy an FSX install into the new drive?

If its a saved install of FSX then I think you should copy it all back to C/ and then Import the regestry...

To Install FSX onto a NON _ OS drive you have to first go to that dtive, and right click and make a folder..Call it FSX , or any title of a game you are installing...Then browse the FSX install to that new folder for installing..Or else the game files will have no home and will go all over the drive....(that is only for a fresh install of FSX or anything else ) C/ Drive if installed to as default , will make a folder upon instalation , of FSX and all other installs..just won't happen on a NON OS drive that way...

**guzler** · January 9th, 2010, 04:32

Glad you told me that !
The pc hasn't arrived yet, but my intension will be to do a fresh install on a seperate drive on that pc as you have just described. I will back the cfg file up once I am happy with it, but as you say it should create the application data files. I am asking these questions in the event of a failure as I am also keeping fsx on this pc for the time being and have taken the same precautions here.

Thanks