Partitioning a single IDE hard disk is simple enough. I'm currently running 2 x 120GB SATA drives in a striped array as 1 x 240GB disk. My question is, can I partition this disk in the normal way you would partition an IDE single disk? I'm looking for a regular partition for my OS (WinXPPro) and the rest of the disk for apps & storage. If it's possible to partition a Raid 0 array, what size would be recommended for WinXPPro??? "Don't eat yellow snow" Martin

I'm currently running 2 x 120GB SATA drives in a striped array as 1 x 240GB disk.??? This sound more to me as JBOD, not RAID. Anyhow, you should be able to create the partition no matter what. On the size for XP, it depends what you will do with it. Pagefile size, caching requirements, softwrae demands, etc. Good Luck

If it were jbod you would have two drives each being 120. Raid0 [not to be confused with raid1-mirroring] is a stripe set with no parity. It equals the sum of the drives. VERY BAD IDEA !!!!!!! Was that loud enough to get your attention martinuk777??? Raid0 should NEVER be used for the OS drive. If one drive hiccups you're toast with absolutely NO recovery. Not only is your data gone but so it the OS. You should only use raid0 for video editing, etc since it is fast but burn to cd or backup because you will cry when all your data is GONE. To answer your question, partitioning is partitioning no matter what is below it. You would partition your raid0,1,5,so on and so forth as you would a single drive.

I LOVE running my OS from a striping array. I'll be damned if I ever store anything more important than my favorite bookmarks on it, though. I wouldn't waste 240GB of reliable storage by striping the drives. That's when it's nice to have two small, fast drives. To me, Data = Important; OS = Disposable. Especially with nice consumer onboard RAID controllers like the PDC3076... if you break a stripe, you can just recombine the drives and they maintain the same geometry--it'll boot back up, or you can restore an image to it.

I see no reason not to raid0 everything. You just need backup discipline. Which is true whether you are raid0 or not. I keep a backup of my 1GB boot image on another computer as well as data backups. Restoring the whole thing is easy. There is too much fear of hard drive failure posted when people ask about raid0 given the reliability of today's drives.

Ain't it funny how replies to a simple question can give you so much more (welcome) knowledge than simply the answer to your initial question (never heard the term jbod before but Google soon sorted that) I've been through the whole Raid 0 reliability question and there IS ONLY ONE ANSWER.....it's down to personal preference. I went the Raid 0 route precisely because I plan on doing a lot of video editing. In fact I've started and I'm well pleased with the effectiveness of the system. Both hard disks are cooled by fans and because I work a month on/off on an oil rig I always have several back ups of all my data; two separate CD backups and god forbid they should fail I still have my most recent files on my works machine hard drive which a buddy could burn again for me and send to the house. I know Raid 0 is a risk but like the above comment says, hard drives are very reliable today and as long as you have a reliable and disciplined backup regime there's no reason that I can see for for a Raid 0 array to be any less reliable than an IDE single disk or IDE array. A theoretical question : A 2 x 40GB SATA Raid 0 array for your OS and a 200GB IDE disk for storage..... Wouldn't the extra speed of the striped 80GB drive be cancelled out by hanging around for data being retrieved from the 200GB IDE drive??? Thanks for all the input so far, better reading than any text book. "Don't eat yellow snow" Martin

Some excellent points concerning backup/imaging and self discipline. But you really think the average joe does that? Just because you guys are on top of it doesn't mean that should be the advice. But hey each to their own. Personally I do all my editing on the raid0 and don't put my OS on raid0. Way too easy to install a bunch of apps/config and not do a image. So I am admitting to a shortfall in time AND self discipline. For me the OS is more important to keep alive and well. If I didn't do that last backup of my video edit shame on me. Replace the drive and reraid and I am back in production. Concerning your question martinuk777 there are a lot of factors. How fast are the drives rpms? How much info is getting loaded into memory first then the drive. Usually reading from one disk subsystem and writing to another is faster due to less disk io contention on a single drive. Your milage may vary :-)