RAID-0 striped disks on new Dell?

I am thinking about ordering an XPS-710 with two identical SATA disk
drives in it. I would configure it with Windows XP, not Vista. What I
would like to do is to re-install Windows XP "from scratch," and partition
the two disks as a pair of RAID-0 volumes. I'd like to know if this is
possible.

I would like to stripe every partition for performance, including C:\.
I am not quite sure that Windows XP can do this. I am not quite sure if
the software CDs (DVDs?) that Dell sends out can do this, without a
"Product Activation" hassle.

Has anyone done this exercise with a Dell?
--
David Arnstein (00)
{{ }}
^^

"David Arnstein" wrote in message
...
I am thinking about ordering an XPS-710 with two identical SATA disk
drives in it. I would configure it with Windows XP, not Vista. What I
would like to do is to re-install Windows XP "from scratch," and partition
the two disks as a pair of RAID-0 volumes. I'd like to know if this is
possible.

I would like to stripe every partition for performance, including C:\.
I am not quite sure that Windows XP can do this. I am not quite sure if
the software CDs (DVDs?) that Dell sends out can do this, without a
"Product Activation" hassle.

Has anyone done this exercise with a Dell?
--
David Arnstein (00)
{{ }}
^^

You can do it without problem. With the Dell XP CD, there is no activation.

I strongly discourage it though. The performance gain is fairly small and
if either drive fails, you lose everything. Not sure what size drives
you're considering, but Dell charges a HUGE price for drives.

I'd suggest you buy the machine with a fairly small hard drive and use that
as your boot drive. Add a nice Seagate 750GB SATA300 drive and you'll get
the performance you're looking for and spend a lot less money.

"David Arnstein" wrote in message
...
I am thinking about ordering an XPS-710 with two identical SATA disk
drives in it. I would configure it with Windows XP, not Vista. What I
would like to do is to re-install Windows XP "from scratch," and partition
the two disks as a pair of RAID-0 volumes. I'd like to know if this is
possible.

I would like to stripe every partition for performance, including C:\.
I am not quite sure that Windows XP can do this. I am not quite sure if
the software CDs (DVDs?) that Dell sends out can do this, without a
"Product Activation" hassle.

Has anyone done this exercise with a Dell?
--
David Arnstein (00)
{{ }}
^^


Set it up for RAID1 mirroring instead, or go with a single internal drive
and buy an external USB drive of similar or larger capacity.

Chances are that RAID0 will not be the performance boost you might expect.

RAID1 with SATA drives still kicks serious butt - just with redundancy.

Stew

S.Lewis wrote:
"David Arnstein" wrote in message
...
I am thinking about ordering an XPS-710 with two identical SATA disk
drives in it. I would configure it with Windows XP, not Vista. What I
would like to do is to re-install Windows XP "from scratch," and partition
the two disks as a pair of RAID-0 volumes. I'd like to know if this is
possible.

I would like to stripe every partition for performance, including C:\.
I am not quite sure that Windows XP can do this. I am not quite sure if
the software CDs (DVDs?) that Dell sends out can do this, without a
"Product Activation" hassle.

Has anyone done this exercise with a Dell?
--
David Arnstein (00)
{{ }}
^^


Set it up for RAID1 mirroring instead, or go with a single internal drive
and buy an external USB drive of similar or larger capacity.

Chances are that RAID0 will not be the performance boost you might expect.

RAID1 with SATA drives still kicks serious butt - just with redundancy.

In a RAID 1 configuration, it's usually suggested that both drives be of
the same capacity.

You miserable little bag of puke. g

--
Notan

I did this from scratch with a Dimension 8400 (identical 160GB drives) and
an XPS 600 (identical 300GB drives). When you order a two-drive systems
Dell seems to automatically hook up the RAID cable (even if they don't
configure it through the software).

Both had XP Media Center 2005 installed.

My feeling is that RAID 0 is the preferred configuration if you use the
system for watching/recording TV and want to multi-task. Even just watching
causes constant disk activity since you can rewind live TV.

If you are using a physical CD that Dell provides with your system there are
no activation hassles. You will not even have to enter an activation code
(bypass that screen when it asks for it.

You may have a minor problem if your RAID driver is not on the CD. That
case you will need a floppy drive so you can provide the diskette with the
needed driver. This happened to me on both the above systems.


"David Arnstein" wrote in message
...
I am thinking about ordering an XPS-710 with two identical SATA disk
drives in it. I would configure it with Windows XP, not Vista. What I
would like to do is to re-install Windows XP "from scratch," and partition
the two disks as a pair of RAID-0 volumes. I'd like to know if this is
possible.

I would like to stripe every partition for performance, including C:\.
I am not quite sure that Windows XP can do this. I am not quite sure if
the software CDs (DVDs?) that Dell sends out can do this, without a
"Product Activation" hassle.

Has anyone done this exercise with a Dell?
--
David Arnstein (00)
{{ }}
^^

Raid 0 is unnecessary for TV recording/watching. I have one computer
(Dimension 9200) with 6 HD tuners and another (another Dimension 9200) with
6 SD tuners. Neither machine requires RAID to record or concurrently watch
shows. I often have 4-6 recordings going while watching three (streamed to
other TVs in the house). Today's drives are just darn fast.

I do now have a Raid0 setup on one of the machines, but that is just because
it was more convenient to have a 1.5Tb drive.

I was able to do 6 concurrent SD recordings on a Dimension 4550.

Tom
"Bill Joy" wrote in message
et...
I did this from scratch with a Dimension 8400 (identical 160GB drives) and
an XPS 600 (identical 300GB drives). When you order a two-drive systems
Dell seems to automatically hook up the RAID cable (even if they don't
configure it through the software).

Both had XP Media Center 2005 installed.

My feeling is that RAID 0 is the preferred configuration if you use the
system for watching/recording TV and want to multi-task. Even just
watching causes constant disk activity since you can rewind live TV.

If you are using a physical CD that Dell provides with your system there
are no activation hassles. You will not even have to enter an activation
code (bypass that screen when it asks for it.

You may have a minor problem if your RAID driver is not on the CD. That
case you will need a floppy drive so you can provide the diskette with the
needed driver. This happened to me on both the above systems.


"David Arnstein" wrote in message
...
I am thinking about ordering an XPS-710 with two identical SATA disk
drives in it. I would configure it with Windows XP, not Vista. What I
would like to do is to re-install Windows XP "from scratch," and
partition
the two disks as a pair of RAID-0 volumes. I'd like to know if this is
possible.

I would like to stripe every partition for performance, including C:\.
I am not quite sure that Windows XP can do this. I am not quite sure if
the software CDs (DVDs?) that Dell sends out can do this, without a
"Product Activation" hassle.

Has anyone done this exercise with a Dell?
--
David Arnstein (00)
{{ }}
^^

On Tue, 6 Feb 2007 02:15:11 +0000 (UTC), (David
Arnstein) wrote:


I would like to stripe every partition for performance, including C:\.

You should read MSFT's recommendations regarding RAID on system
volumes before makign a final decision.

On Tue, 6 Feb 2007 05:26:45 -0500, "Tom Scales"
wrote:

Raid 0 is unnecessary for TV recording/watching. I have one computer
(Dimension 9200) with 6 HD tuners and another (another Dimension 9200) with
6 SD tuners. Neither machine requires RAID to record or concurrently watch
shows. I often have 4-6 recordings going while watching three (streamed to
other TVs in the house). Today's drives are just darn fast.

I do now have a Raid0 setup on one of the machines, but that is just because
it was more convenient to have a 1.5Tb drive.

I was able to do 6 concurrent SD recordings on a Dimension 4550.

Tom
Butting in here Tom but I have used a SIS raid configuration which
allows what they call JBOD (Just a bunch of Disks) which makes
multiple HDDs look like a single HDD. Does the Intel Raid as used by
Dell have this feature.

"Bill Joy" wrote in message
. net...
I did this from scratch with a Dimension 8400 (identical 160GB drives) and
an XPS 600 (identical 300GB drives). When you order a two-drive systems
Dell seems to automatically hook up the RAID cable (even if they don't
configure it through the software).

Both had XP Media Center 2005 installed.

My feeling is that RAID 0 is the preferred configuration if you use the
system for watching/recording TV and want to multi-task. Even just
watching causes constant disk activity since you can rewind live TV.

If you are using a physical CD that Dell provides with your system there
are no activation hassles. You will not even have to enter an activation
code (bypass that screen when it asks for it.

You may have a minor problem if your RAID driver is not on the CD. That
case you will need a floppy drive so you can provide the diskette with the
needed driver. This happened to me on both the above systems.


"David Arnstein" wrote in message
...
I am thinking about ordering an XPS-710 with two identical SATA disk
drives in it. I would configure it with Windows XP, not Vista. What I
would like to do is to re-install Windows XP "from scratch," and
partition
the two disks as a pair of RAID-0 volumes. I'd like to know if this is
possible.

I would like to stripe every partition for performance, including C:\.
I am not quite sure that Windows XP can do this. I am not quite sure if
the software CDs (DVDs?) that Dell sends out can do this, without a
"Product Activation" hassle.

Has anyone done this exercise with a Dell?
--
David Arnstein (00)
{{ }}
^^

Star@*.* wrote in message
...
On Tue, 6 Feb 2007 05:26:45 -0500, "Tom Scales"
wrote:

Raid 0 is unnecessary for TV recording/watching. I have one computer
(Dimension 9200) with 6 HD tuners and another (another Dimension 9200)
with
6 SD tuners. Neither machine requires RAID to record or concurrently
watch
shows. I often have 4-6 recordings going while watching three (streamed
to
other TVs in the house). Today's drives are just darn fast.

I do now have a Raid0 setup on one of the machines, but that is just
because
it was more convenient to have a 1.5Tb drive.

I was able to do 6 concurrent SD recordings on a Dimension 4550.

Tom
Butting in here Tom but I have used a SIS raid configuration which
allows what they call JBOD (Just a bunch of Disks) which makes
multiple HDDs look like a single HDD. Does the Intel Raid as used by
Dell have this feature.


You can do that with Dynamic disks in XP. Can't with the raid controller
as it is a true 0 or 1 controller.

Tom

PeterD wrote:
On Tue, 6 Feb 2007 02:15:11 +0000 (UTC), (David
Arnstein) wrote:

I would like to stripe every partition for performance, including C:\.

You should read MSFT's recommendations regarding RAID on system
volumes before makign a final decision.

Do you have a link? I searched MS for "RAID boot drive". Entering only
"RAID" in the search field yielded a single hit.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/870894/en-us