max RAID size query

[Nethermancer]

I am thinking of getting a RAID MB but want to know if I can use 2 80GB Maxtor drives together to get a single 160MB Partition. Am I still limited to 137GB or does the RAID hardware overcome this. If I do this with my boot drive will I still be able to boot?

Can I have 4 80GB drives to get a virtual 320GB drive which I can then partition to C D & E drives or can I only use the first 137GB?

[Dr Mordrid]

You don't mention if its a Fasttrak or HiPoint chipset, but I'll address it assuming Fasttrak....

The volume size limit applies to EACH DRIVE in the array. You can add multiple large drives together to form very large arrays. ex: mine is 4 x 60g for a 240 gig array.

As drives larger than the current "128 gig limit" come to market (128g using 1,024,000 bytes/meg or 137g using 1,000,000 bytes/meg) Promise will update their BIOS's with new INT13h instructions to allow their use in large arrays.

The only problem you may run into is with the old version of FDISK, which a lot of folks are still using (it was updated on M$'s site some months ago). This version will incorrectly report the size of the array after partitioning, but Windows will see the entire capacity.

Dr. Mordrid

[Nethermancer]

Thanks Doc.

I can now go and buy a RAID M/B and 4 x 80GB Maxtor drives and get 320GB. Is the VIA P4X266 chipset any good? or SIS or ALI P4 chipsets? Also do I need to use NTFS with this big 320GB virtual drive or will FAT32 be adequate? Do all the drives need to be exactly the same model or just the same size? Thanks.

[Dr Mordrid]

I'd not recommend a RAID mainboard given that most have the HighPoint chipset on them. Even with a Promise chipset I'm against using built-in RAID controllers because of how much trouble they can cause if they go poof.

Get yourself a nice mainboard and get a separate RAID card...preferrably a Promise TX4. It uses two IRQ's (transparently and shares them well) and gives more speed with >2 drives in the array than either the Highpoint or Promise FT100/TX2 cards.

Dr. Mordrid

[Duty]

Nethermancer listen to the good Doctor on this one. I just dealt this same issue and am loving the Promise card (TX2 though) and a pair of IBM drives. I had tried to do this with the built in HiPoint (POS) in my last motherboard with little to no success. The Promise was a dream to set up and works amazingly well.



ok good luck,



Jeff