W2k on Raid?

[Technoid]

Im thinking of installing W2k on my Raid Array.
The sequential values is about double but the randome are lower than the single drive I'm using so I'm wondering if I will se a drastic speed improvment or just a small?

On the other hand:

Can I install W2k on "D" drive while retaining the older on on drive "C" so i can compare?

[arbymo]

if win2k is like NT 4 then yes u can have multiple installation of the OS in different partitions and they'll be added to the boot menu.

[xortam]

You can compare if you have three drives; two for the array and one stand-alone on comparable controllers or a multi-channel controller which supports RAID and non-RAID. The logical volumes (e.g. "C:" and "D:") are installed in the partitions of the drive. The RAID array takes two or more drives and has them appear as one drive to the OS. Otherwise, you can run two drives in a non-RAID configuration, install and run your benches and then configure your RAID array, reinstall and run your benches again; that's what I did the last time I installed, almost two years ago. Remember when your testing RAID performance, you need to have selected an appropriate stripe size and corresponding file sizes. RAID is designed for sequential access or large file access as it interleaves the data amongst the drives.

[Technoid]

Thanks for the answers!

1. I have 3 Physical disk with two in the RAID Array and one on the MB Ide Controller.

2. I am planing to install a new copy of w2k on the raid while retaining the old untill the new instalation is complete.
That way i dont have to rush it and I can still use the computer.
Usually I do a Marathon 4hour+ install of W2k, Office 2000, PSP7 and 20 - 30 more software titles and I almost always forget something because I am usualy dead tired at 4 in the morning

Xortam:

I am using a promise controller with the "Dektop" stripe speed selection.

[xortam]

Technoid ... you might be interested in checking out Arstechnica's Promise RAID benches.

[SCompRacer]

Technoid, if you have your present system all set up on the third drive, have you considered copying it over to the RAID Array?

I used Drive Image alot when I experimented with different stripe sizes. Saves a bunch of time.

I used ATTO to bench the arrays. "PC SCSI Version 1.63" is the file you want.



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ASUS A7M266, 1333MHz/266FSB, 256MB Crucial PC2100 DDR, Two RAID 0's, Win2000/Win98SE

[xortam]

SCompRacer ... that bench say's its for ATTO ExpressPCI SCSI cards only. Will it run on any HW?

[SCompRacer]

I've used it for SCSI and IDE drives, RAID or single. Works great.

It will appear as ATTO Express Pro Tools under Programs, select Disk Benchmark.


This is a Win2000 SP1 bench from two 45GB IBM 75GXP's on my just sold KT7A RAID board. Was the best ATTO bench in Win2000 at Icrontic with a two drive RAID 0 that I know of. Many there are advocates of disabling ACPI in WIn2000 for performance. All I could say was "this is with ACPI enabled."

[xortam]

Thanks SCompRacer ... ran it on my Mylex SCSI RAID; doesn't care about HW. I wanted to run some benches before adding a third drive to my RAID 0 array. I'm also going to run HD-Tach, ZD WinBench, and Sandra.

[Technoid]

xortam:
Thanks for the link, checking it now!

SCompRacer:
I have been waiting for a reason to do a clean reinstall for some time now.
The instalation is from the time I had a BX board and it has traveled over 5 different motherboards.

And the W2k shares drive with an W98SE instalation and i want to physicaly separate them.

and last:

I have 19+ gb of info already on the drive that i dont want to lose!

Thanks anyway!

[SCompRacer]

I hear 'ya Technoid. I remember carrying over through a couple of ASUS BX boards myself. Looks like you were going for a record though, LOL!

[Technoid]

I installed W2k at work for a customer and it had gone so long time since I last did it so i had forgoten in wich order it asked for usernames and etc etc

This should also mean that i dont have to customise w98 so that it dont overvrite any ting that w2k has installed.

[Technoid]

DAMN IT!

I have installed on the RAID and everything was fast and semingly stable!

UNTILL..

I ran Sisoft Sandra and then closed it!

WHAMMO!

Blue Screen Of Death?

KMODE Exception in Evian.sys (the Fasttrak driver)

Hawe to hunt for a newer driver or something!

Any sughestions please?

[This message has been edited by Technoid (edited 21 April 2001).]

[Technoid]

This is madening!

It's only Sandra that does this!

Everything else works...

Updated to SP1, DX8, have the latest drivers.

It don't happen in the "old" install, neither in W98.

Do any one have a clue on why Sandra kills the Fasttrak?

[The Rock]

Technoid:

Seemingly silly question: is this the absolute *latest* SANDRA you are running? I ask because I know there was a recent update for it.

Bart