Both Raid and non-Raid

[jguizar]

I'll be building with just a single SATA drive (WD1600JD) and running with

that for a little while. If I buy a pair of SATA drives later, can I set them up as RAID?

Run my current SATA as a regular and have two more SATA set up as RAID at the

same time or would I be better off adding a PATA as non-RAID and pairing up with

my SATA for the RAID?

 

Thanks,

Jerry

[Fight Game]

You can do that...that is set up with one drive now, and then add 2 drives later that are in raid. Regardless if it's pata or sata. If, after having just one drive, then buying more drives, you want all of the drives in raid (including the first original disk), then you will lose all the data stored on the original 1 disk. When you set up the raid, you go into the raid section in the bios and specify which disks you want in the array...and it will list (up to) all 4 pata drives connected and (up to) all 4 sata drives connected - you just pick which ones (enable or disable) you want in the array.

[Yankee]

Yes, you can add a RAID setup later.

This is assuming you're not adding the existing drive to the RAID.

When you setup RAID, you will lose all data stored on that drive.

But, from what I gather from your post, you will be buying 2 additional drives and setting those up together. So you will be fine.

 

Regarding your last statement, I would suggest pairing two like drives together. Not to say you cannot pair a SATA and PATA together (Don't quote me on that). I know for a fact you can pair two unlike drives, but not certain you can pair a SATA and PATA together.

Simply put, if you have the money to buy two SATA drives, do that and set them up in RAID.

If not, I guess you can just put your two current drives together.

 

One thing I would suggest: Install the OS on the RAID setup as well as any other large programs you will use. For the majority of the time, RAID will increase performance and putting large programs on the RAID setup will decrease load times.

 

EDIT: MMMkay, Fight Game beat me to it. lol

[jguizar]

Thanks, I knew I'd lose data if I switch a drive from non-raid to raid, just wasn't sure if I could have both types on the same controller. That gives me a little time to decide how I want to go about it (2 WD 400GB, SATA 1.5, SATA 3.0, 10k RPM.. )