red930 Posted January 21, 2006 Posted January 21, 2006 @disturbed6dws This is the main reason why many of us use the two 80GB Hitachi drives for RAID-0 boot arrays. We don't tie up a lot of storage space at the optimum stripe/cluster size for storage other than the OS. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spirit Posted January 21, 2006 Posted January 21, 2006 is it necessary to do a full format (as in not "quick") when changing cluster size and or stripe size? Formating a terabyte drive is not something I look forward to... Thanks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wetchaser Posted January 21, 2006 Posted January 21, 2006 I just read my Partition Magic 8.0 users manual... My quote came directly from the online manual "pdf" version of partition magic. But go on and give it a shot, as i would like to do what your thinking but wont try to do somthing a manual tells me i cant do. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
red930 Posted January 21, 2006 Posted January 21, 2006 is it necessary to do a full format (as in not "quick") when changing cluster size and or stripe size?Formating a terabyte drive is not something I look forward to... Thanks It's in your best interest to do a "full format" if the drive has previously had data on it or another file structure. The "quick format" only re-writes the Partition data(similar to the FAT) then leaves the rest of the data area to be written later during normal use. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoyoJoe Posted January 21, 2006 Posted January 21, 2006 2xseagate 160gb raid 0 16kb stripe 4kb cluster 3rd run of hdtach. http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y147/Typicalsloan/raid.jpg Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spirit Posted January 21, 2006 Posted January 21, 2006 Thanks for the reply Roadie... The only difference I could find when googling - in refenernce to quick format vs. not quick is that a non-quick format (full format) scans for bad sectors... But what your saying is that there is actually a struture put in place during a full format that would otherwise have to happen "on-the-fly" - fasinating! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
omga14 Posted January 23, 2006 Posted January 23, 2006 i just bought 2 Seagate 7200.9 160gb drives, the ones with the single platters. i understand that i can set the stripe size but have never seen where to set the cluster size during the XP installation. does this happen with setting up the RAID array? this will be my first RAID attempt and plan on going RAID0 with 32/8 for S/C. from what i've read this seems to be a good setting for all the DVD encoding i'll be doing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spirit Posted January 23, 2006 Posted January 23, 2006 @ omga14 The cluster size for Windows XP installation formating is 4k, I don't know of any way to change it during the install... I have set up other cluster sizes with a different system on another drive. right now I'm testing 128/32 on 4 raptors... you may want to try 16/4 if you can't "pre" set-up your array. 16k stripe with the default 4k cluster. This way you still get the 4:1 and don't need to install windows multiple times. Peace out Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
omga14 Posted January 23, 2006 Posted January 23, 2006 thanks for the info. would i just install windows on a spare drive and then clone it to the RAID array? i am just learning about Norton 2003 Ghost so i don't know if i can make a Ghost image and then install it or if i would have to clone the drive to the array. either way i could set up the cluster size in the original copy and then install it on the array with the proper stipe? don't laugh but i only have a spare 4gb drive as my wifes comp has different drivers and such that wouldn't work with my setup. had 2 drives die right after the warranty expired. could i do it this way? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spirit Posted January 24, 2006 Posted January 24, 2006 I can't say much about Norton Ghost, as I don't have it, but what you can do is install a temporary system on your 4GB drive then format your array from that copy windows... this way you can set what ever cluster size you want (1k-128k iirc) then reboot and when you install Windoze on the new array you don't need to reformat... I think the selection is ...leave current file system intact - or something like that. It's also a good idea to physically remove the 4GB drive BEFORE you install windows to the new array. Of course - make sure your boot order is set properly in BIOS also!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spirit Posted January 24, 2006 Posted January 24, 2006 I finally got around to testing some different settings on my Raptors check this out... x4 Raptors on nVidia RAID 0 16k Stripe 4k Cluster Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest napalm Posted January 24, 2006 Posted January 24, 2006 Ok now I know that SoundX98 has some instructions in this thread about changing the size of the Stripe and the cluster. I have tried and tried to understand it but just can't get it to work. I follow Soundx98's instructions and go to disk management and can't find any options to change anything. If someone out there could explain this to me in laymans language I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you so much Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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