[tberry]

I'm just setting up a new RAID 5 media server with a 3ware 7506-8 card and five 250gb drives.


I formatted each of the drives in Win Serv 2003.

Rebooted.

I set up the array in the BIOS.

It successfully initialized the array (100%).

Booted to Windows.


Now it recognizes one 933gb drive.

But it is not formatted.


Do I need to format again? (It will take forever for 933mb!)


Also, how come I lost 67gb of drive space?

 

[Branxx]

I use Maxtor 250GB drives and when they are formated each comes to about 239GB. The sam eis happing in your RAID-5, only that there appear to be even more overhead so you get only 933GB (i.e. 233GB per drive).


Formating in Windows as single drive is not the same as formating 5 drives as RAID5. It will probably take a day to comple the formating so set it off and forget it for a while.

 

[iolair]

tberry,


I think you have to create the array first.....and then partition/format. This way......you can chop up the array into several partitions or at least two, then formatting becomes more managable.

 

[salsbst]

Yes you need to format again. There was no need to format the drives prior to assembling them as an array.

 

[tberry]

Thanks you guys!

This is why AVS is so great!!!!

When you really need answers, AVS members come to the table!


Let the formatting begin....


Best,


Tom

 

[goombawa]

Whats a good partition size with a 2x80GB RAID0 setup (using a Promise Fastrak100)? I just made 2x75GB primary partitions (winXP/NTFS) on it since I didn't think 1 huge 150GB was the best way to go for performance reasons. Thoughts?

 

[Brian Puccio]

Why wouldn't one huge 150GB drive be good?

 

[goombawa]

I've read reports on inefficiencies when managing certain volumes. But I think this applies more to when you use XP to do the RAID (software solution) vs. using a RAID card.

 

[Kayle]

I prefer to keep the operating system and applications separate from user data (e.g. "Documents and Settings", so I usually make at least two partitions on the base system disk. To get this to work on Windows 2000, I create a custom setup file (I forget the exact term) so that the "Documents and Settings" folder goes onto the second partition--I believe the same mechanism is available under XP but since I don't have XP I never read up on it. Instructions on how to do this can be found on Microsoft's deployment guide.

 

[Brian Puccio]

Quote:

Originally posted by goombawa I've read reports on inefficiencies when managing certain volumes.

OK, if you have links laying around, I'd like to read them. Thanks.

Quote:

Originally posted by Kayle ITo get this to work on Windows 2000, I create a custom setup file (I forget the exact term) so that the "Documents and Settings" folder goes onto the second partition--I believe the same mechanism is available under XP but since I don't have XP I never read up on it. Instructions on how to do this can be found on Microsoft's deployment guide.

You change change it once Windows is installed. No need for special install scripts.

 

[Murkyl]

One recommendation I would have if you haven't formatted everything already, is to use large block sizes for the underlying RAID stripes. If you're mainly putting large media files on the array (large MPEGs, ISOs, MP3s) then large stripe sizes are more efficient than the default sizes. Also, when formatting in Windows, use the same size blocks as your stripe if possible.

 

[bmedude]

Quote:

Originally posted by Brian Puccio Why wouldn't one huge 150GB drive be good?

if you use two 75 gig drives, the data transfer rate is twice as fast than having a single 150 gig


edit: sorry i read it wrong, if you use two small partitions, its easier to defrag and data can be obtained quicker as well

 

[Brian Puccio]

Quote:

Originally posted by bmedude if you use two 75 gig drives, the data transfer rate is twice as fast than having a single 150 gig

But you still have one drive and are limited to the speed of that one drive, reguardless of how many partitions are on it. I even went to double check myself on this:

http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=46969

Quote:

Originally posted by bmedude edit: sorry i read it wrong, if you use two small partitions, its easier to defrag and data can be obtained quicker as well

Yes, smaller drives don't get as fragmented as larger drives, correct, simply because the dirves hold less so there is less to fragment, however you now have two drives to defrag. Either way, all data on the drive must be defragmented (and how fragmented does a media server array get considering that you simply just save large chunks at a time, it's not constant editing of small files?).


There is no speed increase, again, see the above thread, making two partitions doesn't allow you to do twice as much as you are still limited by the overall speed of the array and that does not change dependant on the number of partitions on the array.

 

[drkdiggler]

Creating partitions to save disk "slack" is only really useful when you are putting small files on them. It stops little 2kb text files from eating up 128kb on one of your stripes. Most people are either putting entire DVDs or 30+ minute TV show recordings onto their RAID5 arrays, so you're fine. Unless you've found a way to compress those down to a few kilobytes ;-)