RAID SSDs OS install

monstarmadness · September 30, 2014

Hi guys,

I had two questions regarding setting up SSDs in RAID 0.

I am building a new computer and have two 400GB SSDs that I would like to RAID for better performance.

I want to use this RAID setup as my operating system drive and want to install important files onto it while I keep the rest on my HDD.

1) How do I install two HDDs as RAID 0 drives before installing the OS?

2) I have enterprise SSDs which are known for reliability and consistency (Intel S3700) and would like to know your opinion on if I should go ahead with this....

dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd · September 30, 2014

RAID setups are usually done in the BIOS. Linux did a tutorial on how to set up RAID arrays.

The first 3:55 is basically an explanation of what RAID 0 and 1 is, but you sound like you know that already.

Once that's done and you reboot, the Windows installer should see the RAID array as a single (almost 800GB in your case) disk. Just install Windows on that and enjoy the speed.

monstarmadness · September 30, 2014

RAID setups are usually done in the BIOS. Linux did a tutorial on how to set up RAID arrays.

Once that's done and you reboot, the Windows installer should see the RAID array as a single (almost 800GB in your case) disk. Just install Windows on that and enjoy the speed.

Thanks a lot!!! I love you my saviour!!

BTW, would you recommend it? Or do you think its safer to just leave em as single drives..? I've read Anandtech's review on the SSDs and he said that they are very reliable and consistent in performance...I'd love your opinion though

dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd · September 30, 2014

I've been running SSDs in RAID for well over 2 years now. I can only recommend it.

Once you've set it up, you can pretty much forget that you're running RAID.

According to CrystalDiskInfo my Vertex 4s have 9760 power-on hours (that'd be 406 days non-stop), around 3.7 TB of writes and 99% of their expected life left.

My Linux SSD (a single Agility 3) has 10.117 power-on hours (421 days), 5.6TB of writes and is still at 100%.

Apart from a dead OCZ Vertex 2 and Revodrive (both due to a bug in the sandforce controller which killed thousands of 2nd generation OCZ SSDs), I never had a single problem with an SSD. IMO modern SSDs are more reliable than mechanical hard drives.

With RAID you do double the chance of having a hardware failure, so I do make regular backups of everything. In the unlikely event that one of the RAID drives fails, I can quickly wipe the other one, re-install my system on that and run the PC on a single SSD until the broken one is repaired or replaced.