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Raid? Different storage sizes?

MrIceCremeLollipop
By MrIceCremeLollipop
in Storage Devices
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Ok, So if i have a 1Tb Hard Drive and I have a 2 Tb drive can i still put it in raid 0, Making the 2 Tb mirror the 1? Will i still have the spare 1tb? what about raid 1???? Also can A hdd and a ssd go in raid?

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For RAID 0, it takes the drive of the lowest capacity. I believe it's the same with RAID 1.

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Ok, So if i have a 1Tb Hard Drive and I have a 2 Tb drive can i still put it in raid 0, Making the 2 Tb mirror the 1? Will i still have the spare 1tb? what about raid 1???? Also can A hdd and a ssd go in raid?

 

RAID 0 joins them together, but you are limited to the smallest drive capacity, so the max you would get is 2TB in total.

 

RAID 1 mirrors the drives, backing up one drive to the other, but you are still limited by the smallest drive capacity, so you would end up with 1TB in total (The other 1TB being used to mirror).

 

I would not recommend RAIDing different drive sizes.

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You can RAID different sizes in both 0 and 1 configurations and depending on the controller, you might even be able to use the leftover space for a non-RAID volume. You should not RAID an SSD and an HDD in either 0 or 1. The HDD will slow down the array so much that it would be way better to use just the SSD. If you want to backup an SSD, do a software clone or backup. 

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Ok, So if i have a 1Tb Hard Drive and I have a 2 Tb drive can i still put it in raid 0, Making the 2 Tb mirror the 1? Will i still have the spare 1tb? what about raid 1???? Also can A hdd and a ssd go in raid?

 

Hey there :)
 
Basically you can put any two  or more drives in a RAID array regardless of their speed and capacity. The RAID controller will always limit all drives' capacity to the one with the smallest (in your case - 1TB) and the speed of all the drives to the one with the slowest. 
Furthermore, RAID0 basically splits the data on a number of pieces that equals the number of drives on the array and writes it simultaneously to all of them, providing a good speed boost, but offers no redundancy at all and if any of the drives in the array fails for one reason or another, you would lose all the data on the whole array without ways of rebuilding it.
What you are looking for is RAID1 Mirroring. It takes the two drives, in your case it would use 1TB of each and it would mirror one of the drives onto the other, giving you 1TB of usable space, 1TB of redundancy and 1TB of unallocated space on the larger file. 
I wouldn't recommend using different drives on the same array. :) 
 
Captain_WD.

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I wouldn't recommend using different drives on the same array. :)

 

Yes, but different models with same specifications in Mirror1 would be indeed a good idea. Two identical drives will have a higher chance of failing in the same time period** and you don't want that. Those chance will decrease if drives are different and will give more time to replace the bad drive. From that point forward (1 new + 1 old) it's most unlikely both drives will fail in the same time period.

 

** let's assume 'time period' is the period of time required to acquire a new drive, switch it with the bad one and recreate de array.

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~snip~

 

I wouldn't agree with this. Two different drives would have differences either in the capacity, speed or the firmware and any difference between the drives leads to a higher chance of a drive dropping out of the RAID array. Two drives that are Identical does not mean that the time to fail is also identical. HDDs are mechanical units and each drive can fail at any time. If you have two regular WD Red drives with 3 year warranty this does not mean that the two drives are likely to fail at the same time before or after the warranty. You can have one of the drives fail within the warranty period and the other fail after the 7th year. 
Using different drives and increasing the chance of drive dropouts just for the sole purpose of knowing that one will fail sooner than the other is something I wouldn't advise.
 
Captain_WD.

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
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@captain_wd YES, BUT the same idea on 2 drives with same capacity, same RPM, same cache, same number of platters, same everything, but different manufacturers or different model.. or

ooor.. same model but different wear (or tear.. what's the word?)

 

Buying 2 identical drives from the same store (i wouldn't make 2 orders and pay 2 shippings from 2 stores) may have a higher chance that both products are from the same lot (.. lets say: same QA or same manufacturing process or whatever goes down there) and IF there's some kind of hidden flaw, it's a higher change that both drives would have it. It is indeed a small change that 2 drives will die in the same time, but 2 identical drives may have 2 identical flaws that may act out.

 

I'm just saying this because I had this kind of scenario with a motherboard and a video card. The motherboard had a 'broken' SATA port that gave me 100% usage on my HDD. Sent it for warranty and received another one with the exact same flaw. The video card had high RPM spikes; sent for warranty; replaced with another one with same problem. I believe you see my point of view now.

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~snip~

 

 I do, but I doubt that the chances of getting two identical drives from the same place with the same potential "flaw" or defect are higher than the risk of drive dropouts due to misalignment or incompatibility between firmwares. I guess everyone is free to choose what goes in their storage setups and I believe this is the right thing. :)

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
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Just to add to this, you can use different capacity drives in other software array configurations - such as Storage Spaces

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