How to run storage properly?

[TonnyKing01]

I have a general idea of how storage on computers work, but I don't get how I am supposed to run a SSD and a HDD together, in what RAID, what formation etc. or if I want to run a single SSD for my whole setup (ex. 1TB SSD) or a single HDD for the whole setup. Can someone explain to me how to do it, in what RAID and how I am supposed to set it up? I know that RAID 0 is faster but less reliable, but if I use only 1 drive does it even matter? Or if I use the SSD in RAID 0 and the HDD in RAID 1 (both with 1TB capacity) will I only have 1TB available? 

 

[Cryptonite]

I have a general idea of how storage on computers work, but I don't get how I am supposed to run a SSD and a HDD together, in what RAID, what formation etc. or if I want to run a single SSD for my whole setup (ex. 1TB SSD) or a single HDD for the whole setup. Can someone explain to me how to do it, in what RAID and how I am supposed to set it up? I know that RAID 0 is faster but less reliable, but if I use only 1 drive does it even matter? Or if I use the SSD in RAID 0 and the HDD in RAID 1 (both with 1TB capacity) will I only have 1TB available? 

if you use a single drive you should use AHCI not raid mode in the bios. RAID is only for making multiple drives be picked up as a single unit by the computer.

[Sklo]

Plugin your SSD, install windows and than you are free to add as much drives as you wish.I personally have a SSD for windows and most used programms(TS and browser), a main HDD for games and an old notebook 2.5" HDD for movies and music.

 

You just need to install stuff on your secondary HDD manually(example:set Steam to save games there) otherwise your SSD will be trashed soon, since by default everything will be added on the main drive(even downloads).

[alpenwasser]

I have a general idea of how storage on computers work, but I don't get how I am supposed to run a SSD and a HDD together, in what RAID,

Usually, you don't run SSDs and HDDs in a RAID setup since the HDDs

will be seriously bottlenecked by the HDDs. What you can do, depending

on your setup (for example, wich ZFS), is use the SSD as a cache for

the HDD RAID setup to speed things up.

But in general, what you usually have is a variant of this:

• single or multiple SSDs/HDDs independently of each other

  (easiest scenario, just plug drives in and put data on them).

• RAID pool of SSDs
• RAID pool of HDDs

what formation etc. or if I want to run a single SSD for my whole setup (ex. 1TB SSD) or a single HDD for the whole setup. Can someone explain to me how to do it, in what RAID and how I am supposed to set it up? I know that RAID 0 is faster but less reliable, but if I use only 1 drive does it even matter? Or if I use the SSD in RAID 0 and the HDD in RAID 1 (both with 1TB capacity) will I only have 1TB available?

If you want to run a single SSD, or a single HDD, or an SSD and

a HDD independently of each other, as mentioned above, just plug

them in, format them with partitions and filesystems and whatnot

and that's that.

You can't run a single SSD or HDD in RAID1 (well, depending on

the RAID controller you might technically be able to initiate a

RAID1 with a single drive, but it would be utterly pointless and

only complicate your setup for no benefit).

A brief overview of the most common RAID levels:

• RAID0: data is divided up over all the drives in the pool.

  So, chunk 1 of your data goes onto drive 1, chunk 2 on drive 2

  and so on. Advantage: Great for speed. Drawback: If one

  drive fails, all your data is lost. Available space: The total

  sum of all drives in your pool (say, 2 TB with 2 × 1 TB drives),

  if they all have the same capacity (and they should, it will

  work with different sized drives, but it's not recommended).

• RAID1: data is mirrored over all the drives in the pool.
• Advantage: If one or more drives fail, you still have

  your data available (this is not a replacement for a backup,

  since there are quite a few failure scenarios which this

  does not protect against, the primary advantage is that it

  allows to keep the data online in case of drive failure).

  Also, mirroring the data to a new disk when you replace

  a failed one is comparatively fast.

  Drawback: Needs lots of space, so expensive. No speed

  gains for writing, depending on implementation there can be

  speed gains for reading (in ZFS, for example, last I checked).

  Available Space: One drive's capacity, if they all

  have the same capacity.

• RAID5,6,7: Parity RAID. How exactly it works is a bit

  complicated, but in essence, data is split up over multiple

  drives, but on top of that, parity information about your

  data is stored across the pool. This allows to restore the

  data in case of a drive failure (one for RAID5, two for RAID6,

  three for RAID7).Advantage: Does not use as much space

  as mirroring while still providing protection against drive

  failures. Disadvantage: Restoring data to a new drive

  when replacing an old one is a comparatively slow operation

  since lots of calculations need to be done for the parity

  data. This means that a second drive is not unlikely to fail

  while you are still restoring data to the first new drive.

  In case of RAID5, you would then lose all your data.

  Also, speed in general is not that great, but it might still

  be plenty enough for many scenarios (I use RAIDZ2, which is

  RAID6, on my server).

• RAID10,RAID50,RAID60,RAID70: A combination of RAID0 and

  the other RAID levels. So, in RAID60 you would combine two or

  more RAID6 arrays in a larger RAID0 array, and so on. Only usually

  makes sense if you have quite a lot of drives.

Note that this list simplifies things a bit.

This topic by @wpirobotbuilder has a bit more on the topic, with

fancy graphics and stuff, which might help you understand this

more easily.

Anyway, back to your own setup: As has been mentioned, the most

reasonable scenario, unless you have tons of money to throw around

or don't need much space (in which case you can just go with one

or multiple SSDs without an HDD) is to have your OS and programs

which you use frequently on your SSD and other things on your HDD,

while running them independently of each other as simple disks (so,

plug in, partition, format, put data on them).

[wpirobotbuilder]

I have a general idea of how storage on computers work, but I don't get how I am supposed to run a SSD and a HDD together, in what RAID, what formation etc. or if I want to run a single SSD for my whole setup (ex. 1TB SSD) or a single HDD for the whole setup. Can someone explain to me how to do it, in what RAID and how I am supposed to set it up? I know that RAID 0 is faster but less reliable, but if I use only 1 drive does it even matter? Or if I use the SSD in RAID 0 and the HDD in RAID 1 (both with 1TB capacity) will I only have 1TB available? 

 

If you're after high performance storage, you could set up your SSD as a cache for the hard drive. Generally speaking you wouldn't want to RAID an SSD and an HDD, you wouldn't gain very much from it.

[TonnyKing01]

Usually, you don't run SSDs and HDDs in a RAID setup since the HDDs

will be seriously bottlenecked by the HDDs. What you can do, depending

on your setup (for example, wich ZFS), is use the SSD as a cache for

the HDD RAID setup to speed things up.

But in general, what you usually have is a variant of this:

• single or multiple SSDs/HDDs independently of each other

  (easiest scenario, just plug drives in and put data on them).

• RAID pool of SSDs
• RAID pool of HDDs

If you want to run a single SSD, or a single HDD, or an SSD and

a HDD independently of each other, as mentioned above, just plug

them in, format them with partitions and filesystems and whatnot

and that's that.

You can't run a single SSD or HDD in RAID1 (well, depending on

the RAID controller you might technically be able to initiate a

RAID1 with a single drive, but it would be utterly pointless and

only complicate your setup for no benefit).

A brief overview of the most common RAID levels:

• RAID0: data is divided up over all the drives in the pool.

  So, chunk 1 of your data goes onto drive 1, chunk 2 on drive 2

  and so on. Advantage: Great for speed. Drawback: If one

  drive fails, all your data is lost. Available space: The total

  sum of all drives in your pool (say, 2 TB with 2 × 1 TB drives),

  if they all have the same capacity (and they should, it will

  work with different sized drives, but it's not recommended).

• RAID1: data is mirrored over all the drives in the pool.
• Advantage: If one or more drives fail, you still have

  your data available (this is not a replacement for a backup,

  since there are quite a few failure scenarios which this

  does not protect against, the primary advantage is that it

  allows to keep the data online in case of drive failure).

  Also, mirroring the data to a new disk when you replace

  a failed one is comparatively fast.

  Drawback: Needs lots of space, so expensive. No speed

  gains for writing, depending on implementation there can be

  speed gains for reading (in ZFS, for example, last I checked).

  Available Space: One drive's capacity, if they all

  have the same capacity.

• RAID5,6,7: Parity RAID. How exactly it works is a bit

  complicated, but in essence, data is split up over multiple

  drives, but on top of that, parity information about your

  data is stored across the pool. This allows to restore the

  data in case of a drive failure (one for RAID5, two for RAID6,

  three for RAID7).Advantage: Does not use as much space

  as mirroring while still providing protection against drive

  failures. Disadvantage: Restoring data to a new drive

  when replacing an old one is a comparatively slow operation

  since lots of calculations need to be done for the parity

  data. This means that a second drive is not unlikely to fail

  while you are still restoring data to the first new drive.

  In case of RAID5, you would then lose all your data.

  Also, speed in general is not that great, but it might still

  be plenty enough for many scenarios (I use RAIDZ2, which is

  RAID6, on my server).

• RAID10,RAID50,RAID60,RAID70: A combination of RAID0 and

  the other RAID levels. So, in RAID60 you would combine two or

  more RAID6 arrays in a larger RAID0 array, and so on. Only usually

  makes sense if you have quite a lot of drives.

Note that this list simplifies things a bit.

This topic by @wpirobotbuilder has a bit more on the topic, with

fancy graphics and stuff, which might help you understand this

more easily.

Anyway, back to your own setup: As has been mentioned, the most

reasonable scenario, unless you have tons of money to throw around

or don't need much space (in which case you can just go with one

or multiple SSDs without an HDD) is to have your OS and programs

which you use frequently on your SSD and other things on your HDD,

while running them independently of each other as simple disks (so,

plug in, partition, format, put data on them).

 

Thank you for replying, it really helped

[TonnyKing01]

if you use a single drive you should use AHCI not raid mode in the bios. RAID is only for making multiple drives be picked up as a single unit by the computer.

Thank you for replying