Question about RAID 0

[OxygenNapalm]

Hi, so I ordered some new parts for my pc a few days ago. I bought 2x 1tb wd black hdd's and plan on putting them in RAID 0, this will be my first time creating a raid array so sorry If I come off as an noob Anyhow Ill be moving all my system into an H440 in the next few days and was just wondering, can I defrag a raid 0 array? I know that defragging SSD's is bad but since defrag rearranges data so its closer to itself on the platter would that be bad for raid 0 since it alternates every other bit between the 2 disks?

Thanks

Oxygen

[Oshino Shinobu]

Yes, you can, and should defrag it. While it does stripe data, the data can still become fragmented as you move, edit and delete stuff. 

[OxygenNapalm]

Yes, you can, and should defrag it. While it does stripe data, the data can still become fragmented as you move, edit and delete stuff. 

ok thanks! I thought maybe since all the data wasnt on a single drive it would be bad to defrag but thanks a lot for clearing that up

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

Hey there OxygenNapalm,

 

Yes, you can defragment a RAID0 array but  it's more or less prone to complete data loss. On the other hand, defragmenting your disks will probably expand their lifetime due the less needed internal mechanical moves when reading the stored data after a proper defrag process. 

The point really comes to this... RAID levels are not related to fragmentation.  Fragmentation is a function of the file system writing to a block device.  All block devices need to be defraged. RAID, no RAID, RAID type..... irrelevant to the discussion.  All block devices will fragment equally. 

It is recommended to use NAS/RAID-class drives for RAID arrays since they are designed specifically for this purpose and have some additional features in the hardware and firmware that make them more stable and safe with lower chances of drive dropouts and data corruption. WD Black are not such drives. Although great for performance, I would recommend to consider replacing them with WD Red: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=HxuyDR 

 

All in all, it's good to do it but do have in mind that RAID0 offers no redundancy whatsoever and if a file gets corrupted during the process due to misalignment it might drop the drive and cause massive data losses. I would strongly suggest that you keep a backup on a separate drive (preferably outside the system) of all the important files on that array. 

 

Captain_WD.

[OxygenNapalm]

Thanks captain, I won't be storing super important data to the raid, plan on using it to record to. Amd if all goes right I'll be buying another 2tb wd green to do regular backups to.

Thanks

Oxygen

[Captain_WD]

Thanks captain, I won't be storing super important data to the raid, plan on using it to record to. Amd if all goes right I'll be buying another 2tb wd green to do regular backups to.

Thanks

Oxygen

 

You are most welcome That sounds like a good plan. For an even better backup solution I would consider external drives or NAS devices that are not connected to the computer all the time. This is better because, besides everything that a regular internal backup drive offers as protection, you are safe against the whole system failing, physical damage of the whole box, electrical shortage or theft of the whole PC. Having internal drive with enclosures or a docking station can also work. 

 

Captain_WD.