Help with starting RAID 0

[Slaps_Only]

I have a few spare HDD that I want to RAID together to make a single large 'high speed' game drive. I saw windows 10 has 'storage spaces' but from my light research it looks like it's not as efficient as an actual RAID 0 array. What tools would I need to start a software based array? Also in this scenario, would a hardware RAID make more sense?

 

I have windows 10 installed on a 240 ssd with some other programs, and I currently have a HDD installed for my games right now. Would I still need to reinstall windows 10 before I start (I can I would just rather not)?

[karsnoordhuis]

i dont see why you want to reinstall windows. you can set raid 0 up in your bios if your mobo supports it, this is the most effective way i believe

 

[LinusOnLine]

Hardware stripe sets are faster but if you wnat to do it in windows you can.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/how-to-set-up-raid-windows-10,36783.html

[Streetguru]

25 minutes ago, Slaps_Only said:

 

Why would you want to risk your data on a daily basis?

 

You could add another SSD to do caching for the hard drives, or split your current SSD to use half of it for caching.

[Slaps_Only]

3 hours ago, Streetguru said:

Why would you want to risk your data on a daily basis?

 

You could add another SSD to do caching for the hard drives, or split your current SSD to use half of it for caching.

I don't have any critical data one my computer. Everything important is saved externally. Anything I can't recover from a cloud storage or service is saved onto a flash drive. My HDD would only hold a steam library which i can easily re-download if a disk or the raid fails. I had never considered caching though.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Since its not a boot drive just make a raid 0 with storage spaces in windows. Simple and much better than using the bios for raid.

 

 

[Slaps_Only]

4 hours ago, karsnoordhuis said:

i dont see why you want to reinstall windows. you can set raid 0 up in your bios if your mobo supports it, this is the most effective way i believe

 

I don't want to reinstall windows. I sort of assumed a fresh install would make things easier. 

 

 

[Streetguru]

1 minute ago, Slaps_Only said:

I don't have any critical data one my computer. Everything important is saved externally. Anything I can't recover from a cloud storage or service is saved onto a flash drive. My HDD would only hold a steam library which i can easily re-download if a disk or the raid fails. I had never considered caching though.

Windows has built in caching software or linus lists a few here

I really wouldn't bother with RAID 0 at all though unless you just want to run one benchmark for fun.
 

 

[Slaps_Only]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

Since its not a boot drive just make a raid 0 with storage spaces in windows. Simple and much better than using the bios for raid.

 

 

Are 'storage spaces' and RAID 0 the same? I was under the impression they were similar but RAID 0 was still faster. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Slaps_Only said:

Are 'storage spaces' and RAID 0 the same? I was under the impression they were similar but RAID 0 was still faster. 

Storage spaces is the raid management system in windows

 

You can make a raid0 in storage spaces and it will preform just like any other raid0. Just be sure to set the collums correctly.

[Slaps_Only]

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Storage spaces is the raid management system in windows

 

You can make a raid0 in storage spaces and it will preform just like any other raid0. Just be sure to set the collums correctly.

Excellent. Thank you for the info!

[beersykins]

4 hours ago, Streetguru said:

Why would you want to risk your data on a daily basis?

I think he indicated it was a game or scratch drive, so I wouldn't worry about it.

 

OP you can just assign those drives to an array after changing to raid mode, I have a couple of ssd in the same configuration.

[Jarsky]

Still a waste of time setting up RAID0 for gaming. 

I used to run RAID0 for my game drive, I now just run a WD Black and its pretty much the same.