Re: PC questions!
OK, so i'll try to address a few of the questions here:
RAID (Redundant Array of Independant Disks/Redundant Array in Inexpensive Disks).
RAID can be used for several different purposes; Fault Tolerance, Imporved Read or Write Speeds, or to provide a larger amount of contiguous space. The most common RAID configurations (There are many others) are:
RAID 0: Striping. Requires a minumum of 2 disks. Data writes are distributed (striped) across both disks. Both disks are presented as a larger, single volume. If you striped 2 x 100 GB HDD's, you'd have a single 200GB volume presented to the OS. If one disk is lost, all data is lost. This increases the disk read/write speeds and
RAID 1: Mirroring. Requires a minumum of 2 disks. Data written to Disk 1 is mirrored (copied) to Disk 2. If a disk is lost, the data is recoverable from the mirrored disk. Replace the failed disk and rebuild the stripe to restore redundancy. While mirroring affords redundacy, it can slow disk write speeds.
RAID 5: Striped with Parity. Requires a minimum of 3 disks. Data is striped across all three disks along with the parity bits for recovery. You will loose one disks worth of storage to parity. 3 x 100GB HDD's in RAID 5 will be presented to the OS as a single 200GB volume. Failure of any disk in the array will allow for recoverability.
RAID 10: There are really two different configurations with RAID 10 (1+0 and 0 + 1). RAID 1 + 0 is the TRUE RAID 10. RAID 10 requires a minimum of 4 disks. Recoverability dictates the differences between RAID 1+0 and RAID 0+1. Fast reads/writes
RAID 0 +1: Disks are stripped, then mirrored. The data is striped across 2 disks (Disk 1 & Disk 2), then the striped set is mirrored to the other 2 disks (Disk 3 & Disk 4). This will allow data recovery if 1 disk is lost, but will only allow recoverability if certain combinations of 2 disks are lost. Fast read/writes
RAID 1 + 0: Disks are Mirrored then Striped. The data is mirrored across 2 disks, then the mirrored set is striped to the other 2 disks. This will allow data recovery if ANY 2 disks are lost.
RAID can be configured with either Software or Hardware based RAID. Hardware based RAID provides better performance because the processor cycles required are offloaded onto a processor on the RAID controller card. However hardware RAID can be more expensive. Software based RAID will require additional load on the CPU because it requires the CPU to handle the RAID processing.
Windows XP, Vista and 7 all come with the native ability to configure software based RAID. Otherwise you will need to purchase and install a RAID controller in your new computer. The chipset in the RAID controller is used to build the array, so RAID controller A may (most likely Won't) see the array built by RAID controller B.
I would backup all the data from the drives. Decide on whether to go with software or Hardware based RAID. If going with hardware based RAID buy a RAID controller and install it. Install the new disks, format them then build your new array. Make sure that the disks are, in fact, SATA and then buy a SATA controller. Also look at what you have for free slots (e.g. PCI, PCI-X, etc) and make sure the controller is the same.
OK, so i'll try to address a few of the questions here:
RAID (Redundant Array of Independant Disks/Redundant Array in Inexpensive Disks).
RAID can be used for several different purposes; Fault Tolerance, Imporved Read or Write Speeds, or to provide a larger amount of contiguous space. The most common RAID configurations (There are many others) are:
RAID 0: Striping. Requires a minumum of 2 disks. Data writes are distributed (striped) across both disks. Both disks are presented as a larger, single volume. If you striped 2 x 100 GB HDD's, you'd have a single 200GB volume presented to the OS. If one disk is lost, all data is lost. This increases the disk read/write speeds and
RAID 1: Mirroring. Requires a minumum of 2 disks. Data written to Disk 1 is mirrored (copied) to Disk 2. If a disk is lost, the data is recoverable from the mirrored disk. Replace the failed disk and rebuild the stripe to restore redundancy. While mirroring affords redundacy, it can slow disk write speeds.
RAID 5: Striped with Parity. Requires a minimum of 3 disks. Data is striped across all three disks along with the parity bits for recovery. You will loose one disks worth of storage to parity. 3 x 100GB HDD's in RAID 5 will be presented to the OS as a single 200GB volume. Failure of any disk in the array will allow for recoverability.
RAID 10: There are really two different configurations with RAID 10 (1+0 and 0 + 1). RAID 1 + 0 is the TRUE RAID 10. RAID 10 requires a minimum of 4 disks. Recoverability dictates the differences between RAID 1+0 and RAID 0+1. Fast reads/writes
RAID 0 +1: Disks are stripped, then mirrored. The data is striped across 2 disks (Disk 1 & Disk 2), then the striped set is mirrored to the other 2 disks (Disk 3 & Disk 4). This will allow data recovery if 1 disk is lost, but will only allow recoverability if certain combinations of 2 disks are lost. Fast read/writes
RAID 1 + 0: Disks are Mirrored then Striped. The data is mirrored across 2 disks, then the mirrored set is striped to the other 2 disks. This will allow data recovery if ANY 2 disks are lost.
RAID can be configured with either Software or Hardware based RAID. Hardware based RAID provides better performance because the processor cycles required are offloaded onto a processor on the RAID controller card. However hardware RAID can be more expensive. Software based RAID will require additional load on the CPU because it requires the CPU to handle the RAID processing.
Windows XP, Vista and 7 all come with the native ability to configure software based RAID. Otherwise you will need to purchase and install a RAID controller in your new computer. The chipset in the RAID controller is used to build the array, so RAID controller A may (most likely Won't) see the array built by RAID controller B.
I would backup all the data from the drives. Decide on whether to go with software or Hardware based RAID. If going with hardware based RAID buy a RAID controller and install it. Install the new disks, format them then build your new array. Make sure that the disks are, in fact, SATA and then buy a SATA controller. Also look at what you have for free slots (e.g. PCI, PCI-X, etc) and make sure the controller is the same.