RAID or Windows Storage spaces

[hitec16]

Hi,

Need some advice about RAID and windows storage spaces.I want to accomplish two objectives.
1) To be able to get better read speeds so that I have a bit of advantage at loading games.
2) To have a backup all the stored data, incase one of the HDD fails then I dont loose all my data(Happened to me when my seagate goflex 2TB died last month ).

I have bought a intel 730 series 240GB SSD for OS and few games that I play often.

Note: I have never done RAID or used windows storage spaces so dont have in depth knowledge about it.

I have considered RAID 0 but that wont provide data security. RAID1 provides data security but wont no performance improvement when it comes to read speed. Dont want to buy a RAID card for RAID 5.

Windows storage sounds like a good idea but can I configure it to get better read speeds? since I am spending more on HDDs.. I dont want read speeds to double up or anything but atleast 25% increase should be there hopefully.

So what are my options. I need around 2TB for data. I can buy like 3x 2TB drives max.. dont want to spend unreasonably lot.

My system Spec:
MSI Z77A-GD65
Intel 3570K
8GB RAM
1x 500GB 2.5inch seagate laptop hdd
1x500GB 3.5inch 7200RPM seagate HDD
Corsair H100i CPU cooler
AMD 7950 3Gb Vapor-X

 

[DataMedic]

Windows storage is a software based RAID and may actually be slower than using a single drive or RAID 1 when used in a RAID 5 configuration.

Your motherboard supports RAID 5 at a hardware level (no need for an add-in card). Why not configure it as a hardware RAID using the 3x 2Tb drives but still boot from the SSD. Would definitely be a faster option.

 

[APassingMe]

You don't have any options if you don't want to run RAID 5 or 10, Windows storage options won't give you any real benefits over a RAID 1.

Besides RAID 1 is normally faster than RAID 5 except in a few rare cases.

Another option is to run two drives in RAID 0 and backup to the 3rd disk, just make sure you have a good automated backup system and don't go over 2 GB of data.

 

[ImDaBaron]

Windows storage is a software based RAID and may actually be slower than using a single drive or RAID 1 when used in a RAID 5 configuration.

Your motherboard supports RAID 5 at a hardware level (no need for an add-in card). Why not configure it as a hardware RAID using the 3x 2Tb drives but still boot from the SSD. Would definitely be a faster option.

Exact;y what I was thinking. Run Raid 5 and use the SSD as the boot drive.

 

[hitec16]

Thanks for quick response guyz and pointing out about the fact that my motherboard support raid 5 .. I didn't knew about it.
So if I go for 3 x 2TB drives how much space will I get in raid 5 ? 4TB ? and will there be any performance improvement in read speeds?

If there are no speed improvements Should I get a 2TB drive and mirror it using windows storage spaces with my existing 2TB seagate go-Flex drive? and get a cheap 500Gb seagte drive and RAID 0 it with existing 500GB seagte drive(which about 3 years old now)

 

[APassingMe]

With RAID 5 you lose the capacity of one drive, so you would have 4 TB of space. If your controller supports it you may see an improvement in read speads with RAID 5 over a single disk but it is unlikely considering you are using a built-in controller.

It's your choice on the RAID 0 + backup, it should work well but keep in mind that the software will need to be solid and run all the time to keep up with changes.

 

[Solandri]

1) To be able to get better read speeds so that I have a bit of advantage at loading games.

You already took care of that with the SSD. If all your games won't fit on it, you can move unused games to the HDD for storage. Just move them back to the SSD when you want to play them (I install them in C:\Games so I don't have to go digging around the Programs folders).

2) To have a backup all the stored data, incase one of the HDD fails then I dont loose all my data(Happened to me when my seagate goflex 2TB died last month ).

Repeat after me: RAID is not a backup.

RAID is for redundancy. If you can't afford to have any downtime when a drive fails, you want RAID. A drive fails, the RAID array keeps chugging along and serving data, a few days later you pop in a replacement drive, and you suffered no downtime. A company wants their database stored on RAID. A home media server could potentially be on RAID, if but to keep the kids out of your hair if a drive fails.

RAID doesn't work for a backup because any changes get written to all drives simultaneously. If you accidentally delete that folder containing your wedding photos from a RAID array, it gets deleted from all drives instantly. There's no getting it back and your wife is gonna kill you. So even if you use RAID, you still need an external backup.

So re-evaluate if it's really RAID you need, or just an automated backup. Most routers come with a USB port for an external HDD now. They tend to be slow but you can do the initial backup with the HDD connected directly to your computer, then move the drive to the router. Free backup programs like Macrium Reflect, Easeus Todo, and Paragon Backup and Recovery allow incremental or differential backups, so your computer will only have to write daily changes to the HDD on your router. I set that up for my dad, and his laptop backs up to the external HDD automatically every day over wifi. He doesn't even notice it's happening. But the three times he's accidentally deleted important files, I just restored it from the previous day's backup. No fuss, no muss.

Windows storage is a software based RAID and may actually be slower than using a single drive or RAID 1 when used in a RAID 5 configuration.

Your motherboard supports RAID 5 at a hardware level (no need for an add-in card). Why not configure it as a hardware RAID using the 3x 2Tb drives but still boot from the SSD. Would definitely be a faster option.

Unless you paid $150-$500 extra for the motherboard, it's still software RAID. The RAID built into motherboards are usually just a BIOS-level hook to configure the RAID. Once the OS loads, it runs a software RAID driver.

In real hardware RAID, there's dedicated processors to calculate the RAID 5 parity. In the old days (1980s - 1990s) calculating parity could easily take up 80% of a CPU's cycles so it made sense to offload it. Nowadays an i3 could calculate it without batting an eye. So there's really no need for hardware RAID.

In fact it's actually worse than software RAID in practical terms. With hardware RAID, if the RAID controller fails, you're stuck until you can buy an identical replacement (yes this has happened to me). If you're lucky and the stores still sell the controller. Companies that use hardware RAID keep several spare controllers in the closet just for emergencies like this. With software RAID, you just move the drives to a working computer, load up the same software/drivers, and mount the RAID array there.

Edit: Windows storage spaces may support snapshots. I haven't used storage spaces so I can't appraise it (I use ZFS). But a snapshot is basically an image of the disk in its current state. It will protect you against accidental file deletions - the snapshot will still have the original file.

So if you ran RAID with Windows storage spaces and made regular snapshots, then that would give you both redundancy and backups. I'd still feel better with an external backup though, in case of filesystem corruption or if the server should catch fire.

 

[hitec16]

@Solandri
well if I regularly play 4 to 5 games that are of approx 40Gb or more each and they would easily take up like 200GB on SSD which also includes OS and other softwares so I do need HDD based solution for better speed(since SSDs are way to costly).

I believe I wont be having issues like accidentally deleting data and some data loss is ok but I dont want full drive failure.

Now lets assume my SSD is full and I want to further install heavy softwares eg visual studio ultimate etc which requires good read speeds . i want a solution that doesnt cost a fortune and works pretty well. Ofcourse I dont expect that all my objectives will be met but I do need good read speed (nothing like SSDs but still better than a traditional hDD) along with some redundancy. Photographs and videos can be backed up on cloud but all my movies and TV shows steam game backups etc need to be OK if a drive fails.

If RAID 5 doesnt give any read speed benefits then I guess I will get those WD green drives and use windows storage for archiving data with 2 way mirror and get 1 500GB drives and RAID 0 it with existing 500GB drive to get better game load times and software responsiveness.

what are your thoughts on that ?

 

[DataMedic]

Thanks for quick response guyz and pointing out about the fact that my motherboard support raid 5 .. I didn't knew about it.
So if I go for 3 x 2TB drives how much space will I get in raid 5 ? 4TB ? and will there be any performance improvement in read speeds?

If there are no speed improvements Should I get a 2TB drive and mirror it using windows storage spaces with my existing 2TB seagate go-Flex drive? and get a cheap 500Gb seagte drive and RAID 0 it with existing 500GB seagte drive(which about 3 years old now)

In RAID 5 you lose the capacity of one drive so if you have 3x 2Tb you'll have 4Tb. With hardware RAID you should see some speed improvement, especially when moving around large files, but it's marginal.

 

[gerr]

OS/Game drive: get a 2nd matching SSD, setup your SSD's in Raid-0. Then buy a USB enclosure for your 2.5" 500GB HDD and use it as a backup for your Raid-0 boot drive. Yes you could setup your single SSD in Windows Storage Spaces as a 480GB pool, then as your single 240GB SSD starts to run out of space at a later time, it will alert you and you can just buy another SSD and add it to the pool taking you up to the 480GB when needed. However, I don't think you get the speed increase like you would using Raid-0.

Data: Buy the fastest 2TB drive you can afford, then buy a cheap external one of the same size and just use it as a backup. While you could buy 2x1TB drives and set them up in RAID-0, that will likley be more expensive and take up more power, so just spend the money on a single fast 2TB drive. The price difference jumping from 2TB to 3TB isn't much, so even consider that. WD Black drives are really fast, but their Blue series is only a bit behind those for a lot less.