[SOLVED] Striped Boot Volume?

[prince_xaine]

I couldn't find the answer to the question I am looking for...

So I have a few computers and I am currently working on my old one. It uses SATA II, which is relatively slow, and only has one PCI-e slot fast enough for SATA 3, which is utilized by a GTX 1060 6GB. So I figured what better way to get past this limitation than using a Striped Volume for Windows, except, I have never done it, seen it done, or even know if it's possible. If I was able to do so I would reach speeds closer to that of SATA 3, which would, in theory, increase the desktop performance of my machine (loading applications, web browsing, etc.) Currently I have Samsung 850 Evo 500 GB, but it's limited to SATA 2 speeds.

What do you think?

My only thought is to put Windows on an extra drive, then create the Striped volume using two disks, then mirror it to the striped volume and attempt booting from it.

 

[kanewolf]

If you have an SSD already, you will change the performance very little and will increase the probability of failure significantly. The processor on a SATA II era motherboard will be a limiting factor.

 

[prince_xaine]

If you have an SSD already, you will change the performance very little and will increase the probability of failure significantly. The processor on a SATA II era motherboard will be a limiting factor.

Correct me if I am wrong, but striped volumes simultaneously can read/write data from two or more disks at the same time allowing for "double" the performance.

Doesn't really double the performance, but it does increase it by a substantial amount.

 

[kanewolf]

Correct me if I am wrong, but striped volumes simultaneously can read/write data from two or more disks at the same time allowing for "double" the performance.

Sure. But your performance won't improve significantly, IMO. The rest of the system, (memory and CPU) will limit. I don't think your limitation is your storage subsystem.

 

[prince_xaine]

Sure. But your performance won't improve significantly, IMO. The rest of the system, (memory and CPU) will limit. I don't think your limitation is your storage subsystem.

I am running a high end old computer if that makes any sense.

Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R
Xeon X5470 [4.2 GHz]
GTX 1060 6 GB [PCIe 2.0]
Samsung PC2-6400 [1066 MHz] ~8 GB transfer speeds
Samsung 850 Evo 500GB [SATA II] ~200 MB/s transfer speeds
Western Digital Blue 500GB ~180 MB/s transfer speeds

 

[ElectrO_90]

Unless your motherboard supports RAID you're out of luck
Then you have to make sure it supports RAID on bootable drives as well.
Too much hassle, and not worth the performance gain.

What is it you expect raiding your bootable drive will achieve?

 

[prince_xaine]

Unless your motherboard supports RAID you're out of luck
Then you have to make sure it supports RAID on bootable drives as well.
Too much hassle, and not worth the performance gain.

What is it you expect raiding your bootable drive will achieve?

As I have stated above, I intend on pushing past the SATA 2 bandwidth limit by utilizing this feature. I have pushed past the SATA 3 bandwidth on another computer with two SSDs and achieved 1 GB/s consistent transfer speeds. The most important thing to note is that each drive is still limited to the bandwidth limit, but by using two drives, you can 'double' the bandwidth by reading and writing to them at the same time, using striped volumes. Furthermore, I don't think this will cause any issues with the drives, as neither of them can be fully utilized anyways. The best thing is that it will double the 4K speeds, which will double windows performance, if I can find someone who knows how to set one up.

 

[ElectrO_90]

I do know how RAID works, its OK you don't need to explain it to me.
But the theoretical speed and actual speed and the actual performance increase in "things" are all different.
I understand if you do a lot of server things and file transfers, but I feel it's a waste. It works perfect on my 48TB server though Raid10

Well if you want to RAID it then you can by buying the exact same SSD you have now, reformat them both, use BIOS Raid, install windows 10 from scratch and all your programs, since you can't just turn your SSD into RAID without it all doing its magical Raid stuff it has to do.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

yep, more hassle than what it's worth really. more prone to failure as mentioned above

 

[prince_xaine]

Not possible to install windows on a dynamic disk

 

[Grobe]

Not possible to install windows on a dynamic disk

No it isn't.

An "high end computer" would normally provide hardware raid capabilities, and it would probably also NOT have being connected the OS drive througt sata cable.

 

[mdd1963]

If you are stuck at SATA2 speeds from 2006, it's time for a new...well, everything...(you can take your 850 EVO with you, of course!)

 

[thorssig]

I'm also trying to get windows to boot from a striped volume and while reading you guys I'm finally giving up on it because Windows striping requires more than simple drivers. It needs functionality from windows services and stuff which are not available in the boot loader.
BUT I've seen 1 guy mention creating a Linux BtrFS striped partition which then can be booted using a driver supplied during Windows Setup!
I am extremely stubborn about booting Windows from a striped volume because it's always doing tons of stuff, and then especially the PageFile partition because my system shows it to be the heaviest thing in slowing my system down.
I just got a PCI card with 4x4TB SSD m.2 drives and I want it striped at 256Gb/s!

 

[USAFRet]

I'm also trying to get windows to boot from a striped volume and while reading you guys I'm finally giving up on it because Windows striping requires more than simple drivers. It needs functionality from windows services and stuff which are not available in the boot loader.
BUT I've seen 1 guy mention creating a Linux BtrFS striped partition which then can be booted using a driver supplied during Windows Setup!
I am extremely stubborn about booting Windows from a striped volume because it's always doing tons of stuff, and then especially the PageFile partition because my system shows it to be the heaviest thing in slowing my system down.
I just got a PCI card with 4x4TB SSD m.2 drives and I want it striped at 256Gb/s!

1. This is a 5 year old thread. Don't do that.

2. Using a RAID 0 for the OS drive is one of the dumber things you can do.
Especially so with solid state drive.
Doubly especially so when those are NVMe drives.
Don't do this as well.

If you wish to continue, please start a NEW thread of your own.