RAID 0 on a laptop

Matt041198 · May 29, 2016

Hi, I'm planning to create a RAID array on my laptop but don't really know how, I've seen something called Storage Spaces on Windows 8 and 10 but is it actually the same? And how can I achieve this if I wanna make the raid array from the drive windows is installed + other drive. The point of this is more for personal knowledge than for real world usage, it's just an old laptop nobody uses and its main HDD is dying, so as I said, is more for personal knowledge. (Reposted because I accidentally chose best answer)

The plan is to use the main ssd and swap the DVD drive and get another ssd in it with a caddy

SuperSoph_WD · May 30, 2016

Welcome, Matt!

RAID configurations require you to have at least two identical hard drives installed in your system/laptop. However, RAID 0 is the most dangerous array out of all of them, due to the fact that it has no redundancy and fault tolerance, even though it improves performance. If one of the drives fails, you will lose the data stored on both HDDs.

Moreover, such RAID configurations should be used only if you have a specific storage purpose for creating an array.

Hope I was helpful. Good luck & Let me know if you have more questions!

SuperSoph_WD

Matt041198 · May 30, 2016

SuperSoph_WD :

As I said, its for personal knowledge, but I'm kinda giving up, I think it has to be enabled in the BIOS, and since this is a 2009 laptop there's no chance it would have something like it

ficler1977 · May 30, 2016

SuperSoph_WD :

two identical drivers are not required. apart of that I do agree with this answer.

hang-the-9 · May 31, 2016

Matt041198 :

Because the laptop is from 2009 won't matter, RAID has been around for a long time. The issue is that most laptops are designed with one hard drive. If you have two, it may have a RAID option. If you want to learn how to setup RAID, get a desktop, many motherboard support onboard RAID and you can also get an add-on card.

Matt041198 · May 31, 2016

hang-the-9 :

Thanks for your answer, I'm not in position to get a desktop right now, but I found some ssd's from around 34$, my question is if there's a way to set up a raid array from software (since the laptop's hardware or bios won't support it) to set it up from some sort of bootable tool or something so that windows detects it as one drive or raid array when installing (since I'll have to reinstall windows)

SuperSoph_WD · Jun 1, 2016

Matt041198 :

Hey there again, Matt!

It's going to be really helpful if you share more details behind this planned storage configuration of yours. Yes, it's possible to build a Software RAID instead of a hardware RAID. I'd recommend you read more about the difference and pros & cons here.
Do you plan to build the array on your desktop? Your question makes me wonder if you want to have the RAID available externally. If that is the case, then you need a RAID-specific enclosure that would allow you to build the array. You can create a spanned volume from multiple drives, indeed. However, they don't have any fault tolerance, just like RAID 0. This means that if one of the drives fails, you will lose all the files stored on the volume.

SuperSoph_WD

hang-the-9 · Jun 1, 2016

Matt041198 :

You are not quite getting the issue you have, sure you can buy another SSD, then what? To setup a RAID your system needs a space for two hard-drives, does it? Forget about software or hardware raid, you have a simple thing to get past first, you need two drives to play around with setting up RAID. You have a laptop. Most laptops don't have room for dual hard-drives. If you know you can install dual hard-drives, Windows has a software RAID you can use. http

/www.howtogeek.com/howto/36504/how-to-create-a-software-raid-array-in-windows-7/

Matt041198 · Jun 1, 2016

SuperSoph_WD :

Matt041198 :

Hey there again, Matt!

It's going to be really helpful if you share more details behind this planned storage configuration of yours. Yes, it's possible to build a Software RAID instead of a hardware RAID. I'd recommend you read more about the difference and pros & cons here.
Do you plan to build the array on your desktop? Your question makes me wonder if you want to have the RAID available externally. If that is the case, then you need a RAID-specific enclosure that would allow you to build the array. You can create a spanned volume from multiple drives, indeed. However, they don't have any fault tolerance, just like RAID 0. This means that if one of the drives fails, you will lose all the files stored on the volume.

SuperSoph_WD

Hi, I updated the main thread with details

Matt041198 · Jun 1, 2016

hang-the-9 :

Sorry for not been clear enough, I'm going to swap the dvd enclosure and put another ssd in with a caddy, there will be a total of two identical ssd's in the system, now, is there a way to set them in raid 0? the laptop bios has no option for it

joex444 · Jun 1, 2016

Typically the BIOS has an option about how to configure the storage: IDE, Legacy, AHCI, RAID. If you see no such options then you simply don't have a RAID BIOS and your hardware doesn't know anything about how to setup a RAID configuration.

This leaves software. If you wanted to use Linux, then you could use dmraid or ZFS. If you want to use Windows, you may need a "Pro" version. You mention "Storage Spaces" or "Storage Pools" above - this is how you start the process. You may need to reinstall Windows to actually do this with the boot drive, however.

I would suggest running some benchmarks with the single SSD and then re-running them once you get the RAID0 configured. This will let you see how much performance you gained.

If you notice my signature, I have a RAID0 and a RAID5. The RAID0 is for performance reasons and is where I store my Steam library and scratch space. Nothing on that drive is important, losing it would be a non-issue as I can simply re-download the library. The RAID5 has important hard-to-replace things and can withstand a single drive failure.

BadActor · Jun 1, 2016

Wouldn't RAID 0 be rather pointless as he would close to maxing out the interface with one drive anyway?

Pat Horridge · Jun 2, 2016

Matt041198 :

It is technically possible to add a second drive in place of the DVD drive but its not easy to then creste an OS RAID 0 partition. You would have to blow away the OS. Create the RAID 0 duting the initial OS install then finish the OS install.
But with SSD dtives you won't see much performance increase.The single SSD is probably faster than the laptop internal drive databus can handle. Trying to double that datarate probably isnt possible.
RAID 0 is to improve performance but lose either drive and you lose all your data.

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