Windows 10: Software Vs Hardware RAID

Hi there

Unless you NEED more HDD ports it really is NOT worth buying any consumer grade RAID controller card - these days they are far slower than by doing it with software - Windows Storage spaces is extremely good (and you can use different size HDD's for striping / mirroring etc) and in Linux the well know mdadm program built into kernels works incredibly well too.

For fairly average HDD's - I have 4 HDD's in a 2 Array configuration using RAID 0 (wanted speed as I have enough backup so losing data wasn't an issue)

With the Hideous hardware card average transfer speed was around 120 Mib/s to move a 64 GB directory between the two arrays. I disabled the card and set the Bios to use AHCI / SATA rather than the RAID controller and set up RAID via software.

Moving a directory is a good test as both READ and WRITES are being tested. READS are usually a lot quicker than writes in RAID 0 configurations so a good test as read from source / write to target and delete from source at end of transfer.

With software I was getting average speeds of around 370 Mib/s -- a good 300% better !!!! Quite a bit of the time the transfer was over 410 Mib/s

Directory / Folder size was 64GB with a few 4GB MKV video files in it and quite a few smaller ones too - a mix of video / text / programs etc.

If you are going to buy a RAID controller make sure it's a good one - and they are expensive -- the consumer grade ones are really just JUNK !!!!!






Cheers
jimbo

:)

 

Hard Drive Error

Hi,

RAID1 Mirroring with Windows 7 - see -> What happens when a hard drive fails?
How do you recover? (Also applies to Windows 8/8.1 & 10)

RAID 1 Mirroring with Windows 7 « Buildegg Articles

If you are using Hardware or HyBrid or software other than by Microsoft also check with their support.

Check with the Experts at TechNet who use RAID on a much more frequent basis.

TechNet - Windows 10 IT Pro - Forums

Technet forums - Windows 10 IT Pro

TechNet - XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8/8.1 IT Pro
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/category/w7itpro,w8itpro,windowsvistaitpro,windowsxpitpro,windowsintune



TechNet - Forums

Technet forums

TechNet - Where is the Forum For…?

Technet forums - Where is the Forum For…?

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More on RAID :

RAID often causes more issues than it solves. Especially for software RAID which is included on some motherboards and Windows.

RAID

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

Today there are 3 "General Types" of RAID

Software, Hybrid (some hardware with software checks), and Hardware.

Personally I think the Software and Hybrid are a waste of time and misleading when claims of reliability are usually made. In most cases an effective backup plan is better than these. All too often the RAID software and/or Hybrid model actually cause a failure.
Or what is supposed to protect the system in drive crashes and failures ends up being the cause of them. Hardware RAID is by far the best.

Hardware RAID

http://www.bestpricecomputers.co.uk/glossary/raid-controller.htm

Hardware RAID is a physical hard drive controller that provides the drive interactions needed to perform a reliable redundant array.

Intel RAID controllers

http://www.intel.com/products/server/raid/index.htm

Adaptec RAID controllers

http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/products/



Many low cost add-in hardware RAID controllers are really a Hybrid where some of the action is done by the hardware card and the rest (and often most important functions) are performed by the CPU of the system using software RAID.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why RAID is (usually) a Terrible Idea

http://www.pugetsystems.com/articles?&id=29

Hope this helps.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rob Brown -
Microsoft MVP <- profile - Windows and Devices for IT : Bicycle - Mark Twain said it right.

 

Windows 10

Hi,

Your RAID failed - was it hardware or more likely software?

So you initially had two drives in the computer and they were set in RAID 1? If so the

other drive should boot too. So it sounds like they were in a RAID 0 setup.

Try to boot each drive by themselves as C: to see what happens.

See if you can save data off of C: or D: - booting with your DVD if needed.

If original C: is indeed bad you can put D: in as C: and install Windows on it - legal because you will have only one running copy. Put C: in as D: and check for data and to see if it can be saved - chkdsk and disk maker's diagnostic tools and/or Dell's. You
can't then later put Windows back on the original C: as you only have one license - unless you remove it from the old D: first. One license = 1 running copy.

Strong suggestion to not put Norton on the new install - use Windows Defender which in Windows 8/8.1 & 10 is a full antivirus. Despite all the hype out there WD is a true superstar in detection and compatibility. Would not be surprised if Norton was the reason
your RAID failed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RAID often causes more issues than it solves. Especially for software RAID which is included on some motherboards and Windows (7+)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID



Today there are 3 "General Types" of RAID

Software, Hybrid (some hardware with software checks), and Hardware.

Personally I think the Software and Hybrid are a waste of time and misleading when claims of reliability are usually made. In most cases an effective backup plan is better than these. All too often the RAID software and/or Hybrid model actually cause a failure.
Or what is supposed to protect the system in drive crashes and failures ends up being the cause of them. Hardware RAID is by far the best.

Hardware RAID

What are RAID Controllers - RAID Controller Card Information

Hardware RAID is a physical hard drive controller that provides the drive interactions needed to perform a reliable redundant array.

Intel RAID controllers

http://www.intel.com/products/server/raid/index.htm

Adaptec RAID controllers

http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/products/



Many low cost add-in hardware RAID controllers are really a Hybrid where some of the action is done by the hardware card and the rest (and often most important functions) are performed by the CPU of the system using software RAID.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why RAID is (usually) a Terrible Idea

Why RAID is (usually) a Terrible Idea

Hope this helps.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rob Brown -
Microsoft MVP <- profile - Windows and Devices for IT : Bicycle - Mark Twain said it right.