Re: RAID support different size hard drives

a key point has been mentioned, software or hardware RAID? (and if you're
talking about your SBS it better be hardware)

Susan has dealt with software RAID so I'll throw some comments about
hardware.

The drives should not only be the same size but the same geometry (sectors,
heads, cylinders) which is why the general conception is 'same make, same
model'. They should also be same interface (ie/eg. all SCSI320).

I like Gregg's comment about the four drives. Yes, every array should have a
hotspare. As you need 3 minimum for RAID5, plus the hotspare, this may be
why you've been told 4 drives. Another consideration is performance.

read/write performance of RAID5 improves as the number of drives increases,
up to the point where the aggregated sustained throughput of the drives
exceeds the throughput of the channel or controller.

an interesting thought relates to this page
http://www.acnc.com/04_01_05.html
Compare the 'Recommended Application' list to SBS facilities.

<suli222@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1168453993.833212.197280@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I am not very familiar with RAID 5 at all. My questions is can RAID
supporting configuring different size hard drives. For instance if I
had a 250, 200, 120, and 80 GB hard drives, can RAID support all these
HDs in one PC. My second questions it seems like RAID 5 works best
with 4 hard drives, is this true.



.

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