How reliable? Two WD 74 GB Raptors in Raid0???

bobmitch · 12-09-2005, 11:29 AM

Thinking of adding another Raptor 74GB on Intel SATA for Raid0? Is anyone running this? How reliable? I want it mainly for more capacity...not sure how much speed I'll gain.

Thanks

Bob

PCBruiser · 12-09-2005, 11:32 AM

If you want capacity, get a single large hard drive, and do not run Raid 0. The probability of a fatal failure of a Raid 0 array is equal to the number of drives in the array times the probability of a single hard drive failure. So, a Raid 0 array with 2 drives has a probability of a fatal failure equal to twice that of a single drive. And, any failure of a Raid 0 array is usually fatal, and cannot be recovered from. So, if you do use a Raid 0 array for anything vital, you must do frequent backups.

wallijonn · 12-09-2005, 01:29 PM

Ask Sandog.

sorrow · 12-09-2005, 01:42 PM

I have two friends with 74gig raptors that have been running raid0 since they came out. I'm also running raid0 with 2 maxtors for over 2 years, no issues either... but yes backups are needed.... unless you really don't care hehe.

El Wiseguy · 12-09-2005, 03:37 PM

I was thinking about running my two Maxtor Diamondmax 10's 300Gb in Raid 0. lol I don't know how that would go over though...

h20-ski · 12-09-2005, 03:49 PM

Right now I am running 2 36G Raptors in Raid 0 on my server. When I finish buying my 8 hard drives and a Raid 5 controller, they will move to Raid 1 but I just love the speed that Raid 0 gives.

feddup · 12-09-2005, 10:32 PM

I've been running two WD740GDs on an Intel ICH5R for about a year without issue. I'd recommend making sure they're ventilated (usually by front case intake) and using an imaging program (true image) to a third hard drive is advisable. It's fast but perhaps not fast enough to justify the expense. Good/Bad raid 0 arguments are about as tiring as Intel/AMD and ATI/Nvidia rants. It always sounds like the ancient kennelration dog food commercial which goes "my dog's better than your dog, my dog's better than yours" BLAH BLAH!!! Think for yourself! Research it for yourself! make your choice.

CK8-04 · 12-09-2005, 11:13 PM

The 2 WD740s that I preordered from Monarchcomputer.com a while back (exactly 2 years and 8 hours ago, FedEx rang my doorbell with them) are still running fine to this day in RAID 0. I have recently added 2 more to make a 4 drive RAID 0 array and none have failed me yet.

bobmitch · 12-09-2005, 11:59 PM

Speedwise...I am very happy with the single drive. I just wanted to double my capacity. Wanted to keep the access speed of the Raptors and get to at least 148 GB...I back up using PQ Drive Image 7 and even have Norton Ghost 9....Like PQ Better...less hassles with it....and I use the Ghost 9 disk for recovery...a bit faster and more up do date. I am on the fence...but some of the responses here are encouraging. The one thing WD speaks about is the "Enterprise" line being created for raid. Hmmm...

abacad · 12-10-2005, 08:01 AM

Just a small note of caution. Raptors do fail. I installed 2 new 36Gb Rapors and both failed within a 10 month period. Fortunately not at the same time and they where in a RAID 1 array so no real damage done.

On the plus side, the RMA procedure with WD was pretty painless although the replacement drives are both 'Refurbs'. Having said that, they have lasted longer than the originals

feddup · 12-10-2005, 10:17 AM

A year or so ago when I researched the raptor purchase I noticed a loose correlation between buyers who commented on the raptor heat and then the raptor failure. It seemed like the buyers that were aware of this issue and placed the raptors where a fan was blowing across them had no problem. This conclusion was far from scientific but since most good cases, in my case a Lian-Li PC65B, the hard drives are behind the front intake it makes sense to locate the raptors in such a location. The raptors are enterprise class and have a five year warranty so they ought to be durable but they do fail. All machines break! By the way Western Digital jerked me around on the rebate for my most recent raptor purchase so I wouldn't put much weight on the $20 supposed savings a rebate offer from western digital affords.

bobmitch · 12-10-2005, 10:25 AM

I currently have the one Raptor in the HDD enclosure in the front of my Antec case. The enclosure has a fan in it already to keep the one drive cool at all times...perhaps this is a good thing.

Smurfer · 12-10-2005, 11:42 AM

Same here I still have my two and so far it has performed flawless. And they are still quite no high pitch whine. But lately I have buying seagates

grsamf · 12-10-2005, 11:59 AM

I have two 74G Raptors in RAID 0 (almost 2 years) on one machine, and 2 37G in RAId 0 (going on two years). No problems at all yet. But it only takes one time. As PCB and others have said, running RAID 0 without backup, or running any HD configuration without backup, is simply begging for problems. For both machines, I use both internal and external backups and get my money's worth with TI since I never go more than a week without a full backup.

**Sandog** · 12-10-2005, 08:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wallijonn

Ask Sandog.

Not sure what wallijohn is referring to bu I prided myself as having been one of the first persons to own a set of these 36GB drives when they first came out. I'm pretty sure I was the first at ABXZone. I also was one of the first to get the 74GB versions. They were very good drives and I held on to them for over a year. After going to larger capacity non-RAID setup I tried going back to 74GB Raptors. I ordered twice and 3 of the 4 were bad. 2 were bad on arrival and one went bad about 3 days later. All the drives looked brand new. If you go to StorageReview you will see the surveys on customer satisfaction has went down and also check NE reviews. I did about 8mos ago and a whole lot of the reviews were complaints on bad drives. I don't know what happened to the quality of these drives but something did. Also the mechanical noise level varies. I would probably jump back on the Raptors again if they came out with a 140GB version. Maybe the new revision on the 74GB they have out now is just as reliable as the original.

12-09-2005, 11:29 AM	#1
bobmitch Registered User Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: TX Posts: 849	How reliable? Two WD 74 GB Raptors in Raid0??? Thinking of adding another Raptor 74GB on Intel SATA for Raid0? Is anyone running this? How reliable? I want it mainly for more capacity...not sure how much speed I'll gain. Thanks Bob
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12-09-2005, 11:32 AM	#2
PCBruiser Registered User Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 13,497	If you want capacity, get a single large hard drive, and do not run Raid 0. The probability of a fatal failure of a Raid 0 array is equal to the number of drives in the array times the probability of a single hard drive failure. So, a Raid 0 array with 2 drives has a probability of a fatal failure equal to twice that of a single drive. And, any failure of a Raid 0 array is usually fatal, and cannot be recovered from. So, if you do use a Raid 0 array for anything vital, you must do frequent backups.
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12-09-2005, 01:29 PM	#3
wallijonn PHX Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Phoenix Posts: 2,569	Ask Sandog. __________________ D875PBZLK, MAC G4-933 Last edited by wallijonn : 12-11-2005 at 09:40 PM.
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12-09-2005, 01:42 PM	#4
sorrow 010011100100100101001110 Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Virginia Posts: 1,243	I have two friends with 74gig raptors that have been running raid0 since they came out. I'm also running raid0 with 2 maxtors for over 2 years, no issues either... but yes backups are needed.... unless you really don't care hehe. __________________ A64 X2 4800+ (Toledo) A8N32-SLI-Deluxe PQI 2x1gb (2.5/4/4/8/1T) WD 150gb 10,000rpm Raptor eVGA 8800GTX Asus Xonar DX Thermaltake PurePower 560w Gigabyte Aurora Case Dell UltraSharp 2405FPW 24" LCD My site in progress: http://www.average-geek.com
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12-09-2005, 03:37 PM	#5
El Wiseguy Registered User Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Jackson, Ca Posts: 490	I was thinking about running my two Maxtor Diamondmax 10's 300Gb in Raid 0. lol I don't know how that would go over though... __________________ There's no such thing as a stupid question, just stupid people who ask questions.
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12-09-2005, 03:49 PM	#6
h20-ski Forget Wakeboarding Join Date: May 2004 Location: Texas Posts: 2,460	Right now I am running 2 36G Raptors in Raid 0 on my server. When I finish buying my 8 hard drives and a Raid 5 controller, they will move to Raid 1 but I just love the speed that Raid 0 gives. __________________
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12-09-2005, 10:32 PM	#7
feddup Registered User Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Kansas City Posts: 260	Two for a year I've been running two WD740GDs on an Intel ICH5R for about a year without issue. I'd recommend making sure they're ventilated (usually by front case intake) and using an imaging program (true image) to a third hard drive is advisable. It's fast but perhaps not fast enough to justify the expense. Good/Bad raid 0 arguments are about as tiring as Intel/AMD and ATI/Nvidia rants. It always sounds like the ancient kennelration dog food commercial which goes "my dog's better than your dog, my dog's better than yours" BLAH BLAH!!! Think for yourself! Research it for yourself! make your choice. __________________ P4C800-e Deluxe Rev. 1.02 bios 1016 / 3.2C / 2 gigs Corsair XMS4000Pro / 2 WD740gd Raid 0 on ICH5R / 2 Seagate 7200.7 IDE on Promise 20378 / 9800XT / Audigy 2ZS / Plextor 708a / Lite-On DVDROM / Antec True Power 480 / XP Pro SP2
(Offline)

12-09-2005, 11:13 PM	#8
CK8-04 nVidia nForce 4 Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Malden, MA Posts: 952	The 2 WD740s that I preordered from Monarchcomputer.com a while back (exactly 2 years and 8 hours ago, FedEx rang my doorbell with them) are still running fine to this day in RAID 0. I have recently added 2 more to make a 4 drive RAID 0 array and none have failed me yet. __________________ "To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift" - Steve Prefontaine Antec Solo Corsair 520HX Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 w/ TR SI-128 SE Intel D975XBX2 4GB Mushkin HP2 DDR2-800 5-4-4-12 1.8v eVGA e-Geforce 8800GT w/ TR T-Rad2 WD Velociraptor 150GB 10K RPM NEC Multisync LCD2090UXi Logitech Z-5300e MS Comfort Curve KB 2000 Logitech G3
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12-09-2005, 11:59 PM	#9
bobmitch Registered User Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: TX Posts: 849	Speedwise...I am very happy with the single drive. I just wanted to double my capacity. Wanted to keep the access speed of the Raptors and get to at least 148 GB...I back up using PQ Drive Image 7 and even have Norton Ghost 9....Like PQ Better...less hassles with it....and I use the Ghost 9 disk for recovery...a bit faster and more up do date. I am on the fence...but some of the responses here are encouraging. The one thing WD speaks about is the "Enterprise" line being created for raid. Hmmm...
(Offline)

12-10-2005, 08:01 AM	#10
abacad Registered User Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Glossop, Derbyshire Posts: 26	Just a small note of caution. Raptors do fail. I installed 2 new 36Gb Rapors and both failed within a 10 month period. Fortunately not at the same time and they where in a RAID 1 array so no real damage done. On the plus side, the RMA procedure with WD was pretty painless although the replacement drives are both 'Refurbs'. Having said that, they have lasted longer than the originals
(Offline)

12-10-2005, 10:17 AM	#11
feddup Registered User Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Kansas City Posts: 260	Raptor heat A year or so ago when I researched the raptor purchase I noticed a loose correlation between buyers who commented on the raptor heat and then the raptor failure. It seemed like the buyers that were aware of this issue and placed the raptors where a fan was blowing across them had no problem. This conclusion was far from scientific but since most good cases, in my case a Lian-Li PC65B, the hard drives are behind the front intake it makes sense to locate the raptors in such a location. The raptors are enterprise class and have a five year warranty so they ought to be durable but they do fail. All machines break! By the way Western Digital jerked me around on the rebate for my most recent raptor purchase so I wouldn't put much weight on the $20 supposed savings a rebate offer from western digital affords. __________________ P4C800-e Deluxe Rev. 1.02 bios 1016 / 3.2C / 2 gigs Corsair XMS4000Pro / 2 WD740gd Raid 0 on ICH5R / 2 Seagate 7200.7 IDE on Promise 20378 / 9800XT / Audigy 2ZS / Plextor 708a / Lite-On DVDROM / Antec True Power 480 / XP Pro SP2
(Offline)

12-10-2005, 10:25 AM	#12
bobmitch Registered User Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: TX Posts: 849	I currently have the one Raptor in the HDD enclosure in the front of my Antec case. The enclosure has a fan in it already to keep the one drive cool at all times...perhaps this is a good thing.
(Offline)

12-10-2005, 11:42 AM	#13
Smurfer Land of the Brave Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: W. Los Angeles, California Posts: 1,854	2 x WD 36 Raptors Raid 0 going on 3 years Same here I still have my two and so far it has performed flawless. And they are still quite no high pitch whine. But lately I have buying seagates
(Offline)

12-10-2005, 11:59 AM	#14
grsamf Registered User Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 3,739	I have two 74G Raptors in RAID 0 (almost 2 years) on one machine, and 2 37G in RAId 0 (going on two years). No problems at all yet. But it only takes one time. As PCB and others have said, running RAID 0 without backup, or running any HD configuration without backup, is simply begging for problems. For both machines, I use both internal and external backups and get my money's worth with TI since I never go more than a week without a full backup.
(Offline)

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