Resolved RAID 0 Configuration

If a new computer with Windows 7 has a 1 terabyte hard drive which is configured RAID 0, does this mean that only 500 gigs is available for storage?

In this configuration, can an external USB be used?

 

RAID 0 works like this:
You have several connected disks (usually 2), and the data gets saved on both disks. Not duplicate, but a part of the data gets saved on Disk 1, and another part on Disk 2.
You would therefore need 2 disks to use this feature.

This means the total amount of available storage is the 2 disks combined. Eg. 2x 500 GB disks = 1 gb storage.

This method is used to increase speeds, not reliability, as if one disk fails the other one will become unreadable.

 

Thanks for the response. I wasn't thinking about the half and half thing, so the total storage is 1 terabyte. There is only one hard drive, so it must have two partitions, each of which looks like a separate disk? Didn't know you could set up RAID like that.

What about the added external drive? It wouldn't be involved in the RAID, but might it mess things up? I would think not, but not sure.

 

For any kind of RAID [0 & 1] you need a minimum of 2 physical drives. Partitions are NOT counted & would be overwritten as soon as RAID is created.

You could use external drive as RAID. There is no technology barrier but if the drive is not connected or not recognised properly by the system, you could loose all your data. Its not at all recommended.

 

Hmmm. The person bought a new Dell computer and it came with a "1TB Raid 0 hard drive ". What do you suppose that means?

 

It's an i7 processor with 8G RAM, dual Blu-Ray burners, nVidia GeForce, 1024MB, 1TB Raid 0 hard drive, and a 23" Ultrasharp monitor.

 

OK. I'll have to email him and get the info. May take a while

 

Just got the info re the Dell computer. The actual invoice reads differently than the website it was ordered from. (Thanks Dell :-( But no harm done.) The invoice reads "Serial ATA II RAID 0 with Dual 750GB Hard Drives ". That answers both our questions. The bandwidth probably isn't needed, so in the future if more space was needed the RAID could be shut off.Thanks again for your help.