secondary RAID HDD question

Hi all, my first post but I'm not too sure if his is the right place to post it. Anyway here goes. I've built a PC with the OS installed on a RAID 1 setup. The drive is partitioned into 3 drives. The performance is a bit erractic which I think is down to the RAID setup. When I double click on files (usually excel and word) it takes a long time to open the program then open the file. I'm fairly certain it's to do with RAID.

I'm thinking of getting another drive and using that as a normal drive and having the existing RAID 1 drive as the secondary drive. I;m sure this is possible to do, but will it make a difference to my stuttering PC or will the data on the RAID drive still result in a sluggish PC, although the applications and OS in not on the RAID?

If not any ideas as to why I have a sluggish PC? Many thanks.

What is your intention with RAID?

Why run an array on a single drive?

If you go to two drives then again what is your intention?

RAID 1 or "Mirror" is generally created on two or more separate hard drives for the intention of backup protection.

Standard RAID levels - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thanks for the reply. I have 2 HDDs in a RAID 1, I am self employed as a web designer and have RAID 1 so I wont loose my work, but the PC performance seems sluggish, which I think is down to the RAID setup. So I'm thinking of adding another drive, just for the OS, and the existing RAID as the data drive.

Will this cure my sluggish PC performance?


What is your intention with RAID?

Why run an array on a single drive?

If you go to two drives then again what is your intention?

RAID 1 or "Mirror" is generally created on two or more separate hard drives for the intention of backup protection.

When you mentioned "The drive is partitioned into 3 drives" I assumed you had a single drive trying to use RAID. Sorry.

I am only a novice regarding RAID but I do not think you can isolate the Operating System.

If you can I would suspect the option would be via a Hardware RAID rather than a Software RAID:

Hardware RAID


I would also ask: "Why do you suspect your current array is affecting your performance?"

I don't always make myself clear. I think the RAID array is affecting the PC due to the slowness in opening files. On my old PC (a P4, my new PC is a dual core 2) if I double click on an excel file or word file it would open the relevant programs quite quickly, now there is a long pause before the PC opens up the program then the file. I know using Acrobat Pro 7 doesn't work with RAID 1, as it's on their website, so that's why I think it's the RAID array.

My guess is that having the data on a mirror RAID, it takes a longer time to read the data 'twice' (I don't fully understand RAID, but that's my guess). So isolating the OS on an 'normal' drive it won't have the problem of starting the program, but in saying that the data is still on the RAID array so it may still be slow in reading the data. I see what you mean now. Hmmm any other thoughts? BTW it's onboard RAID, another option maybe to use a RAID card, but then again who knows?