Advantages of partitioning a raid array?

[byo-virgin]

I've got a pair of 250 GB SATA drives in a hardware raid 0 configuration. I'm installing XP, and wondering if there is any reason why I should not just make the whole thing the C drive. I've read articles that suggest partitioning can have a performance advantage, but it's not clear to me that this applies to a striped raid configuration. In terms of organization, I don't personally see any advantage of having Windows on C, data on D, etc. So ... is there a compelling reason why I should create more partitions?

Thanks!
John

[doctorgonzo]

Larger partitions will take longer to defrag, scan, and so on. So that is part of the performance issue. If you don't want to divide up your space, though, then don't. It's personal preference.

Can I ask why you are running RAID 0? Do you have a need for it, or are you doing it just because you can? I would never put my Windows install or any important data on a RAID 0 array unless it was backed up daily. If one of those two disks fails, you lose everything. For the average home user, the risks far outweigh the benefits.

[byo-virgin]

Originally Posted by doctorgonzo Larger partitions will take longer to defrag, scan, and so on. So that is part of the performance issue. If you don't want to divide up your space, though, then don't. It's personal preference.

OK, thanks. I didn't know if I was missing a critical reason.

Actually, I did think of one possiblity. If I reinstall my OS, or install a new OS, at a future date, can I reformat my C partition without it affecting the D partition, when in fact both are on the same underlying striped array? I guess I'm not clear on where the virtual/physical storage line is. I'm still stuck with the idea that reformatting a C drive reformats all of the data on a physical drive. With raid, things get a little fuzzy for me.

Originally Posted by doctorgonzo Can I ask why you are running RAID 0? Do you have a need for it, or are you doing it just because you can? I would never put my Windows install or any important data on a RAID 0 array unless it was backed up daily. If one of those two disks fails, you lose everything. For the average home user, the risks far outweigh the benefits.

2 reasons:

1) "I have a pair of SATA drives in a raid 0 configuration" - what a great pickup line! :)

2) I like the idea of having twice the number of spindles working for me whenever I open or save a file.

As for backups, yeah, I've got a big honkin' disk that I'll use regularly for non-recoverable data.

Thanks for the advice!
John

[doctorgonzo]

RAID doesn't make one bit of difference in terms of physical storage. It looks the same to Windows as any other drive. So yes, you can reformat one partition on a RAID array without affecting any other partitions, just like any other disk. That's another good reason to have several partitions.

Just make sure you are backing everything up.