Best format for RAID 0

[SC Erwin]

I have 2 WD 120g JD (SATA) drives that I need to set up in a RAID 0 array. I will use the on board controller on my MSI K8T NEO -FIS2R motherboard (Promise FastTrack 378 controller). This array will be used for storage primarily of DV video content for video editing (with Sony Vegas 4) and DVD authoring.

I need to know what the best settings will be for cluster and stripe size so I can get it running well from the get-go. I have Partition Magic 8 and I am getting ready to do a fresh install of Windows XP Pro. The drives are all currently blank. The main system drive is a Maxtor Plus 9 SATA 120g drive. Other hardware = 1 gig Corsair memory, Athlon 64 3200 processor, ATI 9600 Pro video, M-Audio Delta 66 sound card, Sony DRU-500 A DVD burner.

Any help on the best way to set this up (both info on cluster/stripe size as well as the most efficient way to get those paramaters set on the drive) would be greatly appreciated.

BTW, I'm looking for speed but not at the cost of stability. I don't want headaches trying to over-tweak for uber benchmarking performance, just to make sure that everything is set optimally and that I'm not under utilising the drives.

Thanks.

[septimus]

Having your system on its own HDD is a great idea :D

What you need to do is create a RAID stripe (RAID 0) and set the stripe size to 32 or 64KB. Once created, boot into windows and load up disk management. There you should be presented with a new unallocated drive and you may even get a "Disk Signature Wizard" pop up on you.

All you need to do is format the new drive with a cluster size of 32 or 64KB (matching the stripe size) and perform a quick format unless you feel like waiting an hour for a full format.

Once the drive is formatted and a drive letter has been assigned you are good to go. :)