Will adding an IDE drive to an array of sata drives slow down write speeds to the sata drives?  All drives would be parity protected.  I have a 500GB drive I'd like to dedicate to backups but want it parity protected.

 

Thanks,

 

David

 

 

The more I think a bout it, I supposed it should not have any affect when writing.  I was thinking that unRaid would have to check each bit on each of the drive to set the parity bit but when just writing to the IDE disk I supposed it can adjust the parity with out checking the other drives.  BUT, when doing a parity check, would it not slow down the check since the seek and transfer rates are slower on the IDE drive and it needs to check the bit on all drives to verify the parity bit?

 

Thanks,

 

David

 

 

It will slow down a parity check or a rebuild until it gets past the full size of the slow drive. Keep in mind the integrity of the array depends on all drives being healthy, so be very sure you are not introducing a dodgy older drive into the mix. I'd preclear it for a couple passes and check the smart reports thoroughly before using it.

thanks for the response.  makes sense