asked on

RAID 1 in window 2000 server

Can Win2k OS be mirrored with RAID 1 ? Some said I can only mirror the data partiton, not the OS partition, in which means there will be a problem to cause the data and OS lost and server won't be bootup from mirrored(second) drive, if both OS and data in the same partition.

Please advise.

MSGeek

Sure on a hardware mirror, it is common for the OS to be mirrored. It doesn't know it's mirrored, but it is.

The statement would be correct if you are referring to Dynamic Disk Mirroring.

If you have a data drive mirrored using dynamic disk and you for some reason have a critical failure of the OS and have to reinstall, your data should still be there. This is howvever a very good argument for good backups.

joehuang

ASKER

1. Do you mean the hardware mirror work on either basic disk or dynamic disk ?

2. Can I mirror the OS, if I use the basic disk ?

Thanks,

MSGeek

A hardware RAID implementation is strictly hardware based. The OS doees not even know it is installed on a RAID array. So baisc or dynamic disk in hardware RAID it does not matter. Generally I would recommend against placing your system partition on a dynamic disk.

You can mirror the OS on a basic disk ONLY if you implement RAID through hardware, not through software.

joehuang

ASKER

Can you tell why you don't recommend to mirror OS/system partition with dynamic disk ?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

MSGeek

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MSGeek

Thanks, MSGeek.