Mirror drives in Win2k Pro
Hi experts- I'm not sure if my task is possible. I seek to run a mirrorred drive in a Win2K (PRO) environment. Any ideas or thoughts? As always, I appreciate your talents.
best regards, Pat
best regards, Pat
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Note: You need to buy a raid controller software raid is not supported in W2k professional
I concur with 2hype - 2000 Pro, XP do not support software RAID 1 - only software RAID 0 - which you don't want to use because there is no redundancy in RAID 0, just better speed.
ASKER
Thanks gpriceee - It sounds pretty straight forward - You are correct that I am NOT using RAID. These are straight IDE 60Gb HDDs. I'll be trying it today.
Thanks to all for your assist.
regards, Pat
Thanks to all for your assist.
regards, Pat
PFSullivan
I don't know how you can take back you acceptance of my answer, but you should and give it to 2hype. The least amount of my time is spent on workstations, and I verified that 2hype is accurate: "software raid is not supported in W2k professional."
I use it on some servers. At home, on one of my workstations I have a Promise RAID controller with 5 drives, and it has been working just fine for 3 years (I store my digital pics there). Here's a link to some Promise controllers which you can get as cheap as $90. Keep in mind the PCI interface when you choose the controller.
http://www.cdw.com/shop/search/Results.aspx?key=promise+technologies+raid&filteredsortorder=priceasc&idesc=1&platform=all&swn=1
So you know, the advantage to using this over software RAID is that you probably plan to RAID the Operating System. When you use software RAID on the OS, you need to understand how boot.ini works in the event of a failure because the software itself informs itself of the disk and partition upon which the OS resides; software RAID on failure needs boot.ini adjusted when it fails.
The Promise RAID controller--or any hardware RAID controller--delivers the disks pre-mirrored to the Operating System, so the OS has no idea how many disks have been included in a RAID and delivered as "one" disk. In this scenario, if one disk fails, you don't have to worry about changing the boot.ini after a failure. Also, if you are interested, some of the controllers allow for hot swapping the drives; they start at twice the price, around $188.
I don't know how you can take back you acceptance of my answer, but you should and give it to 2hype. The least amount of my time is spent on workstations, and I verified that 2hype is accurate: "software raid is not supported in W2k professional."
I use it on some servers. At home, on one of my workstations I have a Promise RAID controller with 5 drives, and it has been working just fine for 3 years (I store my digital pics there). Here's a link to some Promise controllers which you can get as cheap as $90. Keep in mind the PCI interface when you choose the controller.
http://www.cdw.com/shop/search/Results.aspx?key=promise+technologies+raid&filteredsortorder=priceasc&idesc=1&platform=all&swn=1
So you know, the advantage to using this over software RAID is that you probably plan to RAID the Operating System. When you use software RAID on the OS, you need to understand how boot.ini works in the event of a failure because the software itself informs itself of the disk and partition upon which the OS resides; software RAID on failure needs boot.ini adjusted when it fails.
The Promise RAID controller--or any hardware RAID controller--delivers the disks pre-mirrored to the Operating System, so the OS has no idea how many disks have been included in a RAID and delivered as "one" disk. In this scenario, if one disk fails, you don't have to worry about changing the boot.ini after a failure. Also, if you are interested, some of the controllers allow for hot swapping the drives; they start at twice the price, around $188.
ASKER
Note to gpriceee & 2 hype - OOOps - You both told me that I require Win2k Server version to perform this task - I should have read further. I will look into splitting those points. Thanks again
Pat
Pat
Adaptec Serial ATA II RAID 1420SA
http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/product/prodfamilymatrix.html?sess=no&language=English+US&cat=%2FTechnology%2FSerial+ATA%2FRAID+Controllers