RAID 1 & Partition Magic

Ever since Partition Magic got bought by Symantec, their product has gone downhill, judging by the problems reported on this site - I only use ver 8.0 and nothing later.  I would trust BootItNG as a reliable partition manager, but I have used Partition Magic 8.0 on a RAID-5 array successfully, and I think you'll be ok with that.

Hi SG

I too would give Symantec's overhaul a wide birth.

Our guys use Acronis for our setup:
http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/diskdirector/partitioning.html

The Server edition of Disk Direcot v10.0 supports any kind of RAID and may be a good alternative.

hth
capt.

soft(windows) raid or hard raid ?

hard raid it's transparent. (I rather the DOS version)
I already used PM on many HP/compaq servers with no issues.
I already used it on my nvidia raid no issues

if its soft raid by windows...you r in bad luck PM doesn't support dynamic disks :)

m  a  r   c

Also, I don't believe that partition magic will work with raid (spanned) drives...
I seem to recall that we wanted to do this with partition magic quite a while ago, and couldn't.
:-(

The way I would try to do this is to create a bartPE boot disk for your server with win xp and the F6 raid drivers slipstreamed, then to take an image of the partitions, and then try to repartition using one of the utilites available for it.
backup first of course.
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

It's a "hard" raid

I don't have the space to image the hard drive.
The BIOS loads the RAID [PATA] before the O/S ever kicks in so why would I need to slipstream the raid drivers to a boot disk?

In the case of a true hard raid you might not need to include the F6 drivers to a boot disk, but I still would use a boot disk (still bart) to image the drive to ensure it was not mounted and in use.

Otherwise, you'd know if you need the F6 drivers if you needed them to install windows, or if the manufacturer even makes them available.

Thanks.

It looks like PM doesn't support RAID 1 and may not even be installable on a server.

Carp. :-(

Well, no matter what I do I still need a partition manager that likes servers & RAID 1.

I'll have to look around.

use PM from a dos floppy disk
PM 8.0 supports its

its old timer but it's the easiest/safest (usb external floppy drive can do the trick) and no trace of PM is left on the windows OS

BTW you need F6 to give drivers for windows unless the they were in the windows drivers CAB. Windows always need a driver whatever the bios may be. DOS is "better" in that perspective it has enough with the bios. Dont worry if the partition is NTFS it aint DOS manipulating it PM will.

m  a  r  c

Hi SG

as said have a look at the Disk Director they even got a trial version.

cheers
capt.

The bart PE boot cd will allow you to boot that system and recognize the Raid array using the drivers (if necessary) from the OEM for the motherboard.  It IS actually windows so you know it's supported.  Once in you can use Acronis True Image.
This is the only sure fire way to provide support for a RAID array that is already running windows.

I will have to look deeper.
Thanks for the input.

I think it would be best to add more drives to the array.

Yes, it will cost more upfront/initially.

But, taking the long view, your investment in time will be minimal and it is definitely a "risk" free solution.

>It looks like PM doesn't support RAID 1

That is true - I found out that only RAID 0 and RAID 5 are supported by PM 8: http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/powerquest.nsf/docid/2004050716123662?Open&docid=2004050712232662&nsf=powerquest.nsf&view=0

I would look at the Acronis products for this application, since they do have enterprise solutions and smaller versions as well.

I wish I could add more drives but that is not an option at this point.
That would still not get me the extra space on C: that I need, anyway.
I would love to get a couple of .5 or .75 TB drives for each server.


.
The $499.00 price in that link to Acronis from cap'n made me a bit woozy.
All I really need is a partition manager.
The trial ver. is limited to pretty small partitions.
I'll have to look at them a bit deeper.

...and I'm looking at BootIt NG as a possible solution, too.  ;-)

Oops - need to refresh before posting.

:-)

It looks good.
I'm considering it.

After looking at reviews and all,  I decided to purchase BootItNC.

If it does what it's supposed to do ...


If it doesn't, well I still have my sniper rifle.


<signed>

Al B. Bach.

BootIT NG works great.
Thanks!