dynamic disk config help needed v. raid1 mirroring

on my server i have 2 200gb drives that i would like to mirror. i also have other drives in the server, but i want to leave them alone. it is running winxp pro. this will allow me to have one drive letter for 2 physical disks

from what i've read, i need to do the following:
backup the data first, duh
convert both disks to dynamic disks
i read that the mirror needs to be unallocated space...i'm not 100% sure that needs to be like that. but if so, i'll have to delete the partition
then i right click on the drive that i want mirrored and select add mirror, then from there i think i select the other drive


i have a few questions, what happens when one drive fails? can i just throw in another drive and have it remirror everything? how do you go about doing that?

what type of system is required for this? i recently upgraded my server to a 900mhz athlon with 384 ram and it serves everything really well for me

also, is it possible to pull one of the drives and put it in a winxp pro computer and pull data off of it? (i doubt i will have to do this, but i may)

 

1. The mirror drive does need to be empty.

2. If you replace one of the drives, you will have to break the old mirror and create a new one.

3. Yes, you can pull one of the mirrored drives and connect it to another machine and use the data therein.

4. Using Windows' software RAID on that computer will make you cry.

 

how bad is a software raid? its not like i'm going to constantly be dropping files to it

 

I've been using Windows software RAID1 for a while now on my 900MHz Athlon. It works fine but I do have twice as much RAM though.

 

In my experience, Windows software RAID is pretty atrocious. It does alright with striped and spanned volumes, but as soon as you throw any parity/equality calculations in there, it goes to shit pretty fast.

Linux supposedly has a much better software RAID system.

 

i'll see how it works out, i can always add more ram, it's pretty cheap

 

well, i converted both disks to dynamic. i tried to add a mirror, but the option was grayed out. i could extend the volume to the second disk after i deleted the partition, but i still can't add a mirror. i can only add a basic, striped, or extended volume
going to delete the partition on the other drive and then see if i can add a mirror
good thing i backed up first


edit: god dammit, i found this: "Mirrored volumes are available only on computers running the Windows 2000 Server family or Windows Server 2003"

looks like i will be installing server 2000 soon.

 

The software RAID functions are still part of XP even though they are disabled. The following is a bit of a nailbiter...

http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/11/19/using_windowsxp_to_make_raid_5_happen/

Give it a shot and let us know if all RAID functions are enabled, or just RAID 5.

This forum should try and break the rules more. It's not like I spent more than a few minutes finding a solution.

 

There's nothing wrong with enabling functionality that is included in your product, and that the manufacturer has made no attempt to lock down. Just because Microsoft didn't put a checkbox in Control Panel to enable software RAID doesn't mean you're not allowed to use it.

Anyway, based on my experience the "adjustment" will enable striping, spanning, mirroring, and RAID 5. Spanning and striping are the only ones that actually run well, though, because Windows is not particularly efficient in its parity calculations.

 

truth.

Tried above method on a spare fully-updated XP SP2 partition. Selections become enabled, assuming it works.

 

thank you!

 

np. Just let us know if it actually works and if there's any oddball stuff on the way. I just tried it to the point where the selections were enabled, diddn't actually implement the array.

 

fairly conclusive that this isn't the brightest idea:
http://images.tomshardware.com/2004/11/19/using_windowsxp_to_make_raid_5_happen/image010.gif

 

you know what, i attempted to edit the dlls and the exe file. the line number didn't match up with what i was suppossed to edit.
i'm not sure i can trust a hacked dll, i know all it is doing is unlocking features
i'll just install win200 server, it will probably run better on my old computer than winxp pro does

 

i ended up installing windows2000 server (i can't find my windows 2003 server disk )

well, i had to edit the registry because win2000 server, even with the latest updates and service packs, would not register any drives over 128gb.

i got it working and setup my mirror, it's resynching now, i'll let it run overnight. tomorrow i will test it out, i want to see how it is speedwise. also, i want to drop some files to it, then pull out one of the drives and put it in my winxp computer and read off of it