Dual boot RAID 1 system

[Mandi]

Must . . . not . . . continue . . . dragging . . . . other . . . thread . . . off-topic . . .

I'm thinking ahead to my own next rebuild, and have been doing a bunch of reading on the subject of both RAID setup, and the wisdom of keeping your OS files on a partition (or drive) separate from your data files. I am really very anxious to become more Linux literate (beyond "how not to run afoul of my FQ account" :dopey: ) and would like to incorporate a dual boot setup.

Is it really necessary, in a system where the point of the RAID setup is to preserve data integrity (I'm not looking for the speed boost of RAID 0 in other words) - to mirror the OS (or OS's)? Assuming it's not particuarly required - the disadvantage being that you may be left reinstalling the OS if the drive fails or the files become corrupted (Windows??? Never :rolleyes: ) - I'm considering a drive setup something like this:

http://stehnfamily.com/sharing/drives.gif

I just never run across tutorials/articles that mention combining the two ideas, so I'm wondering if it's practical or do-able to build in this fashion.

This would represent a change from a single 120 gig drive, just XP, data on the same drive - with a second small HDD to which I manually drag important data for backup (when I think about it :rolleyes: . . . )

[Kevin]

If you want to use that data RAID-1 in both Windows and Linux then I would definately suggest hardware RAID as I doubt you will be able to use any kind of software RAID in both systems.

The reason that I like to use different drives for data and OS is that it makes OS upgrades easier. I can setup a new OS on a different drive in a different computer and then when it is ready I can simply swap OS drives. That reduces the downtime durring the OS upgrade and it means I don't have to touch the data drive. I can also put the old OS drive back in if there is a problem. The only downside is that the older and smaller OS drive is often slower than the data drive.

I haven't been using any RAID on my OS drives at home because I have good backups of the OS. I use RAID-1 in cases where data changes faster than I can back it up (like my home directory) or when I can't take the downtime hit to restore the OS from backups (like on FutureQuest servers). If you keep good backups and don't mind the possibility of 1-2 hours of downtime if a drive fails then you can skip the RAID-1 on the OS drive.

Unfortunately it is getting difficult to find small OS drives these days. The last time I built a personal box it ended up with an 80GB OS+data drive because that was the smallest cost effective drive and I couldn't leave it with just a ~2GB Gentoo install. Of course in the Windows world you tend to have a much bigger OS drive because of the size of Windows apps. That is especially true if you have lots of games installed like I do. My Windows box is about to get an upgrade to a 74GB C: but that is mainly because the old 36GB is dying not running out of space.

[Mandi]

So my question about cards was well suited then, lol. Ouch, I've been watching prices on the 3ware cards at Ebay and NewEgg. Not cheap, for sure. Do you think it's best to suck it up, even if I have to wait a little bit for the extra pin money . . . or will one of the lower tier cards make me happy enough? I'm guessing it's like RAM . . . buy the best, and you'll never be sorry.

My source for smaller drives is clients swapping out to bigger ones, LOL . . . I give them a small discount if I can keep gear I pull - I often recycle it into other projects, keeping prices low for everyone - or I sell it and recoup some $$ that way too. I've got an interesting side line updating *very* old machines into serviceable extras for folks, so the dated stuff comes in handy (ie, taking the junker from someone's closet and turning it into a workable machine for the kids, so they'll stay off the "good" computer..)

Nevermind my question :P. I've thought it over and will get the good one.

[Mandi]

I'm looking at this card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16816116030), I think. Forwards compatible to SATA drives if I go there, and good cross platform compatibility too, which is what I'm looking for.

[Kevin]

I'm looking at this card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16816116030), I think. Forwards compatible to SATA drives if I go there, and good cross platform compatibility too, which is what I'm looking for.Newegg has bad info on that page. The 8xxx series 3Ware controllers are SATA only. If those 120GB drives are IDE PATA then you want the 7xxx series controller. I have not seen a RAID controller with both PATA and SATA ports from anyone (I haven't actually looked for one but 3Ware definately doesn't make one).

For a 2-port PATA card this would be my suggestion: http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=150802
You may be able to find it cheaper elsewhere or even used on eBay.