Good RAID for New Desktop Machine?
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From: Doug White on 7 Apr 2008 18:47 I need to get a new desktop machine, and I'm planning on getting a card to support RAID mirroring in case of a disk crash. My wife has a 6 month old Dell that she bought with some brand of card & 2 drives, but Dell didn't install the card. We discovered that the first thing the card wants to do is reformat your primary drive, which is absurd. We sent it back and got a card from Promise. It took a few tech support calls to get it installed & working properly. Even now, it wants to go to the setup menu every time you boot. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good RAID card? I'd like to get one that is reliable, and won't trash the primary (or remaining good) drive if something crashes. I've read too many horror stories of RAID systems that do stuff like reformatting the good drive when a bad drive is replaced & other such nonsense. I'll be using this with XP Pro, so Vista isn't an issue. Thanks! Doug White
From: lenneis on 8 Apr 2008 07:31 Doug White: > I need to get a new desktop machine, and I'm planning on getting a card > to support RAID mirroring in case of a disk crash. My wife has a 6 month > old Dell that she bought with some brand of card & 2 drives, but Dell > didn't install the card. We discovered that the first thing the card > wants to do is reformat your primary drive, which is absurd. We sent it > back and got a card from Promise. It took a few tech support calls to > get it installed & working properly. Even now, it wants to go to the > setup menu every time you boot. > Does anyone have a recommendation for a good RAID card? I'd like to get > one that is reliable, and won't trash the primary (or remaining good) > drive if something crashes. I've read too many horror stories of RAID > systems that do stuff like reformatting the good drive when a bad drive > is replaced & other such nonsense. > I'll be using this with XP Pro, so Vista isn't an issue. For a desktop/home machine you could also consider using the built in software RAID capabilities of XP. You can definitely build a RAID starting from an existing disk with data on it and there won't be any noticable difference in performance. -- Joerg Lenneis email: lenneis(a)wu-wien.ac.at
From: Bob Willard on 8 Apr 2008 10:43 Doug White wrote: > I need to get a new desktop machine, and I'm planning on getting a card > to support RAID mirroring in case of a disk crash. My wife has a 6 month > old Dell that she bought with some brand of card & 2 drives, but Dell > didn't install the card. We discovered that the first thing the card > wants to do is reformat your primary drive, which is absurd. We sent it > back and got a card from Promise. It took a few tech support calls to > get it installed & working properly. Even now, it wants to go to the > setup menu every time you boot. > > Does anyone have a recommendation for a good RAID card? I'd like to get > one that is reliable, and won't trash the primary (or remaining good) > drive if something crashes. I've read too many horror stories of RAID > systems that do stuff like reformatting the good drive when a bad drive > is replaced & other such nonsense. > > I'll be using this with XP Pro, so Vista isn't an issue. > > Thanks! > > Doug White With RAID-1 (mirroring) you still should do regular backups. RAID-1 only protects against failure of a HD, and supplies no protection against failures of any other piece of hardware, or glitches due to software or environment or fumble-fingers. IMHO, since the HD is one of the most reliable pieces of a PC, RAID-1 has very little value for a home. -- Cheers, Bob
From: Arno Wagner on 8 Apr 2008 12:31 In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Doug White <gwhite(a)alum.mit.edu> wrote: > I need to get a new desktop machine, and I'm planning on getting a card > to support RAID mirroring in case of a disk crash. My wife has a 6 month > old Dell that she bought with some brand of card & 2 drives, but Dell > didn't install the card. We discovered that the first thing the card > wants to do is reformat your primary drive, which is absurd. We sent it > back and got a card from Promise. It took a few tech support calls to > get it installed & working properly. Even now, it wants to go to the > setup menu every time you boot. > Does anyone have a recommendation for a good RAID card? I'd like to get > one that is reliable, and won't trash the primary (or remaining good) > drive if something crashes. I've read too many horror stories of RAID > systems that do stuff like reformatting the good drive when a bad drive > is replaced & other such nonsense. > I'll be using this with XP Pro, so Vista isn't an issue. > Thanks! > Doug White Stay away from Adaptec. 3ware has a good reputation, but the cards are not cheap. Also Linux software RAID is very reliable, but not applicable in your case. Arno
From: Maxim S. Shatskih on 9 Apr 2008 04:44
> With RAID-1 (mirroring) you still should do regular backups. RAID-1 > only protects against failure of a HD, and supplies no protection > against failures of any other piece of hardware, or glitches due to > software or environment or fumble-fingers. For me, most of the on-mobo RAIDs are notorious for such glitches, which sometimes kill all disks. So, probably they actually decrease reliability and not increase it. Backups are the way to go. -- Maxim Shatskih, Windows DDK MVP StorageCraft Corporation maxim(a)storagecraft.com http://www.storagecraft.com |