2 drives in Win2k box, need them to be 1 network share

[Ramma2]

I'm setting up a machine to host our video files here at work. I have 2 200 gb ide drives connected through the motherboard.

I plan to run a 20 gb OS partition, then setup the remaining 380 gb as a video share. My question is how do I get the remaining 2 partitions to show up as 1 network shared drive?

 

[Smilin]

This isn't something you accomplish at the network level (although I supposed you could do something like it with a DFS tree).

You'll want to either span the remaining space on disk 0 with the entire disk 1, or setup a mount point for disk 1 in a folder on disk 0.

Check "spanned volumes" in disk management help for details.

Once spanned, just share the single volume that is created.

 

[Ramma2]

Thank you very much!

*waits for 2k to finish installing...*

 

[nweaver]

you would need to run a software raid. I'm not sure if 2K supports that, I think XP will (You would span the partitions, then have one mount point/drive letter you could share).

If 2k won't do it, and XP isn't an option, look into Linux software raid, it's pretty nice.

 

[Ramma2]

OS installed, drivers installed. Did > 137 gb reg fix, downloading SP4 for good measure.

The suspense is killing me!

 

[Ramma2]

Spanning worked perfectly! Thanks a ton for the info.

*giggles gleefully at the new 353 gig partition*

Is it wrong to love IT stuff this much?

 

[ITJunkie]

Originally posted by: Smilin
This isn't something you accomplish at the network level (although I supposed you could do something like it with a DFS tree).

You'll want to either span the remaining space on disk 0 with the entire disk 1, or setup a mount point for disk 1 in a folder on disk 0.

Check "spanned volumes" in disk management help for details.

Once spanned, just share the single volume that is created.

Smilin is right. The only thing I would add is that you may need to convert the drives, through disk management, from basic to dynamic in order to create the "spanned volume".

 

[lansalot]

In setting up a spanned volume, you have doomed yourself to the same fate as if it was RAID0 (stripe). If one disk fails, you will lose everything.

From your requirements, I would think you would be far better to go into disk management and unmount them from any drive letter, and instead mount them at a mount point (like *nix).

eg, share out c:\shared, make directory c:\shared\disk1 and c:\shared\disk2 and mount the first partition to c:\shared\disk1 and the second to c:\shared\disk2.

Voila.

(I know, most people don't realise you can do this under windows...)

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: lansalot
In setting up a spanned volume, you have doomed yourself to the same fate as if it was RAID0 (stripe). If one disk fails, you will lose everything.

From your requirements, I would think you would be far better to go into disk management and unmount them from any drive letter, and instead mount them at a mount point (like *nix).

eg, share out c:\shared, make directory c:\shared\disk1 and c:\shared\disk2 and mount the first partition to c:\shared\disk1 and the second to c:\shared\disk2.

Voila.

(I know, most people don't realise you can do this under windows...)

Mount points limit your additional drive space to a single folder. If this is a server there should be backups. Period.

You didn't lose your data because your drive failed. You lost your data because you didn't back it up.

 

[Nothinman]

Is it wrong to love IT stuff this much?

You won't be singing those praises once one of those drives dies and you lose the data on both.

 

[lansalot]

Mount points limit your additional drive space to a single folder

And combining two partitions into one doesn't? Of course, you don't have to mount them in a subs of the same folder, I could make a folder c:\drive_d and c:\drive_e and mount them there. For all the good that would do of course.

Anyway, it was a suggestion on what the OP requested, whether it suits his task is entirely up to him of course.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: lansalot

Mount points limit your additional drive space to a single folder

And combining two partitions into one doesn't? Of course, you don't have to mount them in a subs of the same folder, I could make a folder c:\drive_d and c:\drive_e and mount them there. For all the good that would do of course.

Anyway, it was a suggestion on what the OP requested, whether it suits his task is entirely up to him of course.

No it doesn't. You get full use of the space. In your example you'll be "out of space" the momoment either folder fills up regarless of how much space remains in the other folder.

 

[nweaver]

raid 0 (or spanning) doubles your chances of hardware failure and data loss. I would tell the OP to pony up for drives to make 0+1, R5 (would require a card or linux) AND get a backup solution in place.

Remember, Raid is redundency/availability, don't ever confuse that with backups, nothing replaces a robust backup scheme for your company (Spoken like somene who screwed up once )

 

[Ramma2]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Is it wrong to love IT stuff this much?

You won't be singing those praises once one of those drives dies and you lose the data on both.

All videos are backed up onto a CD before they are loaded onto the video server. Its not a critical server so if it goes down its not a huge deal.

I got all the files loaded onto it yesterday, and it runs great.