hard drive configuration

[chizhz]

here's my ideal scenario:

disk#1 (probably designated as C: ) bootable, two mirrored drives for speed (raptors)

disk#2 doesnt need to be bootable, two mirrored drives for reliability

disk#3 doesnt need to be bootable, two mirrored drives for reliability

disk#4 bootable, single drive, hot swappable, can be as large as 750gb

disk#5 bootable, single drive, hot swappable, can be as large as 750gb

here are additional requests:

- all drives are sata

- all disks should be accessible without additional drivers in windows and at bios level. in other words, if disk#1 crashes its possible to boot from #4 or from #5 or from a vanilla or acronis cd and restore disk#1 from an acronis backup

- disks #1, #4 and #5 should be bootable independently from each other, directly from bios. eg solution where disk#1 loads something like partition magic and then lets you boot from an alternate device wouldnt work for me. yet, i dont mind if in order to switch boot device i have to dive into bios settings and change an option (i.e. no need for there to be a dedicated boot menu, although it would be nice if there was)

- i'd like mirroring to be done by hardware. so it probably means i'll need to invest in an adapter card. i've seen a few in $300-600 range. thats perfectly acceptable, in fact i'd pay more for quality hardware that provides these features.

- the card should be able to warn of drive failure (within a mirrored set) and hopefully let me exchange for a new one, and keep working on a single drive while i'm ordering the new drive from newegg (not talking hot swap, of course)

- i'm not looking necessarily for a "single adapter magic solution" even though it would be nice. for instance one scenario i've been thinking about is, to find a motherboard with built in sata mirroring controllers (in fact i have today an asus motherboard which has two separate sata raid adapters) for disks#1, #4 and #5 and a separate adapter card for drives #2 and #3. if that is what needs to happen i need advice on choosing the motherboard. this time around it'll have to be intel-based, because for this system refresh i'm looking to get an intel 6600-ish cpu.

if i'm leaving anything out, please let me know.

and thanks for reading the whole thing to the end

 

[bendixG15]

What is a disk ??

 

[chizhz]

disk here is a storage unit, like a C: drive in windows or a mountable storage device in unix.

disks #1,2,3 are all mirrored, so they each made of two physical hard disks. disks #4,5 are single hard drive units.

sorry if this is confusing, i'm not up to date with the proper jargon

 

[Kelnoen]

What's the question?

 

[chizhz]

i need advice on choosing hardware configuration that will accomodate this scenario.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

What is your budget for this configuration, and what hardware do you already have for it (ie case, hard drives, enclosures, etc)

 

[chizhz]

i have all hard drives, p180 case (from antec) and vantec enclosures for disks #4 & #5. in fact i have a fully functioning system, except it doesnt satisfy the two very important requirements, bootability of disks #1, #4 and #5, as well as driverless operation of all disks under windows xp (and vista, btw)

as far as the budget, i'm not as concerned about it as long as it solves bootability and driverless operation requirements.

 

[chizhz]

anyone?

 

[Twinpeaksr]

What are you trying to accomplish? This seems like an odd config.

 

[chizhz]

no argument there, but its too long a story to explain. if you could just bear with me and accept this config as is and hopefully offer suggest specific hardware that can do what i need, that would be awesome.

lets take it one problem at a time.

are there sata adapters that will work in windows (xp, vista) without additional drivers?

of those are there ones that will also do mirroring?

 

[acole1]

you want hot swap 750GB drives?

GL on that one :thumbsup:

Sounds like you are just making work for yourself... ever heard of RAID5?


For starters you will need a server mobo with built in raid or add on raid cards... and use SCSI not SATA. How do you know what want CAN be done?

 

[Twinpeaksr]

I will see what I can do, I would recommend looking at a better arrangement...

First, Are 1, 4, and 5 identical? you talk of booting from any of them, so I am not sure on that.
Define hardware mirror? On most MB it is a software implementation for the RAID levels, to get to true hardware RAID (done on a dedicated processor) you will need a hardware RAID card.

I am not aware of any way to boot many hard drives completely independently without using the MBR from 1 hard drive to direct to the others. The only possible way would be to do 3 separate installs on 3 hard drives and manually plug/unplug them. Not sure what this accomplishes that a Mirror would not.

Not sure of the SATA without additional drivers, I would think most would require some driver to make it work.

As I stated, I think you need a new layout, I think you will be buried in complexity with this setup and spend more time trying to figure out what is where then if you went with a simpler solution (RAID5 and Mirror or RAID 10 if so inclined).

 

[chizhz]

Originally posted by: Twinpeaksr
I will see what I can do, I would recommend looking at a better arrangement...

thank you, all and any help is much appreciated!

First, Are 1, 4, and 5 identical? you talk of booting from any of them, so I am not sure on that.

no, they are not. #1 (mirrored) are raptors for ultimate speed. #4 and #5 are swappable large disks. #5 is mostly for backups (i have a number of hds for that) and #4 is my "side-kick" disk for whatever. i'd like to be able to boot from #4 so i might install a clean OS on it to play or test or whatever.

Define hardware mirror? On most MB it is a software implementation for the RAID levels, to get to true hardware RAID (done on a dedicated processor) you will need a hardware RAID card.

yes, i would prefer a true hardware raid. i'm willing to spend the $$ for that, no problem. good point on motherboards being usually s/w raid, i didnt realize that.

I am not aware of any way to boot many hard drives completely independently without using the MBR from 1 hard drive to direct to the others. The only possible way would be to do 3 separate installs on 3 hard drives and manually plug/unplug them. Not sure what this accomplishes that a Mirror would not.

that is unfortunate. i was really hoping to at least be able to boot from either #1 or #4.

Not sure of the SATA without additional drivers, I would think most would require some driver to make it work.

another bummer ;(

As I stated, I think you need a new layout, I think you will be buried in complexity with this setup and spend more time trying to figure out what is where then if you went with a simpler solution (RAID5 and Mirror or RAID 10 if so inclined).

i wont give up just yet, but if i have to i will entertain other layout options.

thanks for your advice!

 

[chizhz]

Originally posted by: acole1
you want hot swap 750GB drives?

GL on that one :thumbsup:

Sounds like you are just making work for yourself... ever heard of RAID5?

For starters you will need a server mobo with built in raid or add on raid cards... and use SCSI not SATA. How do you know what want CAN be done?

i know because i already have that working, just not able to run that driverless or boot from #4 and #5. i was kind of betting that using a hardware adapter for raid instead of motherboard's built in cheapo controllers (which is how it is set up now, on an asus A8N-SLI m/b) would do the trick. but alas, so far no luck..

 

[Twinpeaksr]

I try, good luck!