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Please help... Difference between Hardware RAID and Software RAID?

H

Hobbes28

Senior member
I think I may have messed up...

I ordered a IDE RAID controller from a deal I found in the Hot Deals Section. It appears this a "Software" RAID card as opposed to a "Hardware" RAID card (like Promise Technology) and my question is what is the difference? My concern is that I still want to be able to access the RAID drives in DOS (I'm currently using WIN98SE) to backup the drives using Norton Ghost 2001 (DOS based program). I'm thinking (and I may be wrong) that if the RAID is "Software" I won't have access to the drives until the OS loads. I used to have a Promise Fasttrak66 that loaded its own BIOS and the drives were recognized even when using a DOS boot disk.

Can anyone who has used this card or has any knowledge of its workings shine some light on this subject for me?

Thanks...
 
Well there is something known as software RAID that totally uses software to emulate the RAID controller card. This requires special drivers.

Usually a "software RAID card" utilizes the system processor to do its work, but will work with any operating system since it is low level.

A true hardware based RAID card, has onboard processors so it does not utilize near the same amount of system resources.
 
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