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Want to set up raid 5

K

KrisC

Member
Hello,

I would really like the security of raid five, but am a poor college student so I want to use existing items. I thought I remember reading that you can impliment a software raid array with win xp pro. If so, how do I do that and what are its restrictions?

i.e. How many drives can be in the array? How may I connect these drives? ideally I would like to use my existing sata, IDE, and IDE drives on a controller card.

Thanks,
Kris
 
You can't do a software RAID5 with Windows XP. You'll need some sort of RAID controller than can implement the RAID5. Something like the 3ware 9550sx, though that is an example of something pretty high end for the consumer market.

RAID5 requires at least three drives, but can go up to as many drives as the controller can handle.

Here is some good information: http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=r52005&page=1&cookie%5Ftest=1.

Edit: Seems I was wrong about software RAID5 in Windows XP. There is a way to do it.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/11/19/using_windowsxp_to_make_raid_5_happen/
 
lol yeah, because changing files on your box with a hex editor is always a great idea.

Yes, there is a way to do it, but it is completely unsupported. You have to decide if you want to trust your data to this hack.
 
Right. I would personally never hex edit any system files to implement software RAID5, or for any other reason. But I said you couldn't do it and I was wrong, I was merely showing that it could be done if you wanted.
 
Originally posted by: KrisC
Hello,

I would really like the security of raid five, but am a poor college student so I want to use existing items. I thought I remember reading that you can impliment a software raid array with win xp pro. If so, how do I do that and what are its restrictions?

i.e. How many drives can be in the array? How may I connect these drives? ideally I would like to use my existing sata, IDE, and IDE drives on a controller card.

Thanks,
Kris
Click to expand...

If you are looking for strictly a raid 5 file server, look at a linux/samba solution. That is if you can give up using native windows on the box.

 
Linux Software raid is very very very nice, and the install of Debian (maybe Ubuntu, don't remember now) allows you to set it up this way. I don't think you can install the OS to a raid5 array, only a raid1. Maybe that is just bootloader that can't be raid5...it's been a while

I have 16 disks in a combo of software raid devices and LVM's
 
For Linux software RAID the bootloader can't be on RAID5, but if you make /boot a seperate partition and mirror that you'll be fine.
 
Originally posted by: Nothinman
For Linux software RAID the bootloader can't be on RAID5, but if you make /boot a seperate partition and mirror that you'll be fine.
Click to expand...

been a while since I read the documentation. I always just do a raid1 for /boot anyway, and even usually for /. I use raid5 for stuff like /var and /home
 
Originally posted by: Nothinman
For Linux software RAID the bootloader can't be on RAID5, but if you make /boot a seperate partition and mirror that you'll be fine.
Click to expand...

The 256mb IDE flash modules that LogicSupply sells makes a handy place for /boot and the boot loader. 🙂
 
One cool thing about windows/linux software raid is that you don't need to dedicate the entire drive to a single raid array.
You could have 1 raid-5 array arrand and another raid-0 array for high performance (i.e. put ur games and apps here)..... when U create the array u can say what the size of the array should be, so instead of specifying the whole disk give it some fraction.


 
Linux software raid can be very fast, which is nice.

Check out http://spamaps.org/raidtests.php for a example were Linux running software raid spanks a 3Ware hardware raid SATA controller. Note that this is REAL hardware raid with a dedicated raid proccessor and everything. This is a 500+ dollar card. All raid cards that are relatively affordable are 'fakeraid', which impliment raid features using drivers.. so they are software anyways (and are invariably bad performers due to their propriatory nature).

I am sure that the nice card helps anyways. Also special hardware error detection and real hotplug support is non-existant with Linux software raid at this point. So there are still plenty of reasons to use hardware raid devices rather then raw I/O speed.
 
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