WIN/2003 software RAID

[phillydog]

1.) Has anyone used the raid software built into win/2003 and if so, how reliable was it when the main hd crapped out?

I can't seem to find a cheap ATA RAID card with driver support for win/2003 and was advised to try the software within win/2003.

I am trying to do redundancy only, and this is for my home PC.

2.) Is there any disadvantage to switching my disks from 'basic' to 'dynamic' if I am not using clustering?

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: phillydog
1.) Has anyone used the raid software built into win/2003 and if so, how reliable was it when the main hd crapped out?

It's reliable, but slow (double the IO load on the system for writes).

I can't seem to find a cheap ATA RAID card with driver support for win/2003 and was advised to try the software within win/2003.

Any of the promise controllers with XP drivers should work fine.

I am trying to do redundancy only, and this is for my home PC.

Ok, why are you running Windows 2003 SERVER for your home PC? While built on a similar code base as XP, there are differences and not all XP features are available in 2003 server (for example the UPnP service isn't installable on 2003 and things like Windows Media Connect services can't be installed as a result)

Bill

 

[phillydog]

Originally posted by: bsobel

Originally posted by: phillydog
1.) Has anyone used the raid software built into win/2003 and if so, how reliable was it when the main hd crapped out?

It's reliable, but slow (double the IO load on the system for writes).

I can't seem to find a cheap ATA RAID card with driver support for win/2003 and was advised to try the software within win/2003.

Any of the promise controllers with XP drivers should work fine.

I am trying to do redundancy only, and this is for my home PC.

Ok, why are you running Windows 2003 SERVER for your home PC? While built on a similar code base as XP, there are differences and not all XP features are available in 2003 server (for example the UPnP service isn't installable on 2003 and things like Windows Media Connect services can't be installed as a result)

Bill

Originally WIN/2003 was installed since the company I used to work for needed to test the software on win/2003 but didn't have any extra boxes.

I need to run multiple websites, and prefer to use IIS

XP has too much crap in it to make it pretty, and while it does seem to run more efficiently than other OS's, I need to be running a server OS.

I did install xp drivers for my sound from the mb, but I'm not sure I'm willing to take the risk of incorrect drivers for RAID.

I did have the Adaptec 1200A card, and when I called Adaptec to see if the XP drivers would work on 2003, I was told that Adaptec does not support or recommend doing so.

 

[bsobel]

I did install xp drivers for my sound from the mb, but I'm not sure I'm willing to take the risk of incorrect drivers for RAID. I did have the Adaptec 1200A card, and when I called Adaptec to see if the XP drivers would work on 2003, I was told that Adaptec does not support or recommend doing so.

Its basically the same code base. The risk (and why Adaptec says not to do so) is that they don't certify them on heavy iron systems (large n-way high load real servers). If your running a desktop box as a server, you'll be fine with the XP drivers.

Bill