Raid 1 platform installation

[HipHoper]

Hi !

I have this idea to suggest RAID 1 solution (to add an internal drive for mirroring) to my clients.
Since some of them have different hard drives and motherboards, I don't know how it can be applied if their OS needs a specific driver in order to work in RAID mode.
I thought about adding the raid driver to winxp, And then connecting an 500GB hard drive (Non of my clients has bigger hard drive than that), And then enabling RAID support in bios, But I'm afraid it won't work in most cases, Unless I make them a freshly formatted system.

I would be happy to hear some suggestions.

Thank you

[MobilePCPhysician]

An aftermarket raid card would be the way to go. Promise makes raid cards.
I like to have one hard drive for the operating system, and two hard drives in raid for the data. This requires a bigger power supply, but I only go that route on new builds.

If your clients have multiple computers sharing data, steer them to Windows Home Server. Multiple hard drives for redundency, and other features make it superior.

[HipHoper]

Thanks Mobile,

I'm looking for some basic-fits-most solution.

I bought an external NAS with built in raid, Which I think is simplier solution for several PC needing access to same data without all the Home server fuss.

I'll take into account the Promise cards, But it seems that it can be applied only to a new builds, Since winxp for example doesn't have a built-in driver for it.

I'm going to experiment a bit with an old board I have with the VIA 8237R chipset, But as it seems to me now, There isn't a quick solution to adding internal raid solution that won't require a re-format of exisiting systems.....

[MobilePCPhysician]

The raid cards do require drivers to be loaded. You can easily use them on existing computers. INstall the card, install the drivers. Shut down, add the main drive, add the second drive. Reboot. Follow the prompts to create the raid.

[HipHoper]

Mobile,

Regarding the prompt to create the raid - If it's a NON BIOS card, I guess the raid needs to be built under windows GUI, And if it's BIOS based card, The raid config can be done Pre-windows boot. Am I correct ? If so I might try to do it with a cheap card for gaining some experience (Promise PCI-E card costs like 130$ while Non-Brand Silicon image PCI-E card costs 12$ on Ebay LOL)

Thank you !

[HipHoper]

I thought more about it and the cheap RAID won't boot, So I can't use it as my boot system raid.
I just installed a raid today to one of my clients with a board that integrates VIA 8237R chipset. The install worked flawlessly (I created the raid before winxp installation and went from there). The only thing that bothered me was a BSOD screen 000000X7 or something like that when windows tried to validate itself, But except for that strange thing, the system works extremely well. (It really wasn't my day, I even touched with one of the power supply pins on the DVD-R enclosure to experience a spark.....Boyyyyyyyy)
I decided to buy myself an AMD board with 780G chipset which is cheap and has a built in raid.
This way i'll see how stable it works and fiddle with it to gain experience

[MobilePCPhysician]

Mobile,

Regarding the prompt to create the raid - If it's a NON BIOS card, I guess the raid needs to be built under windows GUI, And if it's BIOS based card, The raid config can be done Pre-windows boot. Am I correct ? If so I might try to do it with a cheap card for gaining some experience (Promise PCI-E card costs like 130$ while Non-Brand Silicon image PCI-E card costs 12$ on Ebay LOL)

Thank you !

In all the raid cards I have used, the build is pre windows. There is a Windows interface, that allows you to manipulate the the settings, etc.

[HipHoper]

"that allows you to manipulate the the settings, etc."....Yes, and most important it allows to BOOT ! :O)

[MobilePCPhysician]

I did not explain myself very well. On an existing xp installation, install the card, but don't hook up any drives. You will be prompted by windows for the driver. Windows will install the driver. Shut down, then move the xp drive to the primary raid, install another drive on the secondary raid. Start it up, it will prompt you to configure the raid. When it finishes copying the drive, Windows will boot.

[HipHoper]

Mobile,

I understood you very well, But thought that if the RAID card does not have a BIOS, Although windows will recognize it after drivere installation, IT CAN"T BE BOOTED FROM !
These simple cards are only good as DATA ONLY RAID (While system is booted from another drive).

[MobilePCPhysician]

Mobile,

I understood you very well, But thought that if the RAID card does not have a BIOS, Although windows will recognize it after drivere installation, IT CAN"T BE BOOTED FROM !
These simple cards are only good as DATA ONLY RAID (While system is booted from another drive).

I have never seen those. All the cards I have used/seen, have been with a bios.

[Ferrit]

Indeed any cards I have uses ie: Promise ,Highpoint have had a bios built onto the card which is accessed when booting up using a key combination.Something like Alt H depending on the card. Usually they also provide an in windows piece of software for monitoring and maintaining the raid in a GUI. All the motherboard bios's have boot from ad din card

[CeeBee]

I did not explain myself very well. On an existing xp installation, install the card, but don't hook up any drives. You will be prompted by windows for the driver. Windows will install the driver. Shut down, then move the xp drive to the primary raid, install another drive on the secondary raid. Start it up, it will prompt you to configure the raid. When it finishes copying the drive, Windows will boot.

Chances are it will not - depending on the controller though. The only "good" way is install the raid card with a new set of drives, configure the array then ghost the old drive to the array. Remove old drive and change the boot sequence in BIOS to boot from the controller... Done it quite a few times and worked each time...
Edit - it is very important to not boot the system from the old drive once it has been ghosted - windowze may assign a letter to the partition on the raid array and it's not going to be C... as a result the system will not start and you will need to either wipe the partition and ghost again or do an offline edit in the registry.

[CeeBee]

These simple cards are only good as DATA ONLY RAID (While system is booted from another drive).

Haven't seen any raid controller that isn't bootable. Simple IDE/SATA/SCSI controller - yes, but not RAID.

[Ferrit]

Frankly I cant imagine a raid card not being bootable.
Unless the motherboards bios cannot set add in cards
as the boot device.