Add new mirror in Windows XP Pro

[dan_williams]

We have a Windows XP Pro computer which is used to store backup images
of our servers and SQL databases. It currently has three 180GB disks
striped to give us 510GB storage space (with a 10GB partition for the
operating system).

Is it possible for us to get our 10GB OS partitioned mirrored on our
other hard disks for fault tolerence purposes? There is 10GB free on
the other 2 hard disks, but it's not possible to add a mirror on XP.

Would Partition Magic or any other software be capable of allowing us
to do this, or do we need to uninstall completely and put Windows
Server on it? We'd also like to configure the storage space in a RAID-5
config across the 3 disks, which would mean losing 180GB of space, but
would provide us with fault tolerence. I suppose this would result in
loss of data as the existing volume would have to be removed?

Ideally, hardware RAID is our best option, but if anyone has any bright
ideas, i'd be most appreciated.

Many thanks

Dan

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Windows XP does not have a native software-based mirror
option. In order to configure a mirror, you'll need to setup a
RAID configuration. This requires two identical hard
drives, a motherboard with RAID or a RAID controller
card. Then you must install Windows XP from scratch.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

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:

| We have a Windows XP Pro computer which is used to store backup images
| of our servers and SQL databases. It currently has three 180GB disks
| striped to give us 510GB storage space (with a 10GB partition for the
| operating system).
|
| Is it possible for us to get our 10GB OS partitioned mirrored on our
| other hard disks for fault tolerence purposes? There is 10GB free on
| the other 2 hard disks, but it's not possible to add a mirror on XP.
|
| Would Partition Magic or any other software be capable of allowing us
| to do this, or do we need to uninstall completely and put Windows
| Server on it? We'd also like to configure the storage space in a RAID-5
| config across the 3 disks, which would mean losing 180GB of space, but
| would provide us with fault tolerence. I suppose this would result in
| loss of data as the existing volume would have to be removed?
|
| Ideally, hardware RAID is our best option, but if anyone has any bright
| ideas, i'd be most appreciated.
|
| Many thanks
|
| Dan